Today I have a great trip suggestion for those of you who like the history and visiting historical places. For some of you it could be very interesting, for others it could be traumatic and it is definitely not appropriate for children under 12.

Site of the notorious German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp of Auschwitz and Birkenau is located seventy kilometers west of Krakow which makes an hour’s drive. Between June 1941 and January 1945 about one million men, women and children perished in the three Auschwitz concentration camps – i.e. Auschwitz, Birkenau and Monowitz – and their more than forty sub-camps. At its peak the whole complex of the Auschwitz death camp was a deadly prison to some 150,000 inmates that were being either murdered outright or starved and worked to death. 

Currently every year some 1,300,000 visitors come to Oswiecim, an industrial town of 45,000, to see the Auschwitz. Half of them are Poles, and the rest mostly from the USA, Germany, the UK, France, Italy, and Israel. Nearly 30 million people have already visited the place. 

It takes minimum an hour (if you want to see everything you may need 3-4 hours) to see the Auschwitz proper, and another to visit the nearby Birkenau site called Auschwitz II. They are open to visitors (except January 1, December 25, and Easter Sunday) from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. June through August, till 6 p.m. in September, till 5 p.m. in October, till 4 p.m. in November, till 3 p.m. in December through February, till 4 p.m. in March, till 5 p.m. in April, till 6 p.m. in May. Archives, library, collections, management, etc. work on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

Independent visitors may and groups should employ an authorized guide. Over 150 of them provide tours in Croatian, Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Serbian, and Spanish. 

Admission to the Auschwitz and Birkenau is free. Unfortunately huge numbers of visitors have prompted the management to restrict access to Auschwitz proper to guided tours only between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. from May 1st through October 31st. Individual tourists may join English tours at 9:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., half past noon, 1:30 p.m., and 2:30 p.m., German tours at 10:30 p.m., noon, and 1:30 p.m., French tours at 10:30 p.m., noon, and 1:30 p.m., Spanish tours at noon and 2 p.m., and Italian tours at 10:30 p.m., noon, and 1:30 p.m. Such a tour lasts about four hours and it costs 38 zloties per person. 

Booking office is open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays. Phone number (+48) 338448100 or 0338448099, fax (+48) 338432227. Web site www.auschwitz.org.pl  

Individual visitors are free to see the Birkenau site (Auschwitz II) anytime during opening hours. Auschwitz proper and Birkenau are situated about three kilometers apart, a forty minutes’ walk. A free bus links the two sites from April 15th through October 31st departing every 60 minutes: from Birkenau on the hour and from Auschwitz 30 minutes later.  

Oswiecim is easily accessible owing to the region’s extensive railroad and bus networks and the ample road system. When in Krakow, motorists may reach Oswiecim fastest via the paid four-lane expressway to Katowice (exit to Chrzanów after about 20 minutes). 

Every day frequent buses and trains leave for Oswiecim from Krakow’s centrally situated bus depot at 18 Bosacka Street and the main rail station adjoining the Old Town to the northeast. As to public transport, a bus that stops by the Auschwitz site seems more convenient than a train. 

A number of travel agencies in Krakow offer day trips to the Auschwitz.

If this sounds like an interesting place for you to visit, then you should definitely do it. It is amazing and scary at the same time. People don’t realize what really happened there until they see all the evidence. It is one of these places that you will visit probably once and you will not want to go back. Not because it was not interesting, but because it is so sad that impossible to go through it again…

Do następnego razu! (Till next time…)