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Visiting Auschwitz Birkenau

Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum is an institution dedicated to preserving the memory of the 1.3 million people who were tortured and murdered at the hands of Nazi Germany in World War II. Visitors are able to make a day trip from nearby cities like Krakow or Warsaw and take a guided tour of the Nazi concentration camp. Auschwitz, or Oswiecim in Polish. The Museum also allows individual visitors to tour the Memorial independently. Entrance to the Museum, to both the Auschwitz I and Birkenau camps, is possible only with a personalized entry pass booked in advance.

You have a variety of Auschwitz tour options from Krakow and Warsaw. I’ll talk more about how to book Auschwitz tickets later in this post.

I’m writing this post to let others know what to expect from an Auschwitz visit. Please know that I’ve wavered quite a bit on whether or not to post about this particular trip, but believing it’s an incredibly important place that more people should witness, and that it’s someplace most people will never get the chance to witness in person, I decided to share what I’ve learned.

First, I highly recommend you visit if you ever have the chance, but I will also warn you that it’s a very emotional and overwhelming experience to walk the grounds where over a million people were brutally murdered. While I definitely urge you to visit, I will also urge you to take in the gravity of your surroundings. Whether you opt for a group tour or a private tour, please listen to your guide and adhere to the rules during your visit to Auschwitz.

Auschwitz Concentration Camp – History of the Memorial Site

The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum’s main objective is to pay tribute to over one million people who died here during the Holocaust. This museum strives to honor the victims of World War II, to emphasize the mistakes of the past, and to avoid their repetition in the future.

On January 27, 1945, camp Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet army. Something that surprised a great many people in my group who believed Auschwitz was liberated by the Americans. Not so.

With Soviet troops approaching, the Nazis tried to remove all the traces of their evil actions by demolishing buildings in Birkenau - Auschwitz II and sending thousands of prisoners on a death march to other Nazi German death camp locations.

The museum was created in April 1946 by Tadeusz Wąsowicz and other former Auschwitz prisoners, acting under the direction of Poland's Ministry of Culture and Art. It became a World Heritage Site in 1979.

Auschwitz Extermination Camp - A Brief History

When you think of Auschwitz, you may think it to be one location. Auschwitz concentration camp was actually a complex of over forty concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II and the Holocaust. The camps consisted of Auschwitz I, the main camp, also known as Stammlager; Auschwitz II-Birkenau, a concentration and extermination camp with gas chambers; Auschwitz III-Monowitz, a labor camp for the chemical conglomerate IG Farben; and dozens of other sub-camps. The camps became a major site of the Nazis' final solution, a plan to exterminate the Jewish people.

On your visit, you will be able to see Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau.

In 1939 Germany sparked the start of World War II by invading neighboring Poland. After the invasion, the SS converted an old Polish army barracks into the prisoner of war camp known as Auschwitz I. The initial prisoners consisted almost solely of Poles who were held as political detainees, their land and belongings confiscated by the Nazis. In fact, for the first two years of the camp’s operation, the bulk of the inmates were Polish.

In May of 1940, Germans began to establish the camp’s reputation for sadism. The prisoners held at Auschwitz were tortured, beaten, and executed for the most trivial of reasons. In August of 1941, the first gassings began with Polish and Soviet prisoners. These gassings later progressed into the gassing of hundreds of thousands of Jewish people.

In September 1941, the construction of Birkenau-Auschwitz II began. It was at this point that Auschwitz became a mass extermination site for Jews sent from all over German-occupied Europe. From 1942 until late 1944 freight trains made daily deliveries of hundreds of thousands of Jewish people to the gas chambers. Auschwitz was the deadliest of the Nazi concentration camps. Of the 1.3 million people sent to Auschwitz, 1.1 million were murdered. The number of victims includes 960,000 Jews (865,000 of whom were gassed on arrival), 74,000 non-Jewish Poles, 21,000 Romani, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and up to 15,000 others. Prisoners who were not gassed did not escape murder. Many were starved, died of exhaustion, and were victims of individual executions, or victims of beatings. Many others were murdered during gruesome medical experiments.

