Auschwitz Birkenau

When I went to Krakow for the first time I deliberately chose not to go to Auschwitz, I know what happened there and it's truly horrific, I didn't feel that I needed to witness the place where those horrific events took place at first hand. That was 12 years ago and I returned to Krakow in 2024 with my wife who was keen to visit and pay her respects, so this time I went.

If I had to sum up my experience in one word I found the site to be depressing. The fact that it was so well organised, so regimented and clearly designed like a modern factory for processing purposes, the purpose in this case was mass murder on an industrial scale. The matter of fact way that the Nazi's experimented to find the most productive way to kill people is probably the most disturbing aspect of the site for me. All my life the thing that troubled me most is how a cultured and civilized race of European people could perpetrate such crimes against humanity, if they can sink to those depths anybody can.

Am I glad I went? I have to be honest and say no, as I stated earlier I knew what happened there. Film footage of camps being liberated are still far more shocking and emotive than visiting a site where these events took place. Also, I'm not entirely comfortable with the way it seems to have become a "must see" site …

Auschwitz is certainly special and there's been much reviewed about it already that I might not feel I can add much "new". When I visited in 2016 there were guided tours only and when I arrived late I was allowed to enter on my own in order to find the group. Naturally that was quite hard because listening to the audio doesn't indicate where the group is suddenly located and only the quality will give you an idea how close you are. I eventually found the group and the reason I mention this is because I wonder if I want to have the group. Sure, you see everything and get lots of info, and most of it is important but I also found it very depressing to listen to the guide. One of the people in the group then asked out of the blue: "how can you do this kind of tour every day?" and "aren't you too sad to be here all the time?" She gave a good response but it made me think.

If I were here without a guide it would still be depressing as hell but it would just give me an overall "oh these were shoes from the workers" idea. I think I don't need the deeper sadness attached with the private stories the guide can relay to us visitors. I know what the site stands for and I didn't come here to get the satisfaction to know it better.

So another issue …

Hardly two weeks after the WHC meeting of 2015 that gave me no less than 9 'new' sites, I hit the road again for my 580th WHS. The start of daily KLM flights to Cracow drew me to a revisit of Southern Poland. I had been to Cracow in 2005, visiting the Old Town, the Wieliczka Salt Mine and Kalwaria Zebrzydowska. At that time I decided to skip Auschwitz, as I wasn’t really in the mood for what I knew would be a very moving visit.

This time around I started with Auschwitz Birkenau, staying overnight in Oswiecim. I had reserved entry for 8 a.m. on Saturday morning. Visitor numbers are limited to 100-200 an hour depending on the hour, so it’s best to pre-book a spot. Later in the day places fill up quickly, as after 10 a.m. these include guided tours in German, English, Russian, Spanish or Polish.

When I arrived at about 7.50, already some 100 people were queuing to get in. The doors do not open until 8 a.m., and then you have to pass security first. You’re allowed to bring in hardly anything, and I even was turned away on my first try because of my tiny backpack! So bring only a camera. Or an umbrella. Or nothing.

Auschwitz I Camp lies in the urban area of the Polish town of Oswiecim, it really isn’t on the outskirts as it is sometimes described. Its very urban setting came as a surprise to …

We visited Auschwitz and Birkenau in August 2014. We arrived at Auschwitz early in the morning, because we felt that it is better to visit the camp individually than with a guided tour. From April to October during peak hours (10 am to 3 pm) the visit is permitted only with a guide. Several of the barracks show exhibitions on specific topics or are dedicated to the victims from certain countries or ethnicities. But it is hardly possible to visit all of the them. Most poignant were the rooms with personal items: shoes, suitcases, glasses.

But I was even more shocked by the extermination camp in Birkenau, the sheer size of the area is overwhelming. Of course I've seen documentaries and read a lot and I knew about the inconceivable number of people who were imprisoned and murdered here. But it is something entirely different to see the place of these incredible atrocities with your own eyes.

