Auschwitz

  

  - darkometer rating:  10 -  (cf. Top 20 dark tourism destinations)

  
The word Auschwitz alone stands for the horrors of the Holocaust like no other. It was the largest and most deadly of all the Nazi concentration camps / death camps.

  

The site in the south-east of Poland was turned into a memorial after the end of WWII and in more recent years has become a prime tourist destination as well.

 

In fact, Auschwitz has been called the very "epitome of all dark tourism" and it's hard to argue with that – for various reasons … for sheer numbers of visitors alone, for instance. Roughly two million people visit the site annually these days. In other words: this is a place where niche tourism meets mass tourism.

  

That does have some adverse effects, unfortunately: a strict regime of "crowd control" has become a major issue here, and the presence of hordes of tour groups being shepherded through the site can feel awkward. It's recommended that you at least try to go at an off-peak time in order to get the most out of the place (perhaps even in winter, as recommended here - external link, opens in a new tab). But as I found in January 2024, even in deepest winter, with snow and minus 15 degrees Celsius, there were still hallmarks of ‘over-tourism’. In the high season this has become a real nuisance.

>More background info

>What there is to see

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More background info: The main reason for this place being arguably the world's No.1 dark tourism site (see lists) is of course the outstanding significance it had in the Holocaust. Practically nobody needs to be told what Auschwitz stands for. It was the biggest and most notorious of the Nazi concentration camps/death camps. For many lay people it may well be the only concentration camp they can name. But only really hopelessly ignorant people will not have heard of Auschwitz (in the West/Europe, that is – you cannot expect a similar level of awareness in, say, Africa or South-East Asia).

 
Moreover, Auschwitz has become something like the synonymous and symbolic byword for the whole Holocaust. In fact more than 'just' the Holocaust – it is quite common that 'Auschwitz' is used in reference to any atrocities committed against humanity, i.e. it has become a 'metonym' for such horrors. Likewise, when politicians and historians say "let there never be an Auschwitz ever again", it obviously means: no more (industrial-scale) genocides of any kind. This symbolic significance, on top of the historical importance and the number of visitors today, is yet another reason why Auschwitz has to be regarded as the top dark tourism site in the world.

 
But the main reason for this is still that it was here that the largest number of victims were murdered at any one such site. In absolute terms it probably is in fact the deadliest single site of mass murder in history (but cf. also Treblinka). Between 1.1 and 1.3 million victims in total are common estimates, about 1 million of them Jews.

  
Yet, Auschwitz's victims were of many categories, including Polish political prisoners and Sinti & Roma ('gypsies'); but Jews formed by far the largest group. It is hence the world's most significant site of the Shoah.

 
There were a few thousand survivors to tell the tale afterwards – and returning survivors have long been a major element of the ceremonies held on the anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation (by the Soviet Red Army, on 27 January 1945). Meanwhile, however, the circle of survivors has shrunk, and before long there will be no eyewitnesses left at all. So it's all the more important that the memorial is kept in good and appropriate order. But more on that later …

 
A large proportion of the victims killed at Auschwitz were murdered in that infamously most "industrialized" fashion: in gas chambers, by means of the specially mass-produced poison gas Zyklon B – cynically a substance that had otherwise already been in common use as a pesticide.

 
But Auschwitz was also, and originally only a 'proper' concentration camp, i.e. it was first intended as a "mere" internment camp for political prisoners, who were housed in an already existing former army barracks, a complex of brick buildings. Inmates had to do forced labour – especially in the nearby industrial complexes of Auschwitz-Monowitz (see combinations). Up to that point, then, Auschwitz was still quite similar to the concentration camps within the German Reich, such as Dachau or Mauthausen.  

 
That is to say that originally internment, malnourishment and "extermination through labour" ('Vernichtung durch Arbeit') was the rule here rather than instant gassing. That only came later, namely with the onset of Operation Reinhard in 1942, which also saw the construction of the dedicated death camps or "killing factories" of Bełżec, Sobibór and Treblinka. Only Majdanek had an Auschwitz-like dual role of concentration camp and then death camp too, though on a smaller scale.

 
At Auschwitz, a whole second camp, much larger than the original one was built a few miles away: Auschwitz-Birkenau. It was this second site that had the prototypical features of endless rows of wooden barracks … and the crematoria as well as that iconic gatehouse (see also logo).

 
It is important to remember when talking about Auschwitz that this comprises distinct sites. This can cause a bit of confusion. Most people associate the physicality of Auschwitz with a) those rows of barracks behind the iconic gatehouse and the ramp, and b) the infamous sign that says "Arbeit macht frei" ('work sets you free'). But these icons of the Holocaust are NOT in fact in the same place. And few people realize that there is also a third site, at Auschwitz III or Monowitz. More on that below (under combinations).

 
The infamous "Arbeit macht frei" sign made shocking headlines in December 2009 – when it was stolen! This obviously raised serious concerns about security at the site (and about the motives of the thieves – apparently right-wingers from Sweden). But fortunately the sign was soon after recovered – albeit cut up into three segments. It has since been replaced in its original position by a replica, while the restored original has been moved to a secure location within the museum.

 
Auschwitz has been a memorial site and museum for a very long time, so longer than most other sites of former concentration camps (with the exception of Majdanek). From as early as 1947 – two years after the camp's liberation by the Soviet Red Army –  survivors had come back to claim the site as a place of remembrance. But it was also a regular destination for school and work groups from around Poland and other Eastern Bloc countries as a matter of compulsory education. Only after the fall of communism and the Iron Curtain did the place open up to increasing numbers of Western visitors too and has become the tourist magnet it is today.

 
The visitors of today form a truly international crowd, though some nationalities are more represented than others: apart from domestic visitors from Poland, especially large groups come e.g. from Great Britain, Italy, Germany, Israel and the USA. In 2012 a new visitor record was set at 1.43 million. A few years later the 2 million mark per year was reached. The Covid-19 pandemic put a damper on that, but by 2023 visitor numbers had more or less returned to pre-pandemic levels and can be expected to rise further.

