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Auschwitz Artifacts to Go on Tour, Very Carefully

By Joanna Berendt

• July 26, 2017

WARSAW — More than 72 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, the first traveling exhibition about the Nazi death camp will begin a journey later this year to 14 cities across Europe and North America, taking heartbreaking artifacts to multitudes who have never seen such horror up close.

The endeavor is one of the most high-profile attempts to educate and immerse young people for whom the Holocaust is a fading and ill-understood slice of history. The Anne Frank House, the Jewish Museum Berlin, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and others all find themselves grappling with ways to engage an attention-challenged world with a dark part of its past.

Yet anything that smacks of putting Auschwitz on tour instantly raises sensitivities. Organizers of the exhibition, which include the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum itself, took pains to explain that, yes, visitors would probably be charged to enter in at least some locations. But officials at that museum and the company behind the exhibition say that their intent is not to create a moneymaker out of the suffering of millions of Nazi victims.

Several prominent Jewish leaders expressed support for taking pieces of Auschwitz to people who might not otherwise see this history. They said that they were not overly concerned about an entrance fee; organizers said that they would ask for it to be small, if any, and for admission to be free for students.

“If you’re telling me, ‘Gee, they’re coming out and they’re going to be millionaires over this,’ I would object,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, who founded the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human-rights organization. “But if they’re making what is normally considered to be a fair amount of profit since the final end is that hundreds of thousands of people maybe in different places all over the world will see the exhibit — I think that’s quite legitimate.”

The exhibition — announced on Wednesday by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the organizer, the Spanish company Musealia — will include pieces from the museum such as a barracks; a freight car of the same type used to transport prisoners; letters and testimonials; and a gas mask, a tin that contained Zyklon B gas pellets and other grim remainders from the complex’s gas chambers.

Seven years in the making, the exhibition is a response to growing anti-Semitism in Europe and elsewhere, those involved with it said.

“We have never done anything like this before and it’s the first project of this magnitude ever,” said Piotr Cywinski, director of the state museum, which is on the site of the former camp, in southern Poland. “We had been thinking about this for a long time, but we lacked the know-how.”

Even though the Holocaust remains a major focus of study by historians and is a staple of school curriculum in many countries, knowledge about the camps is fading for younger generations, he said.

The exhibition will make its first stop in Madrid, aiming for an opening around December, and then tour for seven years. Precise dates and locations will be announced in about a month.

It is no longer enough to “sit inside four walls, stare at the door and wait for visitors to come in,” Mr. Cywinski said, so museum officials decided to reach out to a more global audience.

The exhibition was broached in 2010 when Musealia, a family-owned company whose shows include artifacts from the Titanic, approached the museum.

Luis Ferreiro, the company’s director, said the idea came while he was grieving the death of his 25-year-old brother. He had found consolation in “Man’s Search for Meaning,” a book by a Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist, Viktor E. Frankl , about his experiences in four extermination camps after his pregnant wife, his parents and brother all perished.

Inspired by the book’s lessons for spiritual survival, Mr. Ferreiro said he decided to try to make the subject of the Holocaust closer to those who might never have a chance to visit the museum.

It took time for Mr. Ferreiro to gain the trust of the board of the Auschwitz museum, which was surprised to receive such a request from an exhibition company outside the museum world.

The museum demanded that the artifacts be kept secured at all times and that the exhibition comply with the museum’s strict conservation requirements, including finding proper transportation and storage, as well as choosing exhibition spaces with sufficient lighting and climate control.

The museum also insisted that the artifacts be presented in historical context, especially because many aspects of World War II are only vaguely understood by younger generations. For instance, in Spain, asking about the history and place of Jews in Europe “would probably get some strange answers.” The exhibition will show that Spain — which during the war was led by Francisco Franco, a dictator and ally of Adolf Hitler — was not home to large Jewish communities and did not have extensive connections with the Holocaust; yet there were notable exceptions, like Ángel Sanz Briz, a Spanish diplomat who saved more than 5,000 Jews in Hungary from deportation to Auschwitz.