It’s documented that at least 802 prisoners tried to escape Auschwitz. Only 144 were successful in their attempts.

Toward the end of the war, as the Soviet Red Army approached Auschwitz in January 1945, the SS sent most of the camp's population west on a death march to camps inside Germany and Austria. Soviet troops finally entered the camp on January 27, 1945, a day commemorated since 2005 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

What You’ll See Inside Auschwitz

When you visit Auschwitz you will be taken through a number of cell blocks where your guide will provide you with additional information about Auschwitz and the other German Nazi concentration camps. Your Auschwitz visit will take about three and a half hours between Auschwitz I and Birkenau. While this seems like a lot of time on paper, in reality, it moves quickly and the sites can be overwhelming.

Visiting Auschwitz with a child is not advised unless the child is at least 14 and mature enough to absorb the gravity of the material.

It’s important that you listen to your guide when it comes to what you can and cannot photograph inside the museum. There are two areas within Auschwitz that DO NOT allow photography of any kind. Your guide will announce them before you step inside. In addition, visitors are not allowed to take photographs of people in any part of the museum. Auschwitz Museum is very serious about this rule, as well they should be. Please be respectful when visiting and DO NOT take selfies or photos of any of the other guests or guides. It blew my mind how many people tried to violate this rule.

Below are some of the locations you will visit on your trip to Auschwitz.

The first part of what you’ll see comprises some of the victim’s belongings including braces and mobility aids from disabled prisoners. You’ll also see a room filled with victims’ shoes. A final room is filled with hair from the shaved heads of prisoners. Back during the camp’s operations prisoners’ heads were shaved on arrival and hair was disinfected and sold to German companies to use as haircloth and felt. This is one of the rooms where photos are strictly forbidden. The size of the room and the amount of human hair is overwhelming. It’s difficult to walk through this area without shedding tears.

Medical Block 10

Medical Block 10 is where German doctors performed a variety of experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz. Among the various medical experiments, SS doctors tested the efficacy of X-rays as a sterilization device by administering huge doses to female prisoners. Carl Clauberg even injected chemicals into women's uteruses in an effort to glue them shut. Prisoners were also infected with spotted fever as part of vaccination research and exposed to toxic substances to study the effects.

The most infamous doctor at Auschwitz was Josef Mengele, also known as the "Angel of Death". Mengele was particularly interested in performing research on identical twins, dwarfs, and those with hereditary diseases. He and other doctors would measure the twins' body parts, photograph them, and subject them to dental, sight, and hearing tests, x-rays, blood tests, surgery, and blood transfusions between them. He would then have them killed and dissected.

Punishment Block 11

Block 11 of Auschwitz I was known as the prison within the prison, reserved for inmates suspected of resistance activities. Cell 22 in block 11 was a windowless standing cell. Split into four sections, each section measured less than 11 sq ft and held four prisoners, who entered it through a hatch near the floor. There was a tiny vent for air, covered by a perforated sheet. This is the second area where photos are forbidden.

Prisoners could be beaten and killed by guards and kapos for the smallest infraction of the rules. Flogging during roll-call was common. A flogging table called "the goat" immobilized prisoners' feet in a box, while they stretched themselves across the table. Prisoners had to count out the lashes and if they got the number wrong, the flogging resumed from the beginning. Punishment by "the post" involved tying prisoners’ hands behind their backs with chains attached to hooks, then raising the chains so the prisoners were left dangling by the wrists. If their shoulders were too damaged afterward to work, they might be sent to the gas chamber. To extract information from inmates, guards would force their heads onto the stove, and hold them there, burning their faces and eyes.