 
The memorial site's long history also means lots of developments over time with regard to commodification. So apart from the place itself you also get an impression of the changes in the way memory and history are represented and interpreted in museum exhibitions as well as on the various information panels around the open-air parts of the site – see below and under what there is to see.

 
There's one quite physical issue of change too: the infamous heap of victims' hair found stored on the premises when the camp was liberated and since put in a huge glass display case in the museum has been losing colour for many years. Visitors of 20 or 30 years ago may remember it as a brownish overall colour, now it's a faded grey. It's said to have to do with the chemicals used in the killing of the victims, and they reckon that the hair may even disintegrate altogether over the next few decades.

 
Most changes, though, concern the issue of presentation. What is to be regarded as the 'right' way of representing the Holocaust and what the discourse about the topic should be like remains a delicate and much discussed issue (see e.g. here) – and that can also be seen in some of the exhibitions.

  

    
Other recent changes include a heightened commodification of the Auschwitz-Birkenau site. For many years it was left mostly in its original post-WWII state with very little interpretation. Now more information panels have been put up and a whole new exhibition has been added in a former bathhouse. More investments in that direction are in the planning too. Lots of restoration work is currently ongoing at Birkenau, meaning that some parts are temporarily closed to the public.

 
As for the exact details of the history and an full evaluation of the significance of Auschwitz … this goes way beyond the scope of this website. So I will not provide any in-depth synopsis of this – there are countless specialized resources elsewhere, in print and on the Internet, where you can read up on the background …

 
The main thing is: if you really want to try and get a grip on what Auschwitz stands for, then you have to go to the actual place and see for yourself. The ‘over-tourism’ the site suffers from, however, has made me rethink the common “must-see site” classification of Auschwitz. I still think it’s important, but the authenticity of the place has suffered to such a degree that I changed the 5-star rating (given on the basis of my first visit back in 2008) at the top to only a 4-star rating now, on the basis of my return visit in January 2024. Moreover, I now recommend to those who are after place authenticity to visit Majdanek instead. It feels much, much more authentic, and is far, far less overrun with tourists!

 
 
What there is to see: a lot, but these days it’s largely prescribed how much and in what order on the standardized guided tours. Only if you stay and visit again as an individual can you go independently at your own pace. But that option is increasingly restricted the busier the season becomes.

  

I’ve been to Auschwitz twice, and the two experiences were very different.

  

I first went in the spring of 2008, when I had booked a two-day study tour with a private guide just for my wife and myself. It was naturally intense but very impressive and in-depth. We allocated four hours to Auschwitz I on the first day, after which we explored the country pavilions on our own (see below), so had over six hours at the site in total. The next day was allocated to Auschwitz II Birkenau for another four hours, where we did a lot of walking (in the drizzle). The private tour cost a fair amount of money, but we deemed it well worth it.

  

When I now look at the official visit.auschwitz.org website, I cannot find that option of such extended private study tours any more. That sort of thing seems to be limited to special programmes aimed only at (school) groups. As an individual visitor, you now have to follow a streamlined regime. You have to book a time slot for a standard guided tour (3.5 hours), that includes both Auschwitz I and a bit of Birkenau. If you want to see more without a guide (now called “educators” on the official website) you have to obtain an additional entry pass for the afternoon, if available (it depends on the season – see below).

  

I returned to Auschwitz for another visit in January 2024. Afterwards I described the main changes/differences I encountered in a separate Blog post here. And I recommend you read that too because it has details and evaluations of some of those changes that won’t feature in the text below.

  

I then decided to rewrite this section from scratch, concentrating on the current state of affairs and primarily reporting what the standardized tour was like, which will be pretty much the same for all visitors these days. Occasionally I will also retain passages I wrote back in 2008 – for comparison where that seemed useful.

  

January is of course the most off-season you can go. But despite that and the wintery weather with snow and minus 15 degrees Celsius, the place was still fairly busy. At least it was easy to get entry passes on the day from the counters at the new entrance complex (moved from the original entrance in the summer of 2023 – see below). But there were still queues for the actual entrance and security gates. Apparently crowd control management and security concerns necessitated these changes to the entrance regime.

  

Security is tight, at least as much so as at airport security. You have to empty your pockets, have your bags checked (admitted size is restricted!) and pass everything through a separate machine before stepping through a metal detector yourself, after which you can fetch your belongings again. You also have to show ID together with presenting your entry pass (the entry pass badges you have to wear are colour-coded to keep groups marked and you have to stay together with your group for the duration of the tour).

  

You then have to wait for the commencement of your allocated group in a “holding-pen”-like hall. The guide will eventually turn up holding a sign with the name of the language the chosen tour will be in. Then you’re led down some stairs and through another hall (which I found uncannily resembled a gas chamber a bit) with metal gates opening for us to emerge outside in a concrete passageway that leads to a tunnel under the road and on to a path to the site of Auschwitz I. Along the way we were admonished to remain silent as the names of victims were read out, piped in from hidden tannoys.

  

First stop was at the large brick building that used to be the entrance to the museum. When the concentration camp was in operation, this block would have been where new inmates were first registered. That the same building would later be the point where tourists/visitors were received had earned the museum some criticism. Maybe this was one of the considerations behind the moving of the entrance to the present location (other than better facilitating ‘crowd management’ and security).

  

Still in that building is the cinema where an introductory film is screened. You can choose from a wide range of languages for the soundtrack, but most people will obviously select the same language as their tour is in. I had chosen a German-language tour (simply because I like the sound of German with a Polish accent a lot and have often found that many Poles’ German is better than their English) but at the cinema I also tested the English-language soundtrack. It sounded quite dramatic and the voice was American English. The film was not so much a historical introduction but felt more like a PR clip for visiting Auschwitz. I didn’t really derive any added value from this, but then again I had been before and already knew a lot about Auschwitz. It may be different for other (first-time) visitors.

  

The guide then awaited us at the exit and the tour commenced. We proceeded towards the infamous gate with its wrought-iron sign cynically proclaiming “Arbeit macht frei” (‘works sets you free’, or ‘labour liberates’). As noted above, these days the sign is a replica, the original one having been moved into safe storage after it had been stolen but subsequently recovered. The infamous sign is naturally one of the “highlights” of a visit and probably the most iconic and hence most photographed object here. It’s also here that the contemporary compulsion felt by some visitors to take selfies may be observed. The museum management actually declared selfies acceptable nowadays, but I for one, like apparently many other visitors (going by TripAdvisor reviews), still find selfies at such a location disrespectful.