“In other words, we want to show that the Franco regime was certainly very sympathetic to the Nazis,” said Robert Jan van Pelt, a history professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada and a Holocaust scholar who has been working on the exhibition. “But individual Spaniards could make, and made, a difference.”

As for the morality of charging money to see artifacts from a death camp, and potentially turning a profit, Mr. Ferreiro said that traveling exhibitions like this one usually generated huge expenses. Putting the display together has already cost more than $1.5 million, and there are no guarantees “the exhibit will even be sustainable,” Mr. Ferreiro said.

Musealia will offer museums that want to host the exhibition a flat fee for transportation, installation, design and all the content.

“We need to earn an income to sustain ourselves and keep the enterprise going,” Mr. Ferreiro said, “but our goal is to focus on larger social goals such as enlightenment and education.”

The Auschwitz museum will get a fixed amount that will be given to it yearly to cover any expenses arising from the project, though neither museum officials nor Musealia specified how much. If the exhibition is profitable, the amount the museum receives will be increased, Mr. Ferreiro said.

The story of Auschwitz, as told through the artifacts, will cover the physical location of the camps and their status as symbols of structuralized hatred and barbarity. The exhibition will begin with the history of Oswiecim, the Polish site of the German camps, whose population was about 60 percent Jewish before the war. That history will be followed by the origins of Nazism after World War I.

Of the 1,150 original pieces to be displayed, 835 will come from the state museum. The rest have been lent by other institutions, like Yad Vashem in Israel, or directly by survivors and their families, much of which has not been displayed before.

Each artifact, however, was chosen to help lay out the history of the Holocaust. Mr. van Pelt mentioned a brown blanket that belonged to Siegfried Fedrid, a Jew born in Vienna who was a prisoner at Nazi camps in Lodz, a city in central Poland, and Auschwitz. The blanket is on loan to the exhibition from the Holocaust Center for Humanity in Seattle, which got it from the family of Mr. Fedrid, who died in 1963.

Mr. Fedrid shared the blanket with five other prisoners, probably saving their lives during a grisly winter march.

Rabbi Hier said that the Holocaust artifacts must travel the world to make sure memories of the era do not fade away.

“We’re in the period of the last remnants, last decades, where personal survivors or witnesses, who can describe the events, are living on this planet,” he said. “We will soon have no survivors.”

Mr. Cywinski, of the Auschwitz museum, said he expected the exhibition to be provocative, with some patrons drawing connections between the rise of Nazism and events around the world today. He mentioned populism, propaganda, institutionalized hatred and an international community that he regarded as sometimes seemingly blind to these social forces.

“Memory that is intelligent, reflexive, is not limited to the past, but allows you to define the reality and project the future,” he said. “Otherwise, why would we even need memory?”

An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to admissions at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. Visitors are charged a fee if they tour the memorial with a guide, not simply for entering the grounds.

How we handle corrections

Sopan Deb contributed reporting from New York.

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Visiting Auschwitz – How to Plan the Auschwitz Tour

Visiting Auschwitz, albeit a very somber experience, is one of the must things to do in Poland. The largest Nazi Germany concentration and extermination camp during World War II, where over 1,3 million people lost their lives, needs no introduction. Conveniently located near Krakow , Auschwitz can be an easy addition to your Poland itinerary.

It took me almost 37 years to finally visit Auschwitz (although I’ve been to other Nazi Germany camps in Poland), and even if I knew very well what to expect, the place still overwhelmed me with its cruelty and tragedy. And I think everyone should plan a trip to Auschwitz to understand history better and see what people are capable of when the ideology brainwashes them. And, of course, to pay respect to all the unnecessary victims. It’s important to visit places like Auschwitz so we can do our best to prevent similar tragedies from happening in the future.

If you are visiting Poland (especially Krakow , Warsaw , Katowice , or Wroclaw ), I prepared this guide to help you plan your Auschwitz tour without too much hassle. There are different ways to visit Auschwitz, but no matter which one you choose, be prepared for one of the most difficult yet necessary travel experiences of your life.

