Auschwitz-Birkenau, additionally merely referred to as Auschwitz focus camp, is the biggest of the Nazi focus and demise camps. Situated in southern Poland close to Krakow, this museum attracts over 2 million guests per 12 months. A go to right here is somber, emotional, and thought scary. On this information, learn to go to Auschwitz on a day journey from Krakow.
There are quite a few choices for attending to and touring Auschwitz-Birkenau. That can assist you plan your go to, we cowl all the pieces it’s essential know, from scheduling excursions, arranging transportation, and what to anticipate if you are right here.
Methods to Go to Auschwitz-Birkenau
Transient Historical past of Auschwitz-Birkenau
Methods to Get Right here
How A lot Does it Value?
Methods to Go to Auschwitz-Birkenau with out a Information
Methods to Go to Auschwitz-Birkenau with a Information
What if You Don’t E book a Tour in Advance?
What to Count on on a Go to to Auschwitz-Birkenau
Issues to Know Earlier than You Go
Often Requested Questions
Beneficial Studying
A Transient Historical past of Auschwitz-Birkenau
Auschwitz-Birkenau is made up of three elements: Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, and Auschwitz III-Monowitz.
Auschwitz I, the buildings of which have been a part of a former army base, opened in 1940 as a detention heart to carry Polish political prisoners. The function rapidly modified and Auschwitz I turned a focus camp and the location the place mass exterminations have been carried out.
Auschwitz II – Birkenau was opened in 1941, to maintain up with the massive numbers of political prisoners and Jews that have been being deported to Auschwitz.
Auschwitz-Birkenau turned the first website of the Nazi’s “closing resolution to the Jewish drawback.” The statistics are sobering. It’s estimated that 1.3 million folks have been despatched to Auschwitz and of those, 1.1 million died. Most individuals deported to Auschwitz have been despatched instantly to the gasoline chambers. Those that didn’t die within the gasoline chambers died of different causes, together with hunger, an infection, medical experimentation, and compelled labor.
In January 1945, Auschwitz – Birkenau was liberated with the arrival of Soviet troops.
Methods to Get to Auschwitz-Birkenau
Most individuals who go to Auschwitz-Birkenau achieve this on a day journey from Krakow.
Auschwitz-Birkenau is 75 kilometers west of Krakow. You may get to Auschwitz-Birkenau by automobile, bus or prepare. The closest city to Auschwitz is Oswiecim.
By Bus
The bus is the most affordable technique of transportation nevertheless it will also be time consuming.
One-way tickets value roughly 12 PLN and the journey takes 1 hour and 45 minutes. There are a number of bus firms to select from they usually go away from the bus station subsequent to Krakow prepare station. Drop off areas close to Auschwitz relies upon upon the corporate you select.
Click on right here to see the bus timetables.
By Practice
There are direct trains that join Krakow to Oswiecim, the town that’s situated 2 km from the Auschwitz focus camp. It takes 1.5 to 2.5 hours to get to Oswiecim from Krakow. You additionally must think about journey time to the Krakow prepare station and from the Oswiecim station to Auschwitz. Practice tickets value roughly 15 PLN one-way. Click on right here to see the prepare timetables.
By Automotive
In case you have your individual automobile, it takes about 1 hour and quarter-hour to drive to Auschwitz-Birkenau from Krakow.
By Personal Driver
For those who shouldn’t have your individual automobile however are not looking for the time-consuming prepare or bus choice, take into account hiring a personal driver. You might be paying extra for the comfort, however you’re additionally saving time.
Krakow Direct will get rave evaluations and we noticed lots of their vans throughout our go to to Auschwitz. They function Mercedes vans which seemed nearly model new. They cost 53 euros per individual for a gaggle tour or 99 euros for a personal tour.
Web site: krakowdirect.com
By Tour
Becoming a member of a tour from Krakow is probably the most handy however most costly choice. By becoming a member of a tour, your transportation and go to to Auschwitz-Birkenau is roofed. The tour firm arranges your transportation and your guided tour of Auschwitz.
In case you are planning your go to on the final minute, becoming a member of a tour ensures you a ticket into Auschwitz.
Verdict: Which Technique Ought to You Select?
In case you are touring on a finances, the bus is the most affordable choice. For as little as 25 PLN, you will get to and from Auschwitz. Nonetheless, you’ll have to prepare your individual tickets and tour of Auschwitz.
For probably the most handy choice, be a part of a small tour group to Auschwitz. The value to rearrange a personal tour is simply barely dearer than arranging your individual driver and information. It’s a small worth to pay have your day run easily with little or no effort in your half.