  

Nearby are a couple of information panels about the camp orchestra, which would have played as inmates marched off to work in the morning as well as when they returned to the camp in the evening. There are plenty of such information panels, with texts mostly trilingual (in Polish, English and Hebrew). These days the panels are largely a relic from the days when visitors were generally free to roam on their own. Few of them form part of the current guided tours where the “educator” conveys the information instead.

  

Our group then proceeded further into the camp grounds past the camp kitchen block (not accessible) and two rows of brick barracks to reach the rear row. It is here that the main museum general exhibitions are housed.

  

The grounds of the Stammlager Auschwitz I are actually quite intact and look almost a bit too “tranquil” today to help you grasp what happened here. Tall trees (mostly poplars) tower over the well-kept brick edifices and patches of grass. It's really only the electric barbed-wire fences and the watchtowers that serve as a constant reminder of what this place once was. But back to the exhibition blocks:

  

Block 4 chronicles the ‘extermination’. There’s a large map showing places from where people were deported to Auschwitz. There’s a glass or perspex urn with ashes of victims taken from Birkenau (see below), documents and photos, including some taken by the SS during the arrival of Jews from Hungary in 1944 (see the Holocaust Memorial Center in Budapest).

  

Upstairs are more rooms, the first of which contains a scale model (all in white) of one of the gas chambers and a crematorium at Birkenau. In a large glass display cabinet opposite is a stack of Zyklon-B gas canisters. Also to be seen is a photo secretly taken by the Sonderkommando showing naked female victims just before entering the gas chamber. Next comes a room with a giant glass cabinet filled with human hair, about two tons of it! This was sheared off female victims towards the end of the camp’s operation and was discovered after liberation and eventually brought here to serve its grim purpose as shocking evidence of the Nazis not only robbing victims of their belongings but even using their hair as a source of raw materials for fabric. And an example of such cloth made from human hair is also on display here. In this room photography remains forbidden!

  

Back downstairs are more documents and photos, including a large aerial photo of the whole compound of Auschwitz I and Birkenau taken by the Allies.

  

The exhibition in the neighbouring Block 5 is entitled “material proofs of crimes”, i.e. physical evidence, and it is here that you see those heaps of items taken from the victims, such as spectacles, prosthetic limbs, combs and shaving kits, enamel dishes, suitcases and, as has become so iconic: shoes. All of these items are amassed in separate huge glass display cases, on two floors, while in the corridor photos taken in the warehouses after liberation show more heaps of such items.

  

Formerly, photography was prohibited in these rooms too, but that ban has meanwhile been lifted. Back in 2008 when it was still in force as I was there on a private two-day study tour my guide granted me one exception – namely when I spotted a suitcase with an address I recognized: Kielortallee 22 in my original hometown of Hamburg, Germany. In fact it's a house right next to the primary school that I went to! Amidst all the unfathomably enormous scale of the horrors of Auschwitz and the Holocaust, it's little things like this that make some sort of connection possible – vague as it may be. But for me it was quite an emotional find. It literally brought things closer to home. Interestingly, on my visit in 2024, that same suitcase was no longer to be found any more. I specifically searched for it so I don’t think I could have overlooked it. They must have changed the display.

  

Block 6 is about life in the camp, beginning with the registration of new arrivals. There are displays of the symbols for the various categories of inmates as well as a display of original striped camp clothes that have become so familiar as associated with concentration camps that they can count as ‘iconic’ too. Furthermore there are gruesome photos of emaciated inmates taken at the time of liberation. Paintings/drawings of camp life made by survivors are also on display. One room is dedicated to the children of Auschwitz, again with photos and some children’s clothes on display. In the corridor are hundreds of mugshots taken of inmates at registration.

  

Block 7 contains sleeping quarters from different periods (from mere straw on the floor and no furniture at all to rooms crammed full with three-tier bunk beds). Moreover there are washrooms and latrines and a single room for a Kapo (or ‘block elder’, a privileged inmate responsible for keeping order). On the tour I was on in January 2024, this block was skipped, but I later went back in the afternoon when individual visitors were allowed in and saw it then.

  

By the way: the tours can feel quite rushed, and as there are always several going round the site at once, the routes have to be quite meticulously orchestrated. I guess sometimes this necessitates omissions. Even though I was there at the lowest season, there were navigational issues at times with two or three groups inside a building at the same time. I don’t want to imagine what the crowd management must be like in high season!

  

The tour I was on then moved on to Block 10, the one in which medical experiments were conducted. This grimmest subject was brought up and commented on by the “educator” guide, but the inside of the block itself remains out of bounds to visitors.

  

Block 11 next door was the camp jail, so a prison inside the prison. Here inmates who had tried to flee or had helped others in such attempts were incarcerated, along with political prisoners and other special cases, as well as captured Polish resistance fighters. Many were held in solitary confinement cells. The worst cells were the tiny standing cells, a particularly cruel form of torture. And often the prisoners were simply left to starve to death in their cell. These cells are located in the basement, and it’s forbidden to take pictures here (in this case probably for logistical reasons as there is so little space to move in). Also in this block, on the ground floor, are SS rooms, a summary court martial room and more washrooms. Allegedly it was also in this block that early “experiments” with Zyklon-B were conducted on POWs. This block was also known as the “death block”. At the end of a cordoned-off corridor I also spotted a gallows, but that was not commented on by the guide.

  

In the gated courtyard of Block 11 is a reconstruction of the “death wall”, i.e. a place where executions by firing squad were carried out. You can also see that the windows of the adjacent Block 10, the site of medical experiments, are shuttered blind – nobody should get a glimpse inside.

  

Our group then proceeded to the middle row of brick barracks, most of which house country-specific exhibitions, none of which were part of the tour (but see below). We only stopped at Block 20, which was a camp infirmary. Inside you can see a room that looks just like a doctor’s practice (and the sign above the door does indeed say “Behandlungszimmer”, or ‘treatment room’). Yet it was here that countless inmates were killed by injections of phenol directly into the heart.