In Birkenau, most of the wooden barracks were destroyed or demolished, only the brick chimneys remained, an endless number of them. We inevitably slowed down the pace when we walked along the rail track to the ruins of the gas chambers and on the gravel paths between the barracks, in silence and deep in thoughts. No words to describe my feelings.

You should visit both camps to get a complete impression and you should take your time, not only because it is a large area, but mainly because it takes time to cope …

I visited this WHS in September 2014. This is one of the most touching and horrific WHS I've been too and it definitely deserves its place on the list for mankind to be aware that such atrocities should have never happened in the past and mustn't occur in the future. It is now possible to visit Auschwitz individually only from 08:00-10:00 and 16:00-18:00. Otherwise you'll have to visit with another 25-40 people on a guided visit. Since this WHS isn't an attraction but a site to experience, I believe that the best way to visit is in silence and in touch with your inner self. I arrived in Oswiecim around 8am and there were some parked cars already in front of the Auschwitz museum. However, the place is huge and being able to visit individually means that most of the time you're alone in each section. By the time the group visits start, you'll have to queue to even enter a section which doesn't make sense to me personally. The most shocking experience to me was to see the room with plaits and shaved hair. As the first groups started to flock in, I proceeded to the exit and drove to Brzezinka to visit Auschwitz II Birkenau. This site covers an incredible surface area where unspeakable horrors took place. The gate to hell and railways are worth visiting to experience the sheer size of this place. I'm glad I visited this WHS. Even though we've read, listened, seen quite a …

This is truly the most disturbing and terrible place on earth. We need to remind ourselves to which depths we can sink as human beings.

It's hard to add anything meaningful to the other posts. This is really an incredible place, and even if you have been to other concentration camps before (like Mauthausen), Auschwitz is on a different scale. Of course you have read and seen a lot about the place, but actually seeing it is quite different. Unfortunately I had no time to go to Birkenau (there are shuttle buses, though), which I think is even more horrific. Definitely a must-visit site. By the way, I think the recent name change proposed by the Polish government to add the "German Nazi" part is a bit strange. Did anybody seriously think it was run by the Poles?

To correct one of the previous reviews,Auschwitz is not near Oświęcim. Auschwitz is a German name for Oświęcim, just as Birkenau is for Brzezinka. I live here and I really recommend for everybody to hire a guide as one is not able to understand the history behind the site by oneself (even if you buy one of those thin guidebooks). Of course I do agree that it is not an ordinary site, as you visit it not for enjoyment or appreciation of art but for learning something about one of the greatest tragedies in human history. Unfortunately, not everybody understands that.

I've read all the comments did above and I agree with the majority of what is said there. However, I think that everyone if arrive as a normal tourist will in some minutes feel the atmosfere of the camps and will immediately adopt the most adequate conduct. I think that pictures of the site are not only necessary but crucial to tell our friends what we saw there and call their attention to tell them that what happened there was not only the killing of thousands of people. Those who suffered there had a name and picture, and were not only one more person.

I've heard some comments on the bus trip from Auschwitz II to Auschwitz I from other visitors that what impressed more those visitors were the shoes from kids and the hair. For me, those were not the items that impressed me significantly. What impressed me were the bags with a name painted on it that puts a picture on those who suffered and the fact that when they carried the suitcase they believed that they would make a trip for another horrible place but possibly they would be treated as war prisioners. In those bags and suitcases they carried dishes, polish for the shoes, etc. Also, the size of Auschwitz II and that road connecting directly the railroad to the gas-chambers...