Table of Contents

Where is Auschwitz

The former Nazi Germany Concentration Camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, is located in a town of around 37.000 inhabitants called Oświęcim in southern Poland. Krakow is less than 70 km away, and Katowice is 35 km away. Warsaw, the capital of Poland, is around 330 km away from Oświęcim.

A brief history of Auschwitz

Even if Auschwitz is known mainly as the extermination camp, it was established as a concentration camp in mid-1940. It was one of over 40 camps in Poland that were supposed to be a solution to the problem of overflowing prisons full of arrested locals. The first people were brought to Auschwitz on June 14th, 1940, from the prison in Tarnow.

Since 1942 Auschwitz has also been used as the extermination camp where Nazis implemented their plan to murder Jewish people from all over Europe. At the peak of its operation, in 1944, Auschwitz was divided into three parts: Auschwitz I (the oldest one, in the old Polish military barracks), Auschwitz II-Birkenau (the largest one, founded in 1941, the majority of victims were killed here), and Auschwitz III (this was a group of over 40 sub-camps created near industrial plants, made for work prisoners).

Numerous Polish villages were demolished, and locals were evicted to develop such a large institution. The camps were isolated from the outside world. The total area was around 40 square kilometers, including all three Auschwitz camps and the so-called “interest zone” used for the technical or supply background, offices, and barracks for Nazis.

Since Auschwitz had a strategic location on the front line, in August 1944, the camp’s liquidation began – the prisoners were taken to Germany, and the evidence of the crimes was covered up. The liberation of Auschwitz took place on January 27th, 1945, when around 7,5 thousand prisoners were still held there.

Altogether, in the almost four years of operation, over 1,3 million people lost their lives in Auschwitz; the majority were Jewish (around 1,1 million), but also Polish (about 150 hundred thousand), Roma people (23 thousand), and other nations.

In 1979 Auschwitz was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List – it is the only former Nazi concentration camp with that title in the world.

How to visit Auschwitz

You can visit Auschwitz two ways: with a tour from where you are staying in Poland (most likely Krakow, Katowice, Warsaw, or Wroclaw) or independently, reaching the site by car or using public transport. Both options are doable; however, the tour is a slightly better one as everything will be taken care of for you.

There is a wide selection of tours to choose from that depart from Krakow as well as other mentioned cities. Most of them cover more or less the same things: pick-up from your accommodation, transportation to/from Auschwitz and back, the entrance ticket to the concentration camp, and the guided tour on-site.

When I visited Auschwitz, I arrived by train from Warsaw, with the change in Katowice. I was at the museum almost an hour before my guided tour of the site was supposed to start, and despite the poor weather (it was raining on that day), there was no place to hide and wait for the tour. Visitors were not allowed to enter the museum until a few minutes before the tour was about to start. Me and a few other unlucky visitors just stood near the trees, hiding under the umbrella and waiting for our time to enter the site. I can’t say it was a comfortable situation (but at least the weather worked perfectly well for such a sad place to visit). Recently, a new visitors center was opened so hopefully the situation is better.

When using public transport, you need to rely on the schedule of trains/buses and, just in case, plan to be at the site with some extra time ahead; hence a tour is a better option. Still, visiting Auschwitz is doable independently – I did it, and once the tour of the site started, it was really good.

Visiting Auschwitz – practical information

Visiting Auschwitz memorial site is free of charge; however, I recommend joining the tour with the educator provided by the museum. They have a huge knowledge of the place and the tragedy that occurred here and can answer all the questions visitors always have. Tours are available in various languages: Polish, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Czech, and Slovak.

Even if you decide to visit the site independently, you still need to book the entry pass – those with free entrance start in the afternoon. You can buy/reserve your ticket online at the website of Auschwitz Museum here.

Currently, the price for the tour with the educator is 80 PLN for Polish and 90 PLN for other languages. When booking the ticket, you must state your full name and surname – this will be checked later.

Since tickets can sell out quickly, booking one at least a month in advance is recommended. If there are no tickets left for the day you want to visit Auschwitz, you can join the organized tour from Krakow or other cities, as tour operators usually have tickets booked in advance. Due to the sensitive nature of the place, children under 14 years old should not visit Auschwitz Museum.