  

Next we came to the roll call square in the centre of the compound. An odd little structure here is a small wooden construction like a tiny one-person booth. This was for the SS man in charge of the roll call if the weather was bad – the inmates, of course, had to stand in the open, often for prolonged periods of time, no matter what the weather, in summer heat or winter frost.

  

Next to the square is also the long gallows on which public executions, sometimes of several inmates at once, were carried out.

  

We then passed through a gap in the double electric barbed-wire fence (obviously a later addition) so left the prison camp proper to come to where the former SS administration buildings were. Behind a locked gate to a staff car park you can see in the distance the grey detached house that was the camp commandant’s villa (as depicted in the award-winning movie “The Zone of Interest”). But that is out of bounds.

  

But what you get to see instead is the gallows on which in 1947 the first and last camp commandant Rudolf Höss was hanged. (Höss, by the way, penned a long account of his time at Auschwitz while under arrest and awaiting trial, published as a book with historians’ comments – it’s a chillingly detailed document but at the same time one of the most significant, and indeed unique insights into the workings of the hell  that was Auschwitz, from a perpetrator’s perspective!)

  

Just behind the gallows is the low block with a brick chimney indicating a crematorium. Inside is also a small gas chamber. Remember, though, that this was an improvised “experimental” gas chamber only, not the place of the industrial-scale mass killings of newly arrived Jews (and other victims) during the height of the Holocaust – those all took place at Birkenau (see below). In fact, in 1944, at the height of the gassings of Hungarian Jews, this building was altered, the ovens removed and the chimney clipped. So what we see today is largely a reconstruction. In addition to the gas chamber you can now see two crematoria ovens and corpse wagons on rails.

  

After emerging from that our group was led past more SS buildings and their garage and back to the passageway and tunnel under the road to the new visitor reception buildings where we dropped off the headsets we had used during the tour. This is also where the large main bookshop is now located.

  

Our tour group then made their way to the shuttle bus to Birkenau, but since my wife and I had already been there independently the day before (see below!), we dropped out of the group at this point and stayed behind (we did have individual entry passes, though).

  

So instead we headed back to Auschwitz I. At that point the last groups of the first half of the day were leaving so for a short period we had much of the camp to ourselves, sans tourist hordes!

  

The main reason we came back was in order to see the individual group- or country-specific exhibitions, referred to here as “pavilions”, located mostly in the middle row of the brick blocks. Having separate exhibitions for specific nations and/or organizations is in a way a relic from socialist times when the main emphasis was on "political martyrdom" and eventually overcoming Nazi rule as a great achievement of communism (see also Ravensbrück).The fact that the main group of victims were Jews, on the other hand, used to be glossed over in the Eastern Bloc. But since the end of the Cold War this has gradually changed and has been mostly rectified.

  

Block 13 houses the exhibition about the Sinti and Roma, the second largest racial group of victims at Auschwitz, held in a special “Zigeunerlager” (‘gypsy camp’) within Birkenau. As this exhibition was the last one I visited that day, and I was beginning to suffer from museum fatigue, I only skimmed this exhibition, but my cursory impression was that it was quite old school. (Note that this is also the only one of the pavilions where photography is not allowed.)

  

Block 14 is about the USSR/Russia both as a victim of German aggression, Soviet POWs as another special group of camp inmates/victims, as well as about the Red Army as liberator and victor. This Russian pavilion was closed on 1 May 2022 “until further notice”. Presumably that was a reaction to the war Russia started to wage on Poland’s neighbour Ukraine that same spring. At the time of my visit in January 2024 the Russian exhibition was still closed and marked as “temporarily unavailable”.

  

Block 15 houses the exhibition about Poland and its role in WWII and at Auschwitz. This pavilion was also closed at the time of my visit in January 2024, but in this case this was for refurbishment and it was fenced off while work is going on inside.

  

Block 16 is shared between an exhibition about the Czech Republic on the upper floor and one about Slovakia on the ground floor. The latter was also closed when I was there in January 2024, though in this case there was no evidence to be seen (yet) of any work going on inside. I can imagine that the recent changes in Slovakia’s coming to terms with its part in the Holocaust at home (see especially Sered!) may have fed a desire to rework the nation’s exhibition at Auschwitz as well. But this is just speculation, on my part. The Czech exhibition is quite expansive and text-heavy. Texts are in Czech with Polish and English translations.

  

Block 17 is home to the Austrian exhibition. This was the one I was most keen on seeing during my January 2024 visit. That is because in 2008 I had seen its old predecessor that dated back to the late 1970s. By the time I first visited Auschwitz in 2008, it was already marked as no longer representing current historical views of the role of Austria in WWII and the Holocaust (see above!). A few years later I actually attended a seminar in Vienna about the project of reworking this exhibition and the difficulties the team encountered. Apparently the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum exerts quite an influence on such projects and set some firm rules (e.g. the exhibition must end with the defeat of Nazi Germany, e.g. what became of the perpetrators after the war was not to be covered … and you have to wonder why such a restriction was imposed). Anyway, the new exhibition now in place is certainly a massive improvement and is very up-to-date both in terms of content and in terms of the style of presentation. It does now cover the fact that the “Anschluss” was met with euphoria amongst a large part of the Austrian population, and that many Austrians enthusiastically participated in the deportations of Jews and the unfolding Holocaust. It’s also made clear that many of the key perpetrators in the Holocaust in general and Operation Reinhard in particular were Austrians. On the other hand the resistance against Nazism in Austria/by Austrians is also covered here (cf. DÖW). The exhibition has many documents and photos and also a few artefacts, as well as audio stations and interactive screens. The labels and texts are in German with Polish and English translations. There is also a personal angle woven in by picking out various quotes from survivors. One such quote towards the end of the exhibition is especially stark (I only reproduce the English translation): “They say ‘never again’ – but then look at all of the massacres that have happened since. It’s absurd to say it should never happen again.” (Ruth Klüger, 1931-2020, inmate of Auschwitz-Birkenau 1944).