Methods to Go to Auschwitz-Birkenau
Fundamental Info
Admission: Admission to Auschwitz-Birkenau is free, nevertheless, you must pay for the guided tour with an educator.
Guided Tour with an Educator: 75 PLN in Polish; 85 PLN in different languages, together with English
Hours of Operation: Each day 8:00 am to 7 pm June, July, and August; decreased hours the rest of the 12 months. Closed on January 1, Easter Sunday, and Christmas. The museum can shut throughout official state visits. Click on right here for full working hours and potential closures.
Visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau with out a Information
Time slots can be found to tour Auschwitz-Birkenau with out a information. These time slots can be found within the late afternoon. It’s free to tour Auschwitz-Birkenau with out a information however you do want to order your time slot upfront. On the official web site, these time slots are known as a Tour for people with out an educator.
Visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau with a Information
Guided excursions of Auschwitz-Birkenau final roughly 3.5 hours. A number of excursions are supplied per day in Polish, English, Italian, Czech, German, French, and Slovak. On the official web site, these are known as a Common Tour.
You’ll be able to guide your tickets upfront on the official Auschwitz web site (most popular technique!!) or if you arrive on the principal entrance (however you’ll probably wait according to the danger that the entire excursions are booked).
A guided tour prices 85 PLN per individual (in English) and covers your educator (tour information) and audio information.
To guide your tickets on-line, go to the official web site. Tickets might be booked on-line as much as 5 days earlier than your go to. If it’s essential guide your tickets lower than 5 days upfront, you’ll be able to contact the museum by way of electronic mail.
PRO TRAVEL TIP: Tickets might be booked as much as three months upfront. With a purpose to get the time slot you need, make your reserving as far upfront as potential.
What If You Do Not Reserve Your Tickets in Advance?
It’s potential to point out up at Auschwitz-Birkenau and buy your tickets on the spot. However you must be keen to attend in line, danger getting put right into a tour a number of hours after your arrival, and danger not getting a ticket in any respect.
There’s a ticket sales space, a white data sales space, which sells the remaining tickets for the day. Simply search for the lengthy line snaking out into the parking zone and you realize that you’re in the suitable spot.
The ready time to get tickets might be just some minutes or it may be an hour or longer. Throughout our go to (mid-July) it was a wet day, so crowds have been decrease. The road was quick and plenty of spots have been nonetheless accessible for the rest of the day. However on weekends throughout peak season, you in all probability won’t be so fortunate.
For those who can, reserve your tickets upfront. This protects you ready within the ticket line and you will get the time slot you favor.
What to Count on at Auschwitz-Birkenau
There are two elements to a go to to the Auschwitz focus camp: Auschwitz I and Birkenau. On the guided tour with an educator, it takes about 1.5 hours to go to Auschwitz and 1 hour to go to Birkenau, with a 15-minute break in between.
You tour begins with a fast cross by safety and a brief line to get your audio information.
This audio information is admittedly only a pair of headphones that permits you to hear your information. With these headphones, you’ll be able to simply hear all the pieces your educator says and she or he doesn’t must yell out to the 30 folks in your group for the following 3 hours. Plus, you’ll be able to nonetheless hear your information when they’re out of sight (which does occur as you tour the buildings).
Auschwitz I
Auschwitz I is the unique focus camp. When you are right here, you’ll tour the barracks, view black and white pictures taken whereas the camp was in operation, view the jail cells, and study some harrowing statistics.
With out going into an excessive amount of element, since you’ll study all about this on the tour, listed here are a couple of photographs, simply so you realize what to anticipate.
The tour begins with a stroll by the gate “Arbeit Macht Frei” which suggests “work units you free.” This, after all, was a lie.
Right here is our tour group. There have been many tour teams on the day we visited, one coming into the location proper after the opposite.
Sobering statistics concerning the demise toll.
Barbed wire and the electrified fences.
A set of the Zyklon canisters which held the pellets used within the gasoline chambers.
Through the tour, you’ll stroll down an extended hallway the place a whole lot of pictures of the victims are hanging.
The baggage of the deportees to Auschwitz. Upon arrival, belongings have been gathered up, sorted, and clothes, gold, sneakers, and objects of worth have been taken by the Nazi’s and despatched again to Germany.
Barbed wire on the electrified fences.
Halt signal and a watch tower.
Barracks in Auschwitz I.
A view of the crematorium.