Once you have your ticket, you need to arrive at the Auschwitz visitors center 30 minutes before your tour starts to go through the security check (it’s rather thorough, similar to the airport), have your ticket inspected (remember to have the ID or passport with you), get the headset for the tour and meet your group. You are allowed to have a bag or backpack with a maximum dimension of 30x20x10 cm; any larger luggage must be left in the paid lockers.

Auschwitz Museum is open every day except January 1st, December 25th, and Easter Sunday. Opening hours vary depending on the month and are as follows:

• 7:30-14:00 in December
• 7:30-15:00 in January and November
• 7:30-16:00 in February
• 7:30-17:00 in March and October
• 7:30-18:00 in April, May, and September
• 7:30-19:00 in June, July, and August

The closing time means the last entrance – after that, you are allowed to stay on-site for an hour and a half. However, if you want to see Auschwitz Museum properly, you need at least 3,5 hours for that – that’s also how long the standard tour with the educator lasts. It is usually divided equally between Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II- Birkenau. A free shuttle bus runs between the two sites every few minutes.

Taking pictures and making videos is allowed in Auschwitz, for individual use, except in two places: the hall with the hair of Victims (block nr 4) and the basements of Block 11. Your educator will remind you not to take pictures there.

Remember what sort of place you are visiting and behave there with respect. It might be obvious for most, but I can’t count how many times I’ve read news about inappropriate behavior in Auschwitz and other similar sites in Poland, so I think it’s worth reminding this is not your typical tourist attraction but a place of one of the greatest tragedy that ever happened in the world.

Getting to Auschwitz independently

If you decide to visit Auschwitz on your own, you must get to the visitors’ center, where your tour will start. The new visitors center, which opened just recently, is located at 55 Więźniów Oświęcimia Street in Oświęcim ( here is the exact location ). If you drive there, there is a large parking lot where you can leave your car before visiting the museum.

If you use public transport, there are both trains and buses you can take to reach Oświęcim. I recommend trains as they are slightly faster and more comfortable; however, some buses stop next to the museum, so that’s convenient. You can check all the connections on this website , where you can also find the location of the bus stop in Oświęcim (there can be three different ones).

The train station in Oświęcim is located at Powstańców Śląskich Street, some 20 minutes walking from the Auschwitz museum. It’s a straightforward way; you can check the map with the directions here . I recommend catching the train that gives you at least an hour between arriving at Oświęcim and when your tour starts.

Auschwitz tour from Krakow

Numerous Auschwitz tours depart from Krakow, so you will easily find the one that suits your itinerary and needs. Here are some recommended ones:

• Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial Guided Tour from Krakow
• Auschwitz & Birkenau – Fully Guided Tour from Krakow
• Auschwitz-Birkenau Guided Tour with Private Transport from Kraków
• Auschwitz-Birkenau Guided Tour by Private Transport from Krakow

You can also combine visiting Auschwitz with Wieliczka Salt Mine , another UNESCO-listed site near Krakow and a must-visit place in Poland. Here are the tours that go to both places in one day:

• Day Trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau and Wieliczka Salt Mine from Krakow including Lunch
• Full-Day Tour of Auschwitz and Wieliczka Salt Mine from Krakow
• Auschwitz-Birkenau and Salt Mine Tour with private transport from Krakow
• Combined: Auschwitz Birkenau and Salt Mine private chauffeur from Krakow

If you decide to go to Auschwitz from Krakow on your own, you can take the train from the main train station to Oświęcim. They are rather frequent, more or less every hour, and the journey takes a bit over an hour (depending on the connection, the longest one is 1h20min).

If you want to take the bus, they depart from the MDA bus station, next to the main train station. The price for trains and buses is similar, between 15 and 20 PLN, although trains tend to be cheaper and faster. You can check all the connections and buy a ticket here .

Auschwitz tour from Warsaw

Even if Warsaw, the capital of Poland, is located over 300 km away from Oświęcim, it is possible to go for a one-day Auschwitz tour. However, you can expect a long day, and a large part of it will be spent traveling. But if you are visiting Warsaw only, Auschwitz can be a good addition to your Poland itinerary, so you can better understand the country’s complex history.