  

Block 18 is home to the Hungarian exhibition. I remembered this one especially well from my visit in 2008, when it came across as the most modern of all the pavilions. It’s still unchanged as far as I could tell in January 2024, but does not feel one bit dated. So it must have been almost ahead of its time when it was installed. Hungary, of course, played a particularly tragic role in the Holocaust in that Jews were relatively safe there until 1944 when Hungarian Nazis and their German counterparts started rounding up Jews and sending hundreds of thousands of them to the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. All this is well documented in this well-designed, varied and visual exhibition.

  

Block 20 is another shared one. In addition to the phenol-injection room by the entrance (see above) the ground floor houses the French exhibition. It’s quite arty and visual, with shadowy figures on the walls in between traditional text-and-photo/document panels. All these are in French with smaller Polish translations in bold and English translations not in bold … is this to tell us something? It covers the deportations from France (see esp. Drancy) and the role of French inmates at Auschwitz. Especially touching is the room plastered with over 1000 small photos of children who were deported from France and mostly perished in the Holocaust.

Upstairs is the Belgian exhibition. It’s quite old-school and simple but the most multilingual: in Polish, Dutch/Flemish, French, German (!) and English. It covers the Nazi occupation of Belgium, deportations e.g. from places like Mechelen, and places of incarceration like the “hell of” Breendonk.

  

Block 21 houses the exhibition for the Netherlands. This Dutch exhibition is again a bit old-school, consisting mostly of text and photos/documents. Unsurprisingly the story of Anne Frank and her famous diary written in hiding is part of the narrative here (see Anne-Frank House in Amsterdam and its counterpart in Berlin). Naturally the exhibition is in Dutch, Polish and English.

  

Opposite Block 21 is Block 27, which houses the Jewish exhibition entitled simply “Shoah”. At the time of my first visit in 2008 this part was closed for refurbishment, so I was intrigued as to what I would find on my latest visit in January 2024. It is a very visual exhibition covering the anti-Semitic Nazi ideology (even sound recordings of it piped into the first hall, which I found a bit disturbing) and the road to the Holocaust. A particular highlight I found was the series of tiny pencil drawings on several white walls. These are based on children’s drawings found in places of hiding and in camps. Seeing representations of the Birkenau gatehouse, of executions by hanging, or of dead bodies being carried off on stretchers, scenes of horror drawn in the style of a young child, was especially unnerving and somewhat endearing at the same time. A very eerie mix. Another key part of the exhibition is the “Book of Names” of over 4 million victims of the Shoah as compiled by Yad Vashem in Israel.

  

What I was not able to find again on my return visit in January 2024 was the Italian pavilion. I remember from my 2008 visit how bizarre I found it: a single installation in the form of a painted spiral that you walked through. No explanatory texts here whatsoever! It’s not mentioned in the current Auschwitz brochure either, so I have to presume that it’s been dismantled and not replaced by anything. I cannot remember which Block it was in, possibly Block 19 or 24, as that’s the two that have a number on the brochure’s map but no corresponding  text entry.

  

  

  

This is the second site a couple of miles up the road from Auschwitz I. And while the latter was basically “only” a prison of sorts, in a comparatively compact area space, Auschwitz-Birkenau is what most people would expect a concentration camp to look like, except it is much, much bigger than almost any first-time visitor is prepared for. It really is huge, occupying more than ten times the area space of Auschwitz I. And what you see isn’t even the whole camp, section BIII, begun in 1943 but never completed, lies to the north of the present grounds and is not part of the memorial (it’s now basically an empty field with just a few foundations).

  

The best impression of the sheer size of the camp can be had from the tower atop the iconic gatehouse. This gatehouse is the first thing you see here, whether you come by guided tour or individually. Note, though, that you can only climb up the tower for the bird’s eye view as part of a guided tour. For individual visitors there’s no access to this. When I went on my two-day private study tour in 2008, the three of us had it all to ourselves. If you’re with a regular group these days you’d be vying for the view out the windows. Looking straight out you see the ramp that the railway line into the camp ended at. But it’s so long you can barely see the other end from here. To the left you see the part with rows of preserved, single-storey red-brick barracks that formed sections BIa and BIb. To the right you see the single row of preserved/reconstructed wooden barracks that formed the majority of buildings here in section BII. Most of the nearly 200 wooden barracks are gone, only the foundations still in place and in many cases with lone chimneys poking up like markers. These were for the ovens the barracks were quite inadequately heated with in winter. The sections are separated from each other by barbed-wire fences and the whole compound was encircled by another, bigger electrified outer barbed-wire fence and rows of larger watchtowers with an enclosed space at the top with windows. The smaller watchtowers within the camp, in contrast, are more open to the elements.

  

Guided tour groups take different routes so that they don’t all go to the same places within the compound all at once. So the order in which you get shown around will vary. Some groups head first to the wooden barracks on the right, some to the brick barracks to the left, some straight on towards the ramp. When I was on my two-day private study tour in 2008 we first climbed the gatehouse then headed to the BI sections, then towards the ramp, main memorial, ruins of the gas chambers and crematoria, on to the north-western parts and finished at the wooden barracks.

  

On my return visit in January 2024 the accessible wooden barracks were my first port of call. One of these is largely empty, another contains rows of replica three-tier bunk beds to give an impression of the cramped sleeping quarters and with inadequate ovens in the centre, yet another houses latrines where hundreds of inmates had to relieve themselves communally at prescribed fixed times.

  

I then headed up the railway tracks towards the ramp, where the selections would have taken place from early 1944. Since 2009 there’s been a single railway car there standing for the hundreds of cattle cars that used to bring in thousands of victims at a time. The lone rail car is thus but a solitary symbol.

  

Near the rail car at the centre point of the ramp stands one of the wooden SS guardhouses that has been preserved, though the inside is not accessible. It looks almost too idyllic in a rural kind of way.

  

Dotted around the compound are the same sort of black panels as in Auschwitz I, giving trilingual information (again in Polish, English and Hebrew) plus period photos and maps for orientation.

  

Except for the few wooden barracks at its eastern end, the entire BII section was off limits when I visited in January 2024. In fact you couldn’t go beyond the main memorial for the victims at the end of the railway track either.