Crematoria - The Gas Chambers

The first gas chamber at Auschwitz II was operational by March 1942. On or around March 20, a transport of Polish Jews sent by the Gestapo was taken straight from the Oświęcim freight station to the Auschwitz II gas chamber, then buried in a nearby meadow. In spring 1943 new crematoria were built. Only one Crematorium remains at Auschwitz. It is the final part of the tour of Auschwitz I.

The dressing rooms for the crematoria had wooden benches along the walls and numbered pegs for clothing. Victims would be led from these rooms to a narrow corridor, which in turn led to the gas chamber. Between 1942 and 1944 1,000 bodies burned every day.

Inside the Crematoria

The crematoria consisted of a dressing room, gas chamber, and furnace room. In Crematorium II, there was also a dissection room. SS officers would tell the victims they had to take a shower and undergo delousing. The victims undressed in the dressing room and walked into the gas chamber to their deaths. After prisoners were killed and their uniforms were then given to new arrivals.

The Death Wall

The courtyard between blocks 10 and 11, known as the "death wall", served as an execution area. The first executions, by shooting inmates in the back of the head, took place at the death wall on November 11, 1941, Poland's National Independence Day. The 151 people accused were led to the wall one at a time, stripped naked, and shot with their hands tied behind their backs.

An estimated 4,500 Polish political prisoners were executed at the death wall, including members of the camp resistance. An additional 10,000 Poles were brought to the camp to be executed without being registered. About 1,000 Soviet prisoners of war were also executed here.

Birkenau - Auschwitz II

After visiting Auschwitz I in March 1941, Himmler ordered the camp be expanded. Construction of Auschwitz II-Birkenau began in October 1941 in Brzezinka, about 1.8 miles from Auschwitz I.

The camp could hold 125,000 prisoners. The bays of each of the barracks were divided into "roosts", initially for three inmates and later for four. Each roost had only 11 sq ft of personal space to sleep and place whatever belongings they had.

The prisoners were forced to live in the barracks as they were building them; in addition to working, they faced long roll calls at night. As a result, in the early days, most prisoners in the men’s camp died of hypothermia, starvation, or exhaustion within a few weeks.

The Differences Between Auschwitz and Birkenau

Auschwitz I was a preexisting Polish army barracks that was repurposed by the Germans. As such the structures seem far better built and more well organized. Much of Birkenau has also been destroyed. The crematoria were leveled before the Soviets could arrive. Whereas in Auschwitz I, one crematorium still remains.

Birkenau was also where prisoners were offloaded from the railcars. You can still walk along the tracks and see the guard towers that watched over these railways.

During our visit, we were able to walk inside the women’s barracks at Birkenau and see the small roosts in which prisoners were crammed. It was positively heart-wrenching.

To get to Birkenau from Auschwitz you take a free shuttle bus and walk along the same train tracks that once brought prisoners to Auschwitz Birkenau.

In Birkenau, you will be able to see the bunks where prisoners attempted to sleep after a hard day of labor. You’ll be struck by how little daylight is able to creep into these bunks. Most of the bunks are dank and dark. You can also see some of the carvings made on the sides of the bunks by prisoners.

Is Auschwitz Wheelchair Accessible

Design of the building including the entrance to the Museum, where each visit begins, includes all necessary adaptations to make the buildings accessible. There are leveling ramps and the halls are wide enough for those using wheelchairs. Museum Guard can also assist all those who need it. Additional space has been dedicated to people using wheelchairs at the entrance and exit gates.

Due to the character of the historical paving of roads and sidewalks within the former Auschwitz I camp, persons with mobility disabilities will need someone else’s assistance in the majority of cases.

During the visit to Auschwitz II-Birkenau, it is necessary to cover large distances. Road paving is uneven, which results from its historical character but can make it difficult for people in wheelchairs.

I’m serious when I say it is necessary to cover long distances. I walked nearly eight miles on my trip to Krakow and Auschwitz Birkenau. I’m also very serious when I talk about the historical paving of roads and sidewalks, My mom fell on our trip to Birkenau. Thankfully, she was ok, but the roads are very uneven and can be difficult for those with mobility issues. If you feel like you’re being rushed by your guide, make sure you speak up. Don’t try to tough it out because the rest of the group is walking speedily down the road.