Here are some of the recommended Auschwitz tours from Warsaw:

• From Warsaw Auschwitz and Krakow one day tour by train with pick up and drop off
• One day tour to Auschwitz-Birkenau from Warsaw with private transport

Going for the day trip from Warsaw to Auschwitz independently is also possible using trains. You can take the 6 am train to Katowice and then change for the train to Oświęcim, arriving in the town around 10:30. If you decide to do that, you can book your Auschwitz tour for 11:30 or 12:00. On the way back, you can catch the train after 16:00 from Oświęcim to Katowice, and after changing for the train to Warsaw, you will be in the capital after 20:00.

Auschwitz tour from Katowice

Since Katowice is less than 40 km from Auschwitz, it’s easy to go for a day trip. You need to take the local train to Oświęcim, it takes less than 50 minutes, and the connections are more or less every hour.

Or you can go for a tour, here are the Auschwitz tours from Katowice:

• Auschwitz – Birkenau from Katowice
• Auschwitz & Birkenau English guided tour by private transport from Katowice
• Auschwitz tour from Wroclaw

Wroclaw is another popular place to visit in Poland, and since it’s located around 230 km from Oświęcim, you can go for an Auschwitz tour from Wroclaw too. If you decide to do it independently, you can take the train to Katowice and then change for the local train to Oświęcim. A one-way trip should take you less than 4 hours.

Or you can go for a tour; here are the recommended ones from Wroclaw:

• Auschwitz-Birkenau Tour from Wrocław
• Private Full-Day Tour to Auschwitz-Birkenau from Wroclaw

Auschwitz Museum Tour

As for the museum itself, here is what you can expect.

You will start in the oldest part of the concentration camp – Auschwitz I, where the infamous gate with the sign “Arbeit macht frei” (meaning “Work Sets You Free”) is located. Here, you will visit numerous barracks where inmates were kept – now you can see different exhibitions there, showing the reality of Auschwitz and halls with personal belongings taken from arriving prisoners – luggage, shoes, glasses, etc., or hair of Victims. You will learn all about cruel practices here, including medical experiments or torture.

Visiting this part of Auschwitz museum is a very somber experience, and it’s really difficult to comprehend the tragedy that happened in this very place.

Besides the barracks in Auschwitz I, you will also see where the camp commander lived or the first crematorium where Nazis started their experiments with killing using gas. In this part of the Auschwitz tour, you can take pictures everywhere except the two places in Blocks 4 and 11 – they will be clearly marked, and your educator will remind you about this restriction.

The visit to Auschwitz I takes around 1,5 hours. Afterward, together with your group and educator, you will take the shuttle bus to Auschwitz II-Birkenau, located some 3 km away.

Auschwitz II-Birkenau is where around 90% of victims died. It is a huge area that worked kind of like the killing factory, with four gas chambers and crematoriums. This is also where most prisoners arrived – you most likely know the view of the railway tracks and brick gate – that’s Auschwitz II-Birkenau. This part of the visit is mostly outdoors.

You will walk around the area, see the remnants of the camp, visit some barracks inside, and learn all about the horrific tragedy that happened here. When Auschwitz I has a more intimate, even claustrophobic feeling, Auschwitz II-Birkenau can overwhelm you with its scale and enormity.

You will spend around 1,5 hours here, too; afterward, you can take the shuttle bus back to the visitors center when you started your tour.

Final thoughts on visiting Auschwitz

Even though I’ve lived in Poland almost my whole life, and Auschwitz has been a familiar topic since I remember, it took me nearly 37 years to finally visit the place. Before I was in different Nazi Germany sites in Poland, mostly in Majdanek in Lublin, so I didn’t feel the need to visit Auschwitz too. But I don’t regret the decision to go there eventually.

You can read and learn about the place, but nothing can prepare you for visiting Auschwitz. Some areas look familiar (after all, pictures of the “Arbeit macht frei” sign or Birkenau gate are present everywhere), but you will still be overwhelmed by the place and seeing it in real life. It’s hard to comprehend the cruelty and tragedy that happened here, and dealing with all the thoughts invading your mind afterward can take a while. It can be one of the most difficult-to-understand places you will ever visit.

