Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum is a World War II German Nazi concentration and extermination camp. This is the site of one of the worst human atrocities to have ever occurred with more than a million people documented to have been put to death with the likelihood that many more lost their lives here. There are two camps that can be visited today: The original Auschwitz camp, where the museum is located, and the much larger Auschwitz 2/Birkenau camp built later to hold the increasing number of prisoners (and gas chambers), which are about 2.5 kilometers apart.

It is recommended you allow for at least 90 minutes to visit each of the sites and to visit both sites to appreciate the scale of this atrocity.

The museum at Auschwitz is a modern, sunken concrete structure immediately adjacent to a car park with toilets and a couple of machines selling drinks/snacks.

Entrance to the site of the camp is via a concrete ramp where the names of the dead are read out on speakers.

In the camp itself you can visit a number of the (brick) barracks many of which have been turned into exhibition halls explaining various aspects of the camps.

The Birkenau site has a small visitor center with book store and café adjacent to the car park with the camp a short walk up the road where you come face to face with the famous train track leading through the gates of the camp.

In the camp you can walk along the train tracks to see the point when arrivals were divided into those they deemed appropriate for working in the camp (generally the healthy and young) and those that would be immediately sent to the gas chambers (generally families, the sick, injured or old) located at the far end of the camp.

There were four gas chambers in Brikenau (there was an early version of a gas chamber at Auschwitz which you can visit, but it was determined not efficient enough so the Brikenau facilities were built) and you can see what remains of two of them after the German troops attempted to destroy them on the liberation of the camp.

Between the two gas chambers there is a moving modern memorial to the dead. A number of the barracks still stand made of both wood and brick. You can visit a couple of those made of bricks which housed women.

One thing that will strike you is sheer size of the site: 150 hectares, 174 barracks build to hold 550 prisoners each (later 744), with the back fence almost 500 meters from the entrance. It is only by walking around the site do you get a full appreciation for the magnitude of the operations here.

Access to the sites is free with tickets available online in advance at http://visit.auschwitz.org/ or at the door though access is limited to later in the day. It is, however, recommended you engage a (paid) “guide-educator” to make the most of your visit to put what you are seeing into context and make sure you don't get lost. The 3.5 hour guided tours are available throughout the day and include both sites with transport between the sites provided.

Please see the web site for a list of prohibited items which includes alcohol and food. Additionally, you must act with respect throughout your visit and be “dressed appropriately”. After all this is a site of mass execution.

When entering the main museum site you have to pass through three checks. The first check is of photo ID required for entry along with your ticket. Then you pass through airport-style metal detectors, and lastly there is a final ticket check before you can enter. Sadly these checks are required as they have had past visitors deface the exhibits and cause disturbances.

The main museum (in Auschwitz) is located approximately 60 kilometers west of Krakow with paid car parks at both Auschwitz and Birkenau. The museum is about 2 kilometers from the Oświęcim train station. A bus operates from the train station to the museum.