  

This main monument is where the annual ceremonies on Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January (the date of the liberation of Auschwitz) take place, up until now in the presence of survivors, though soon none of them will be left. It’s also where dignitaries like the Pope, heads of state and ministers come to lay wreaths and have their pictures taken. The monument itself feels quite modest, perhaps too modest given the scale of what it’s supposed to commemorate. At the bottom of the main column are several stone plaques with short inscriptions in a range of languages (in this case including German as well).

  

To the left and right of the main memorial monument are the ruins of the gas chambers/crematoria II and III. These were blown up by the SS when the camp was “evacuated” in an attempt to cover up their crimes. This cover-up didn’t work, of course; too many paper trails and eyewitness reports (including that of camp commandant Höss himself – see above) made it quite clear what had taken place here: those destined for the gas chambers after the selection process had to undress in an underground “changing room”, from where they were then herded into the gas chambers which were then sealed airtight. SS officers wearing gas masks would drop the contents of canisters containing Zyklon-B gas pellets down into the chamber from the roof. After the victims’ agonizing death (which could take 15 minutes or more) “Sonderkommandos” had to clear the gas chambers of the dead and burn the corpses in the high-capacity crematoria (specially designed and custom-made by Topf & Söhne) and prepare the gas chambers for the next batch of victims.

  

In January 2024 this was as far as one could get – the entire northern half of the memorial grounds was cordoned off, i.e. “temporarily closed”. Presumably that is for refurbishment reasons, though here that was not explicitly stated. When I last looked at the official website these restrictions were still in place. The same applied to the entire section BIb, where some parts were actually covered by large plastic superstructures while refurbishment/preservation work is ongoing. In this case that was also made clear on the construction site fence. By the time you read this, some or all of these parts may have been opened up to visitors again. If you want to know in advance make sure to check the relevant section of the official auschwitz.org website under “About visiting” and click on the entry “Temporarily closed for visitors”.

  

So on that occasion in January 2024 the only parts still visitable were a number of accessible brick barracks of section BIa. These included some sleeping quarters. While looking a little sturdier than the wooden bunks in BII, the conditions were no less cramped. On one wall there are cynically kitschy murals depicting happy children with toys and an old-fashioned school building (this was presumably in the children’s block). Other barracks contained washrooms and yet more latrines. Information panels explain for what categories of inmates these various barracks were for.

  

There is now a new exit in the fence at the eastern end of section BIa – alternatively you could walk all the way back to the gatehouse and exit there.

  

In total I spent just under an hour and a half inside Auschwitz-Birkenau in January 2024; guided tours allocate even less time to this part (about an hour, I’d estimate). In contrast to that we spent almost a full four hours at Birkenau with our guide on our two-day private study tour in 2008. A good proportion of that time was spent in those parts currently off limits, especially in the north-west of the memorial grounds. Here we visited the sites of the ruins of the gas chambers & crematoria IV and V and the ponds used for the dumping of victims’ ashes.

  

Further out are the ruined foundations of what was once “Bunker II”, aka the “White House”, a building requisitioned from a Polish family, where one of the first temporary gas chambers was installed in June 1942. Once the industrial-scale gas chambers and crematoria II to V were in operation this building was demolished by the SS. Nearby are areas where corpses were initially incinerated on pyres in the open air.

   

The most significant part we visited in this north-western compound was the so-called “Zentralsauna” (‘central sauna’). This large red-brick edifice had different parts that served several functions: e.g. for registration of new arrivals, a hair-cutting room, shower and disinfection facilities, installations for disinfecting clothes. It was also here that new inmates received their striped clothing and their inmate number (only in Auschwitz were those numbers actually tattooed on to victims’ forearms, a practice not followed in other concentration camps). Today there is one part with displays of suitcases and personal belongings of victims who arrived shortly before the camp was liberated and which therefore hadn’t yet been distributed back to the Reich.

  

The most touching part here was the large room in which a wall stands, ca. 15-18 feet (5-6m) wide and ca. 7 feet (2m) high, on which once private photos are displayed in neat rows. These photos were also found with the personal belongings of victims. They mostly show the victims in happier times of peace, some stylishly dressed, some smiling broadly (one woman with a glass of wine in her hand); and there were also lots of baby photos. The whole wall is reflected in the super-shiny floor in front of it. It was quite a memorable thing to do: walking slowly towards the wall and thus turning a vague mass of images first into discernible groups and then individual portraits, as if zooming in.

  

I do hope that these parts of the “Zentralksauna” building won’t be altered in the currently ongoing refurbishing/preservation efforts. I found them the most impressive of the entire Auschwitz memorial (including Auschwitz I and its exhibitions).

  

To the east of the “sauna” is a field of some 30 foundations of barracks. This used to be the location of the “Canada” warehouses in which the looted possessions of victims were stored, sorted and prepared for shipment to the Reich. These barracks were all destroyed by the SS when they left the camp. But one patch with a glass plate on it allows a glimpse into the ground where loads of looted items can still be seen. “Canada”, by the way, was the informal word inmates used to refer to these warehouses, because “anything could be had there”, just as the inmates imagined it would be in affluent Canada.

   

Not part of my study tour nor my return visit in 2024 were two more sites at Birkenau, namely to the north-western corner but outside the general memorial grounds as such and not accessible from within it, as far as I know. To see them you’d need to walk (ca. half an hour each way), or drive there if you have a vehicle of your own. One is a monument at the grave site for Soviet POWs killed at Auschwitz, the other a monument at the site where the “Red House”, or “Bunker I” once stood. This too was a family home requisitioned from resettled Poles and where the very first temporary gas chamber at Birkenau was installed in March 1942, i.e. right at the beginning of Operation Reinhard.

  

Also off site between Birkenau and Auschwitz I is the so-called “Alte Judenrampe”, the older ramp where selections took place before the ramp inside Birkenau was opened. There are two cattle cars such as were used in the deportations now permanently parked here as yet another memorial. This site is also not part of the standard tours, though I know that school/study groups do regularly go there. As an individual visitor you’ll have to make your own way there, on foot or by your own means of transport, by making a slight detour south en route back to Auschwitz I, the train station or Oświęcim town.