In our trip to Poland we have seen, near the town of Oświęcim and the village of Brzezinka, the concentration and extermination camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau, the largest in the Third Reich, where the Nazi commanded by Adolf Hitler systematically starved, tortured and murdered 1,5 million people from 24 countries, among them a great number of Jews. It was created by Himmler in 1940 and directed by Rudolf Höss. There are many tragical evidences, preserved in the conditions in which were in 1947, when the museum was founded: fortified walls, barbed wire, electrified fence, platforms, roll call square, sectors of wooden and bricks barracks for men and women with cells and small latrines, deposits for the belongins of the deportees, the Russian graveyard, gallows, false hospitals (wainting rooms to the gas), gas chambers, five cremation ovens, false showers, laboratories for experiments on people, Gestapo camps, entrance gates, railroads, a barrack (work camp for the Russian soldiers) where was for the first time used the gas Zyclon B for extermination, a wall (Death Wall) where were shot 20000 prisoners, bunkers, a barrack where are 70 tunes of hairs, 48000 pairs of shoes, glasses, brushes and dentures. There is also the terrible writing on the entrance arch: “Arbeit macht frei”, that means “The work makes free”.

I was really schocked by the tragical evidences of the camp, but it's absolutely worth to be visited for more understing the horrors of the genocide. However I think it don't justifies the inscription because, …

I full agreement with the others here, that this isn't a place to be treated lightly.

One does get the feeling from some of the displays that the Final Solution was a crime against the Polish people rather than the anti-semetic genocide that it actually was.

Nonetheless this does not 'spoil' (for want of better word) what is a heart-wrenching experience.

This is a place that everybody should visit at least once in their lifetime.

Don't treat a trip to Auschwitz like you would a trip to any where else on the UNESCO list. this was a truly horrific journey and one which should not be taken lightly. the order of the Auschwitz complex and the sheer massive scale of Birkenau. The site achieves the utmost respect from every visitor. It is worth getting a guided tour as this gives much more information. Visits at different times of the year will give you a view of the different features of life in the camps from the bitter winter conditions to the blistering heat of summer. the station is Oswiecim and is on the line from Krakow, the main camp is a short walk/bus ride from the station and the birkenau complex is further out, best to have a short taxi ride. This is not a tourist destination and is geniunly the most Harrowing place imaginable.

Having recently visited Auschwtiz and Auschwitz-Birkenau, I feel impelled to contribute my own response here. In agreement with previous reviews, I would like to reiterate that this is not a trip or tourist destination to be considered light-heartedly. Many visitors come to the camp, wanting to stroll through and catch a glimpse of the site of such dehumanizing and barbaric acts. This is not something (in my humble opinion) that can be achieved in a matter of hours.

If anyone reading this is planning to visit or looking for advice, I would strongly recommend devoting an entire day in order to absorb the full effects of everything here that deserves observing. In my experience, I felt as though I was in a state of semi-shock upon entering the camp(s). I was reluctant to take any pictures. I felt that saving the images of what I saw as a personal "souvenir" of my trip was somehow disrespectful to all of the atrocities that occurred there.

In retrospect, I think that if I had spent more time at each of the camps, perhaps I would have overcome such feelings. I now regret not taking any photos personally, not for the purpose of displaying them for others when recounting my experiences, but just for my own memories. Everyone undoubtedly experiences different reactions and feelings when visiting Auschwitz. Those emotions cannot be recreated by hearing the stories on TV, nor by seeing the images on the internet.

I strongly urge visitors to make the …

This is not a place that should be visited light heartedly, I was a little distressed to see that some people had come here just as casual tourists; it really is not the place for this type of trip.

I visited in both the winter and summer and the difference in temperature is massive, I can not think of living in these conditions (-15° in winter 35° in summer).

I would strongly recommend having a guided tour as this gives you an insight to some of the most unimaginable parts of the complex. The Auschwitz area is the most intact part of the site and contains lots of exhibits (rooms full of shoes and hair being particularly poignant), and the only standing charnel house and gas chamber, the absolute horrific sense of the place hit me upon entering here, it was perhaps the most unpleasant feeling I can imagine and took me a long time to get over.

The Birkenau complex is a necessity to visit the sheer scale of the area is soul destroying. This part of the camp was built for one purpose, and this can be crippling when you view the vast compound. It seems like a huge machine designed for the most ruthless and efficient process of murdering people.

The site can be reached easily from Krakow via Oswiecim station and there are buses to Auschwitz from there (it is possible to walk) Birkenau is a little further on you will probably be able to quite …