The complex consisting of Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II (Birkenau) and Auschwitz III (Monowitz) is the largest Nazi extermination camp.

Oświęcim is an industrial town situated about seventy kilometres west of Krakow. During the Nazi occupation of Poland its name was changed to Auschwitz and a concentration camp was set up in the area on the site of abandoned Polish army barracks. These were altered and in June 1940 the first prisoners were sent there by Gestapo. These prisoners were dissident Poles that the Nazis wanted to confine and oppress. Over 10,000 died within twenty months. By 1942 however the camp together with nearby Birkenau was the largest centre for the implementation of the “Final Solution” (the Nazis’ attempt to eliminate European Jewry). Birkenau – was built a couple of kilometres away from Auschwitz, with its own gas-chambers and crematoria.
The exact number of people killed in this camp will never be known – it is, however, believed that approximately between one and a half and two million died in the camp.
The vast majority were Jews, along with Romanies (Gypsies), Poles, Soviet prisoners of war and citizens of other European countries.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau complex comprises a network of barracks, factories and extermination areas. The whole site has been turned into the Museum of Martyrdom. There is no entrance fee – you can, however, buy a ticket that includes a film (taken by the Soviet soldiers who liberated the camp) and a guided tour of the site. For those who wish to visit without a guide, it is highly recommended that you still buy a ticket to the cinema to see how the place looked during its liberation.

The sign on the gate says „Arbet macht frei” meaning „work brings freedom”.

Prison cell blocks house partly the exhibition of the possessions found on the spot – among them clothes, suitcases, toothbrushes, shoes, spectacles and mound of woman’s her. On the terrain of Auschwitz you can also see the Death Wall, were prisoners were executed with a bullet in the back of the head. Many camp barracks have been transformed into national memorials showing Nazi actions against occupied Europe. At the end of the prison blocks there are gas chambers and the ovens in which the bodies were cremated.
Birkenau is the place where most of prisoners lived and died. Although out of over three hundred buildings only about sixty brick and wood constructions remain, the traces of the rest are still visible on the ground.
The way to Oświęcim from Krakow takes about ninety minutes. You can either take a train from Krakow Glowny (central station) or Krakow Plaszow (check: www.pkp.pl for timetable). The train gets to the place from which you must taker a short walk to the site of the camp. You can also come by bus from main bus station in Krakow. The latter will, in most of the cases, take you to the very entrance of the former concentration camp – just make sure it gets to the stop called “Oświęcim Muzeum”.

See more: www.auschwitz-muzeum.oswiecim.pl