  

All in all, Auschwitz is without a doubt one of the very top dark sites on Earth, often labelled a “must-see” place, and I cannot argue with that. The ‘over-tourism’ that the huge visitor numbers these days have brought with them can be a detraction, though. In high season thousands of visitors are shepherded through the main sights and the tight security measures are also quite a distraction. I would thus highly recommend avoiding the high season and going in winter (see also here – external link, opens in a new tab), when visitor numbers are at their lowest, though it can still feel crowded at times (just somewhat less so). Moreover I urge potential visitors not to make do with just the more or less prescribed standardized guided tour but also to obtain individual entry passes for the afternoon and go back on your own to explore the site in greater depth. In Auschwitz I that is primarily for the various themed extra exhibitions in Blocks 13-21 and 27. In Birkenau you could explore further than the standard guided tours reach, in particular, once these parts are reopened (currently cordoned off) the “Zentralsauna” and “Canada” parts as well as the memorials to the north-west of those.

  

    

Location: in the south of Poland, near the small town of Oświęcim (= 'Auschwitz' in Polish). Most people will probably use Kraków as the base for an excursion to Auschwitz. It is about an hour's drive away, some 40 miles (70 km). Even closer is the city of Katowice, but this isn't so attractive as a base because it has less of a touristic infrastructure and simply fewer sights to visit.

 
Auschwitz I and Auschwitz-Birkenau are both just west of the town of Oświęcim, a couple of miles (3 km) apart. 

   

Please note that at the time of writing (March 2024), Google Maps doesn’t feature the new entrance yet and still shows the old car park at the former entrance.

  

Google Maps locators:

  

Auschwitz I – new entrance, car park and visitor centre: [50.0297, 19.2054]

  

Auschwitz I – former reception building with cinema: [50.0274, 19.2021]

  

Auschwitz I – camp gate with infamous slogan: [50.02746, 19.20338]

  

Auschwitz I – museum blocks: [50.0265, 19.2048]

  

Auschwitz I – Block 11 (camp prison): [50.0252, 19.2035]

  

Auschwitz I – roll-call square: [50.0267, 19.2037]

  

Auschwitz I – commandant’s villa: [50.0272, 19.2069]

  

Auschwitz I – Rudolf Höss gallows: [50.02798, 19.20529]

  

Auschwitz I – gas chamber and crematoria: [50.0282, 19.2049]

  

  

Auschwitz II Birkenau – gatehouse: [50.0346, 19.1809]

  

Birkenau – ramp: [50.0348, 19.1758]

  

Birkenau – wooden barracks of BII: [50.0359, 19.1801]

  

Birkenau – brick barracks of BIa: [50.0327, 19.1788]

  

Birkenau – main victims’ monument: [50.03492, 19.16897]

  

Birkenau – ruins of gas chambers/crematoria II: [50.0341, 19.1697]

  

Birkenau – ruins of gas chambers/crematoria III: [50.0356 19.1695]

  

Birkenau – ruins of gas chambers/crematoria IV and V: [50.0405, 19.1684]

  

Birkenau – “Zentralsauna”: [50.0392, 19.1668]

  

Birkenau – “Canada”: [50.03953, 19.16896]

  

Birkenau – “White House” foundations: [50.04007, 19.16367]

  

Birkenau – former location of the “Red House”: [50.0453, 19.1708]

  

Birkenau – Soviet POW graves and monument: [50.0448, 19.1677]

  

  

“Alte Judenrampe”: [50.0315, 19.1882]

  

Auschwitz III Monowitz/Buna-Werke: [50.0363, 19.2675]

  

Auschwitz III Monowitz memorial monument: [50.0337, 19.2539]

  

   
Access and costs: not too difficult to get to, but a lot of walking is required in any case; costs can vary: from free to relatively pricey.

   
Details: Getting to Oświęcim is relatively easy by train or bus from Kraków (or from Katowice) and fares are quite low. The bus has the advantage of dropping you off right by the entrance at Auschwitz I. However, when I used one in January 2024 to get there I found the bus, more a minibus really, quite cramped; I had to have my rucksack on my lap. The train is more comfortable. However, the train station is some distance from the entrance to Auschwitz I. It’s walkable, though, ca. one mile (1.6 km) first down Wyzwolenia heading south-west, then turn left into Więźniów Oświęcimia heading south-east. Otherwise local taxis are fairly affordable. If you have your own vehicle you can drive there, but note that there is a charge for parking at the official car park at Auschwitz I and spaces may run out on busy days. Parking outside the gatehouse at Birkenau is (for now) still free.

  

For travel between Auschwitz I and Birkenau there’s a free shuttle bus that now runs throughout the year (it used to be only seasonal in the past) and it is fairly regular between every 10 and 20 minutes. It does not go past the “Alte Judenrampe”, though, so for that you’ll have to walk. Walking the whole distance between the two camps via the old ramp takes about 30-40 minutes (each way).

  

Off season you could just rock on up and get your entry passes and tour tickets on the day, but at all other times it is recommended that you book your tour slot well in advance from the official website visit.auschwitz.org. There you can find the available slots in your language of choice listed for each month of the year. In the busier months more tours will be available but be warned that crowd management due to ‘over-tourism’ is at its worst in high season. In the low season, fewer slots may be available, but the site is generally less overrun with tourists.

  

Tours are available in quite a wide range of (over 20) languages, but for languages other than Polish or English there may be fewer time slots (perhaps just one per day). Going by the online booking tool it seems that the only other languages regularly scheduled are German, Spanish, Italian, Russian and French. I infer from this that tours in any further languages available (e.g. Croatian or Norwegian) have to be specifically requested.

  

For much of the day, going on a guided tour with an ‘educator’ is mandatory. Entry passes for individual visits without an ‘educator’ are only possible in the afternoon, in low season as early as from 1 p.m., in high season as late as 4 or 5 p.m. – I’d still highly recommend doing that though, as the regular tours skip parts of Auschwitz I (certainly all the country-specific pavilions – see above) and only spend about an hour or less at Auschwitz II Birkenau.

