Going to Krakow, Poland and visiting the Nazis Death & Concentration Camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau sixty two years after it was liberated, however informed or prepared you are at the outset, is a distinctly sobering experience, even if you have no relatives or or friends who were murdered here. Euromost.info -strongly advise you to first visit 'The Auschwitz Museum' & then nearby 'Birkenau'.
As visiting both places may take several hours this is a day trip. Some tour operators and local coach companies will suggest that that you it is possible to do visit both camps in two - four hours. This is not sufficient time. Please read the advice given carefully. Current opening times are available from the link at the bottom of the page.
| |
Watching the film and viewing the pictures of this place at 'The Museum' before coming here gives you a basic understanding of Birkenau. However, it is still very sobering walking around what was simply a factory of death.
The place pictured above was the final stop for thousands of prisoners who had been brought here by trains from all over europe. It's sheer size makes it very difficult to comprehend the scale and size of the operation of slaughter which took place. The fact that around 75% of each train load of prisoners died in the gas chambers within hour of arriving here preys on your mind as you walk alongside the rail tracks.
Even on a warm summers day it has a definite air of coldness and that with the rarity of birds gives you the feeling that you have reached a place which was hell on earth. A place from which for so many there was no escape and where there was was no dignity in dying or in the life of the few that survived to burn the dead.
Now sixty one years on though sanitised it has an unnerving eerie silence about it. This is a vast place and it is easy to spend 1-2 hours here. Admission Is Free
Further Information
For further information on Auschwitz & Birkenau go to www.auschwitz.org.pl
Acknowledgement:
The tinted pictures shown on this page are cropped versions of prints available from The Auschwitz Museum.
For those who choose to go around alone detailed information in english is displayed throughout the musuem. There is also a good cafe which is very useful if your visit is at a sedate pace Unaccomapanied it is very easy to spend 3-4 hours here. Admission is free
The gates of Auschwitz with the words 'work sets free' overhead
IInside one of first crematoriums built at Auschwitz at thestart of Word War2
Travelling To Auschwitz 1km from Oswiecim
International Airports:
Krakow International & Katowice. Nearest Major Towns: Krakow and Katowice.
Closest Railway Station: Oswiecim. Oswiecim is accessible by road from Krakow and Katowice the above places using the A4 & 933.
Public Transport: It is possible to travel by train from Katowice or Krakow to Oswiecim Stn which is about 1km from The Auschwitz Museum. These train services can take up to 2.5 hours. The services from Krakow are not recommended as they depart at breakfast time and arriving 2 hours before the screening of a short but informative film (in english) at 11am.
Recommended Travel: The most practical journey is by coach from the terminus outside Krakow main railway. station. This leaves daily at 9am arriving at The Auschwitz Museum at 10.30 costing around €6.00 or 20PLN.
Cautionary Note:
When waiting for the bus you may be invited by touts to travel to Ausc- hwitz in a luxury private minibus. These services, cost anything from €20 or 70 PLN upwards (you will be asked for double these amounts at first), have a serious drawback as your stay is limited from 2-4 hrs which is not long enough to visit Auschwitz and Birkenbau
Return Jouneys: Check with the coach driver on your out-ward jouney the time of the last return jouney. This is usually about 6pm from the main road directly outside The Museum. Please note the return services unlike the out-ward services do not enter the car park. You can check these details on arrival at the information desk.
Alternative Return Journeys:
After this time you may have to walk to Oswiecim Station and get a train or alternatively a minibus from the opposite side of the road to the station. The minibus servicess cost approx €1-2 approx 8-10pln
Polish National Rail Network Services To & From Oswiecim: Full detail of these services can be found on the following link: www.pkp.pl
www.euromost.info the webs most informative and independent travel guide for business travellers and tourists to Central and Eastern Europe and The Baltic States
Memorial To The Holocaust
Victims At Birkenau
The arrival point at Birkenau for the nazis death trains from all over occupied Europe Soldiers select who is to live and who is to die. 75% of the prisoners were gassed within an hour of arriving.
For those who were imprisoned, tortured and died at Auschwitz there was no dignity. Equally, for the few that have survived the trauma of experiencing and being witness to the pure wickedness of Auschwitz their survival may have been as painfall.
The friends, relatives and descendents of both have, along with others since, sought to understand this and similar atrocities against humanity.
Though The Auschwitz Musuem offers no explanation of the mindset of the perputrators of this barbarism, but it illustrates the methodology and consequences of this genocide - both in historical and contemporary terms.
Being able to visit Auschwitz and Birkenau is a privelege simply because one is free to walk away. It is an opportunity to pay one's respects, contemplate and perhaps to understand one's own mortality, vunerabilty and weaknesses.
Today the one saving grace in Auschwitz and Birkenau is the way the Polish Authorities, The International Council of Auschwitz and the Management and Staff of the Museum have empathetically preserved and maintained the site.
Thankfully this is is not a commercial enterprise, admission is free and transport between The Museum and Birkenau is also free. Wherever you are in Poland this is the one place you must visit.