Still, despite it all, I think everyone should go to Auschwitz to see where fanaticism and totalitarianism can lead and why we should avoid them at all costs.

Further reading

I published many articles about Poland that you might find useful when planning your trip there. Here are some of them:

• 37 Amazing Things to Do in Krakow, Poland
• 20 Great Places to Visit As Day Trips from Warsaw, Poland
• 17 Amazing Things to Do in Lublin, Poland
• The Complete Guide to Visiting Slownski National Park, Poland
• Visit Grudziadz – One of the Hidden Gems of Poland
• 19 Amazing Things to Do in Gdansk, Poland
• Visit Sandomierz, Poland – One of the Prettiest Towns in the Country
• Visiting Malbork Castle, Poland – the Largest Castle in the World
• 25 Amazing Things to do in Wroclaw, Poland
• and many more!

If you are looking for articles about a specific destination – check out the map with all the articles I’ve published (and their locations). You can also join my Facebook group about traveling in Central Europe and ask your questions there.

Travel Resources

You can find the best accommodation options at Booking . They have many discounts and excellent customer service. Click here to look for the place to stay in Poland

Never travel without travel insurance , you never know what might happen and better safe than sorry. You can check the insurance policy for Poland here.

I recommend joining organized tours to get to know the place better and to visit more places during your trip. You can find a great selection of tours at Get Your Guide – click here .

For the end I left a few announcements that might interest you:

• Sign up to my newsletter or follow me on Bloglovin to get updates about the new posts
• Join my Facebook group about Eastern Europe, the Balkans and former USSR and connect with fellow travellers and enthusiasts of these regions – just click here!
• I’ve included a few handy links of services and products I personally like and use so you can plan your own trip to Poland too. They are often affiliate links. This means I will get a small commission if you book/purchase anything through my links, at no extra costs for you. Thank you!

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Tours & Trips including Auschwitz 2024/2025

Find the right tour for you through Auschwitz. We've got 111 adventures going to Auschwitz, starting from just 3 days in length, and the longest tour is 28 days. The most popular month to go is August, which has the largest number of tour departures.

111 Auschwitz tour packages with 1,200 reviews

• In-depth Cultural
• Christmas & New Year

Krakow, Auschwitz & Wieliczka Salt Mine - 4 Days

Seweryn was a fantastic tour guide and very knowledgeable about Krakow's history. I enjoyed learning about the many historical and religious details we saw around Krakow. He also went above and beyond to help me when I had trouble purchasing train tickets, and when I got sick offered to reschedule one of the tour days. I really enjoyed his tour and would highly recommend it.

Krakow & Auschwitz

I felt like I was the only person involved in this "group" tour. When I booked this I was under the impression I would be with a group. I never met a consistent guide or any other consistent person on the same activities. It seemed like the accommodations and tours were arranged for me through TourRadar/Euroadventures. But quite honestly, I could have done that myself with better accommodations.

Krakow, Auschwitz, Enamel Factory & Wieliczka Salt Mine - 4 Days

Seweryn was an excellent guide. He set up tours for all four days and booked my stay at a delightful bed and breakfast in Krakow's Jewish district. He was knowledgeable and patient on all of the tours. I highly recommend taking one of his tours if you visit Krakow!

• Coach / Bus

Highlights of Southern Poland

The Poland tour was excellent! The group leader Beata was awesome and all guidance, planning and itinerary was wonderful. Totally recommended!!

• Sightseeing

Pearls of Poland (for couples)

I think this tour is just right for covering the best sites in Poland in a week's time. I doubt few travelers know anything about Poland's history. So a brief outline of the essentials at the start of the tour would facilitate understanding in Warsaw and Krakow. Our guides were excellent, but if they had structured their presentations, they would have communicated the details at the sights visited much better. Since we two were the only tourists on this tour in this Covid-marred year, we traveled with a driver (Piotr) who was tops.