  

Many people simply book an organized tour by coach from Kraków. That makes the logistics easier, of course, but has the downside of not allowing you time for visiting the site independently after the official tour.

  

It may also be a good idea to split your visit over two days – a) to allow for sufficient time, and b) to dampen the emotional impact a bit. I’ve done that on both occasions I visited Auschwitz.

  

For my first visit back in March 2008, my choice was a two-day private study tour. It was more expensive but provided maximum input. I still visited the country pavilions individually after the tour on day one. The tour lasted four hours each day. Those two-day tours don’t seem to be available any more. They are mentioned at one point on the official website, but do not feature in the current price list on the same site. There they are only listed for groups (minimum 10 participants, maximum 30, 820 to 970 PLN). However, there are also 6-hour study tours said to be available for individuals (125 PLN), but when I checked the online booking system, none of those were bookable. So you’d have to enquire by email.

  

The price for joining a standard regular tour with an ‘educator’ as an individual visitor currently (in 2024) costs 85 PLN (75 for tours in Polish). Entry passes for individual visitors without an ‘educator’ in the afternoon are free of charge, but must be obtained at the ticket counter at Auschwitz I. Passes are NOT available at Birkenau and the security guards won’t let you in without one or before the allocated time (as I learned the hard way in January 2024).

  

The official opening times are: every day (except Christmas Day, New Year’s Day and Easter Sunday) from 7.30 a.m. to 2 p.m. in December, 3 p.m. in January and November, 4 p.m. in February, 5 p.m. in March and October, 6 p.m. in April, May and September and until 7 p.m. in June, July and August. You are allowed to stay a maximum of 90 minutes after these last admission times. The early opening times are rather academic, as no tours start before 8.30 a.m. at the earliest anyway.

  

Note that a whole package of rules of conduct apply (see official websites for details), including no smoking, eating or drinking alcohol, no drone flying, no talking loudly or using mobile phones indoors, etc.; generally you need to behave respectfully. Use common sense for that (e.g. no selfies!). Photography is restricted in parts of the Auschwitz I museum, but otherwise you're free to take pictures.

  

Note also that the entrance to the site, as well as the main car park, locker facilities, ticket booths and reception area were moved in the summer of 2023. The new entrance / reception centre is now on the eastern side of Auschwitz I at 55 Więźniów Oświęcimia (and no longer on Stanisławy Leszczyńskiej!). At the time of writing, Google Maps still doesn’t show the new entrance and car park (which caused me great confusion when I went in January).

  

If you decide to split your visit over two days you will need accommodation. There are a couple of hotels near Auschwitz I, the top pick being the rather plush Hotel Imperiale, where I stayed for one night in January 2024. This also features a decent restaurant. This used to be a mere three-minute walk from the entrance, but since that was moved to the other side of the Auschwitz I complex, this advantage has gone and it’s now more a 15-20 minute walk. As I was there in snowy winter I rather got a taxi (10-20 PLN). More budget-friendly options are also available, and at the time of writing an all-new large hostel was being built right at the new entrance to Auschwitz I. But I presume that this, like other hostel options, will be primarily for school groups.

  

If you have your own (rental) vehicle another option is to stay right in Oświęcim, where there is now a large branch of the “Hampton by Hilton” chain.

  

A less corporate and more individual good choice is Hotel Galicja a bit further into town east of the centre, en route to what was Auschwitz III Monowitz (see combinations). This is where I stayed for two nights when I went on my first visit to Auschwitz – and I remember it very fondly, also for the food served there. Apparently it was also the choice of celebs in the past (like the French president).  

 
 
Time required: the standardized regular guided tour with an ‘educator’ that most visitors go on lasts 3.5 hours. Add to that travel time from Kraków (between 60 and 90 minutes), plus queueing and waiting time before the commencement of your tour. So it’s at least a half-day excursion.

  

I’d highly recommend spending more time, though, ideally with an overnight stay in Oświęcim. That way you can also get an individual entry pass without ‘educator’ for the afternoon(s) and see more of both Auschwitz I (especially the country pavilions – see above) and Birkenau. At the latter you could thus also go and see the parts furthest from the gatehouse (once those currently closed for refurbishment/preservation reopen to visitors again – see above).

  

There are also longer official tour options available (6 hours or 3+3).

 

 
Combinations with other dark destinations: in general see Poland. Since most people visiting Auschwitz do so on day trips from Kraków, it's the ideal opportunity to take in that city's dark sites too. Even if you're staying in Oswiecim itself, do consider an onward trip into Kraków as an add-on.

  

Some 3 miles (4.5 km) to the east of the town centre of Oświęcim is the industrial area that was once the Buna-Werke plant of the I.G. Farben chemical conglomerate, and it was right opposite that Auschwitz III Monowitz was located. The inmates of this forced labour camp were used to build the plant and later worked in it. Ironically I.G. Farben was also a major stakeholder in the company that produced the Zyklon B gas used in Birkenau's gas chambers (and elsewhere).

  
The purpose of the Buna plant, however, was to produce synthetic fuels out of coal (which in the case of this particular plant they hardly managed, though). Unlike Auschwitz itself, the plant was also bombed and damaged during the latter part of the war. Why only the plant but not the gas chambers or at least the railway lines leading to Auschwitz remains an uncomfortable question that the Allies never managed to provide a satisfactory answer to. …

  
Today there's not much here for the dark tourist to see. The Monowitz camp is all but gone, although there's a small memorial to the victims of the forced labour camp as well as the odd relic. Parts of the industrial plant area are still/again in use – but remain off limits to the public. However, you could drive past and spare a thought for the victims. But better not try and take photographs … see this anecdote!

 

 
Combinations with non-dark destinations: Nearby Kraków is well worth a visit in its own right, especially for its pretty Old Town, and in fact it does attract huge numbers of visitors.

 
Poland in general provides plenty of destinations of various sorts. In the south, the scenic Tatra mountains, shared between Poland and Slovakia, are the closest to Oświęcim and Kraków. Further east Lublin, apart from its dark connections (esp. Majdanek), is also a pretty place to visit in its own right, especially given that it's not (yet) as crowded with tourists as Kraków is.