Birkenau
Auschwitz I and Birkenau sit a couple of kilometers aside. In case you are on a tour or have a driver, they may shuttle you between the 2 websites. In case you are touring independently, there’s a shuttle bus that runs each 10 minutes between the websites, and it’s free.
Birkenau is huge. That is the camp that was in-built 1941 to accommodate the massive variety of deportees from Europe. Simply earlier than liberation in January 1945, the Germans blew up a lot of the barracks and the crematoriums to cover their crimes, however that is nonetheless nicely well worth the go to. It’s seeing the sheer dimension of Birkenau the place you actually get the sense of how huge of an operation this was. It may be a really unsettling expertise.
Once more, here’s a tour by Birkenau in photographs.
By the hundreds, folks have been transported to Birkenau by prepare, on the very tracks on this picture.
Authentic cattle automobile that was used to move deportees.
The Nazi’s dismantled the crematoriums and lots of the barracks simply earlier than the arrival of the Soviet troops. What stays are these ruins, nonetheless untouched since 1945.
Past this barbed wire fence, simply the foundations of the mens barracks stay.
Birkenau is gigantic and on this picture you will get a way of the scale of this place.
A view of the dwelling situations within the girls’s barracks. Greater than ten girls would share one in all these platforms. Every barrack would maintain as much as 600 folks.
The tour ends at Birkenau. For those who arrived by personal driver or tour, you may be taken immediately again to Krakow from right here. For those who arrived by bus, prepare, or your individual automobile, you’ll have to take the shuttle again to Auschwitz I after which get to the bus or prepare station.
Useful Suggestions for Visiting Auschwitz
Backpacks and purses can’t exceed 30x20x10 cm (concerning the dimension of piece of paper). Mainly, you can’t carry something apart from a small purse. You’ll be able to go away your luggage in your automobile or within the baggage storage facility close to the primary entrance.
To make use of the bogs, you’ll have to pay 2 PLN.
Put on a cushty pair of sneakers than can get soiled. For a lot of the go to you may be outdoors. The paths are a mixture of grime and stone, so the surfaces are tough and uneven. Whether it is raining, be ready to dodge mud puddles. It rained for a number of days earlier than our go to and lots of the trails have been muddy.
It isn’t really helpful that youngsters beneath 14 years of age go to the museum. Throughout our go to, Kara was 13, simply 1 month shy of turning 14. We noticed a number of youngsters youthful than Kara throughout our go to.
Auschwitz-Birkenau: Often Requested Questions
Do we have now to guide a time slot if we don’t need to use a tour information? Or can we simply present up and purchase tickets on the identical day?
If you wish to tour Auschwitz-Birkenau with out a information, you’ll nonetheless have to guide a time slot upfront. Within the afternoon, time slots can be found to tour the location with out a information (referred to as tour for People with out an educator). That is a particularly widespread choice and these time slots get reserved upfront, so, if that is one thing you need to do, make your reservation as quickly as you realize your dates of journey.
I need to take a guided tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau however the entire time slots are reserved for my dates of journey. What ought to I do?
I like to recommend checking with GetYourGuide. They provide a number of guided tour choices and also you would possibly be capable of guide a tour with one in all their operators. It will likely be barely dearer, however you may even have the added comfort of getting your transportation organized as nicely.
As soon as the guided tour is completed, are you permitted to stroll round Auschwitz-Birkenau by yourself?
No. As soon as the tour is over, you’ll exit Birkenau. If you wish to stroll round by yourself after the tour, additionally, you will must guide an unguided tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
I’d additionally like to go to the Wieliczka Salt Mines. Can I do that on the identical day?
Sure. There are a number of tour firms that supply a day journey from Krakow the place you’ll be able to go to Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Wieliczka Salt Mines on the identical day. Click on right here to study extra.
I additionally plan to spend a couple of days in Krakow. Do you will have suggestions on how one can plan my time?
In fact! For data on what to do in Krakow, learn our publish Greatest Issues to Do in Krakow. And for concepts on how one can plan your time, check out our 3 Days in Krakow Itinerary.
Earlier than You Go
To profit from your go to, it’s a good suggestion to study slightly background earlier than you go to Poland. Evening by Elie Wiesel is a brief, unforgettable memoir by the creator, who was a survivor of Auschwitz. The Tatooist of Auschwitz is a real story primarily based on the experiences of Lale, a person who survived imprisonment in Auschwitz for over two and a half years.
Remark under in case you have any questions on how one can go to Auschwitz or in case you have any recommendation for our readers.
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Planning a visit to Poland? Learn all of our articles in our Poland Journey Information.
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