Auschwitz - Birkenau

the German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945)

The history of establishing the Museum

The state Museum Auschwitz - Birkenau was established on 2 July 1947 under the act of the Sejm of Poland. The Museum is located within the area of 191 hectares, 20 ha of which is the area of part of the camp Auschwitz I, while 171 ha is the area of Auschwitz II - Birkenau. In 1962 the protective zone was marked for the museum areas in Brzezinka, while in 1977 for the museum areas in Oswiecim. In 1979 the areas of the former KL Auschwitz - Birkenau were entered in the UNESCO international register of world heritage.

Exhibitions

Within the confines of the Museum there are facilities and ruins left from the camp, including the ruins of gas chambers and crematories, several kilometres of the camp fencing and internal roads, as well as the railway ramp (in Birkenau).

The first exhibition was opened as early as in 1947 on the area of Auschwitz I in several blocks left from the camp. It presented the history of extermination and conditions prevailing in the camp. The exhibition was developed in 1950, and in 1955 a new exhibition was opened that has survived to the present days.

Since 1960 in the blocks left from the camp the so-called national exhibitions were created. They were created on the initiative of former prisoners from different countries associated in the International Committee of Oswiecim. The exhibitions focused on the citizens of different countries, sent to the camp in Auschwitz by the Nazis.

The exhibitions were not created within the camp Birkenau. That place has an extraordinary character, as it is above all the cemetery and from the beginning an attempt was made to maintain its primary condition. The only one new element introduced in this section of the Museum is the International Monument of the Victims of the Camp, unveiled in 1967.

Visiting

The entire area of the camps Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II - Birkenau is available to visitors. Within Auschwitz I the reserve and administrative blocks and museum sections are not open to tourists, while in Auschwitz II - Birkenau one can generally enter all the barracks. For visiting the camps, one should need at least 3 hours (1.5 hour for Auschwitz and for Birkenau).

Within the camp Auschwitz I there was the first camp for men and women. Here were located the main headquarters of the camp, most of the SS offices, and the camp authorities managed from here its further expansion. In block no. 11 the central camp arrest was located for the prisoners from all parts of the complex. It was here where for the first time the criminal experiments were conducted on the prisoners. In this area people were killed with Cyclone B, most of the executions were made by shooting and Jews from the first mass transports were murdered.

Within the camp Birkenau, the most of mass extermination equipment was placed. Approximately one million Jews were murdered here. It was the largest concentration camp - in nearly 300 barracks more than 100 000 prisoners stayed at a time. Everything took place in Birkenau on a repeatedly greater scale than in Auschwitz I. The vastness of the area, primitive barracks, ruins of other facilities or remains of them, kilometres of camp fencing and roads fully reflect what cannot be expressed in words - the infinity of humiliation, cruelty and inhuman crime and the specific camp architecture that was subordinated to a single purpose - the extermination of people.

During visiting one can see the 15-minutes documentary film showing the first moments after liberation of the camp.

One can walk on foot the distance of three kilometres between the former camps. One passes at that time by the near-camp area where in the period of Nazi occupation the German industrial plants and workshops, warehouses, offices and technical facilities of the camp were located, being the places of work and death of the prisoners. Here the remains of several railway sidings and ramps have been preserved, where the trains with people deported to the camp arrived and where the SS men made the selection.

Near the two former camps there are the car parks, so one can also come here by car or use the bus shuttle connection every hour between the former KL Auschwitz and KL Birkenau, the service is available 15 April to 31 October.

Prices

The entrance to the Museum is free.

Visitor groups must however proceed under the custody of a guide holding a licence of the Museum (available languages: English, Croatian, Czech, French, Spanish, Japanese, Netherlands, German, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Swedish, Hungarian and Italian).

Additional fees

• documentary film (the language version depends on the number of visitors present at any given time, and speaking a given language)
  • adult - 3,50 PLN / person
  • youth - 2,50 PLN / person
• lectures in the archives, lectures in the Collections Department, film lectures
  • Polish language - 80,00 PLN
  • foreign language - 120,00 PLN
• methodological workshops, lectures for general audiences
  • Polish language - 130,00 PLN
  • foreign language - 195,00 PLN
• specialist lectures (shorter version / longer version)
  • Polish language - (120,00 PLN / 240,00 PLN)
  • foreign language - (180,00 PLN / 360,00 PLN)

One can book a guide and additional services directly from the website of the Museum.

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• *MUCHA*2009-12-29

  

  POLECAM.MUZEUM ZADBANE,PRZEWODNIK JASNO TŁUMACZY...POLECAM...

   

• Myriam2008-07-14

  

  Visita

  Tuve el honor de visitar Auschwitz,un lugar estremecedor.Conocer el horror de los Nazis para mi fue atroz .\" Que todos esos seres asesinados descansen en Paz \"

   

• vihuela2008-07-13

  

  tam trzeba być ...ale raz wystarczy. Rodzinom z małymi dziećmi odradzam...

   

• asia123902008-03-07

  

  komentarz

  strasznie drogo

   

• zalasek132008-01-26

  

  bylam tam.jesli ktos nie ma nerwow ze stali odradzam

   

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