Auschwitz
Oświęcim is a quiet, medium-sized industrial town on the border between Silesia and Małopolska, about 30km southeast of Katowice and 40km west of Kraków. The Polish name may be unfamiliar to most foreigners, but the German one is not. This is Auschwitz, the scene of the largest attempt at genocide in human history and the world’s largest cemetery.
The Auschwitz extermination camp was established in April 1940 by the Germans in the pre-war Polish army barracks on the outskirts of Oświęcim. Auschwitz was originally intended for Polish political prisoners, but the camp was ‘repurposed’ as a dedicated centre for the wholesale extermination of the Jews of Europe.
For this purpose, the much larger camp at Birkenau (Brzezinka), also referred to as Auschwitz II, was built 2km west of the original site in 1941 and 1942, followed by another one in Monowitz (Monowice), several kilometres to the west.
It is now estimated that in total this death factory eliminated some 1.6 million people of 27 nationalities, including 1.1 million Jews, 150, 000 Poles and 23, 000 Roma. The name Auschwitz often describes the whole Auschwitz-Birkenau complex. In 2007, its UNESCO World Heritage Listing was changed from “Auschwitz Concentration Camp” to “Auschwitz-Birkenau: German Nazi Concentration & Extermination Camp (1940–45) “. Both Auschwitz and Birkenau are open to the public as the State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau.
NOTE: You don’t need to pay for an organised trip to Auschwitz. Catch the PKS-Oswiecim bus which leaves from the lower floor of the bus station behind the railway station. Ask at the ticket office if you can’t find it. Pay on the bus for a return ticket . Also, You don’t need a guided tour of the camp. Buy a small booklet and read the comprehensive display boards. Entrance is free. Allow two or three hours for your visit.
Destination: Poland