Wheelchairs are available for rent at the Guests Services Center.

Auschwitz Opening Hours

If you’re visiting Auschwitz without a guide, these are the opening hours throughout the year:

7:30 AM - 2:00 PM December

7:30 AM - 3:00 PM January, November

7:30 AM - 4:00 PM February

7:30 AM - 5:00 PM March, October

7:30 AM - 6:00 PM April, May, September

7:30 AM - 7:00 PM June, July, August

Tickets To Auschwitz

Tickets for Auschwitz are free of charge. However, you will need to reserve an entry card. The entry cards can be reserved at visit.auschwitz.org. Guests are encouraged to engage a guide for their visit.

Visitors to the Museum should behave with due solemnity and respect. Guests are obliged to dress in a manner befitting a place of this nature. I also recommend wearing comfortable shoes as the grounds are rather large and you will be doing a lot of walking.

The maximum size of backpacks or handbags brought into the Museum can not exceed these dimensions: 30x20x10 cm. Because of this, it’s advisable to leave your bags in your car or tour bus. You will also have to pass through an X-ray machine similar to what you have to pass through at an airport.

Option 1: Visiting Auschwitz From Warsaw, Poland

There are several tours available from Warsaw to Auschwitz. I recommend The Warsaw Full Day Tour To Krakow and Auschwitz by Train. Unfortunately, there are no wheelchair-accessible tour options available from Warsaw. But I was able to get by using my cane. This tour also has at 4:30 AM pick-up time, so be sure you have an easy day before and after your trip as it will be a long, emotional day touring Auschwitz and Birkenau.

What I liked about this tour… It gave me several hours to explore Krakow in the morning before many people were out on the streets. This meant I could get some amazing photos of all the local attractions. Unfortunately, if you would like to also visit Oscar Schindler’s Factory in Krakow there isn’t enough time. If that is something you can’t miss, I advise booking a multiple-day trip to Krakow and booking your Auschwitz tour from there.

The train from Warsaw to Krakow took about 2 1/2 hours on a Sunday morning.

Option 2: Auschwitz Tour From Krakow, Poland

Tours from Krakow to Auschwitz are available in both group and private. Krakow also offers wheelchair-accessible tour options. As far as guided tour options from Krakow, I like the Krakow to Auschwitz-Birkenau Tour With Pick Up. You can also choose the Krakow to Auschwitz-Birkenau Tour with an additional trip to Wieliczka Salt Mine.

My top pick for those looking for a wheelchair-accessible tour is the Wheelchair Accessible Auschwitz Birkenau Plus Tour of Oscar Schindler’s Factory.

Auschwitz Guided Tours Versus Visiting on Your Own

Guided Auschwitz tours take around three and a half hours, but access is possible without guides, allowing you to move at your own pace. The Auschwitz entrance is situated a short 1.2 miles south of the train station at Oświęcim. From there, a free shuttle bus goes to Auschwitz II, originally called KL Auschwitz !!/ Birkenau, situated around 1.2 miles to the northwest of Auschwitz I. Trains from Vienna to Kraków, and from Prague to Kraków, also stop at Oświecim. Local trains take around an hour and 40 minutes from Kraków.

Final Thoughts On Visiting Auschwitz Birkenau

Visiting Auschwitz Birkenau is a solemn and emotional affair. Please be respectful and adhere to the rules for photography and dress. If you’d like more information on Auschwitz there’s a fantastic bookshop at the entrance to Birkenau with many Auschwitz books available in several languages. My guide recommended the book, This Way For The Gas Ladies and Gentlemen, by Polish author Tadeusz Borowski. I promised him I would read it in English and then read the Polish version once my language skills improved. I look forward to honoring my ancestors and being able to read the original Polish version.