6 days in Krakow and Szczawnica- private exclusive tour for 2 people

7 days in Krakow and Szczawnica- private exclusive tour for 5-8 people

Highlights of Poland

Well done to our tour guide Justyna and well done to Explore for putting this on in difficult times.

• 10% deposit on some dates Some departure dates offer you the chance to book this tour with a lower deposit.

Highlights of Poland (Classic, 10 Days)

The trip was great. All the things we saw were awesome. Poland is a lovely country. The hotels were all 4 or 5 star -- very nice. And the coach was excellent -- with 2 doors for more efficient boarding, and a toliet for emergencies. The guides were great too.

Tailor-Made Private Trip to Southern Poland with Daily Departure

• Book With Flexibility This operator allows you to rebook your dates or tours with them for free, waiving change fees.

Portrait of Poland

Overall, the tour was wonderful. A lot was squeezed into the 7 days. There were a few stops we would like to have spent more time at. The evening included meals were average or below average- it would have been nice to have more local cuisine. Breakfast meals were good; the breakfast buffet at the Regent Warsaw Hotel was excellent. Our tour guide Kasia was very knowledgeable & engaging - she did an excellent job! Really enjoyed her commentary & she was so helpful.

• Walking Adventure

Best of Poland (11 Days)

We were shown all around Poland in a very comfortable coach. The hotels were nice and in great locations, making it easy for us to find our own activity if we did not choose to do the optional excursion. Wonderful trip!

• €100 deposit on some dates Some departure dates offer you the chance to book this tour with a lower deposit.

Best of the East

Such a fun and alternative trip to take! We went to Prague, Poland, Budapest, and Austria. Even though it was one of the coldest weeks, our tour guide made it beyond enjoyable. She had so many suggestions of places to go and all were great. My favorite stop was Krakow, Poland, what a beautiful city and so much fun. I had an absolute blast while on this trips, the tour guide were energetic, fun, and knowledgeable, the trip was well run and flexible which I enjoyed, the company had optional activities set up for us which was nice to not feel pressured to do them if you wanted to explore on your own. The accommodations were always comfy and clean and the buses we took for all the trips were enjoyable and filled with fun movies to watch. I would highly recommend traveling with Euroadventures, their attention to detail, responsible yet fun guides, and flexible, activities filled schedule are all beyond worth it.

Tailor-Made Private Poland Tour with Daily Departure

Highlights of Poland (Small Groups, 10 Days)

What people love about auschwitz tours.

Seweryn was a fantastic tour guide and very knowledgeable about Krakow's history. I enjoyed learning about the many historical and religious details we saw around Krakow. He also went above and beyond to help me when I had trouble purchasing train tickets, and when I got sick offered to reschedule one of the tour days. I really enjoyed his tour and would highly recommend it.

Did their Krakow, Poland trip in December during the Christmas markets. Really a great trip and experience. Everything was very organized, had really good hotel near the square/old town (I booked the 3-star hotel, private room option with my husband), guides were very good & knowledgeable and the excursions/tours were very good. We also received a lot of extra information and recommendations for things to do and places to go (food and drink too) in our free time which was really nice and helpful. I was a bit nervous reading a few of the reviews here on Yelp but our experience was fantastic and nothing like what some others wrote in their reviews. Krakow was an amazing city and one of the most beautiful in Europe. Definitely recommend this trip and company.

I had a great first time experience of Krakow through this tour. My tour guide Seweryn was very friendly, flexible, organised and helpful and made the whole process very smooth. The trips to the mine, factory and camps were well laid out and gave me plenty of time for independent sightseeing and fun. If you want to come to Krakow I would highly recommend you do a trip this way!

Vienna Tours & Vacations

The stylish, sophisticated  Austrian  capital’s compact center is made for walking, taking in elegant buildings like the Hofburg Palace, neo-classical Graben, gothic St Stephen’s Cathedral, the Albertina in the Museum Quarter and the State Opera House – the heart of classical Viennese culture. From the centrally located city make the loop through the Czech Republic and Poland down to eclectic Budapest, or continue the journey south to the Croatian coast.

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Slice of life: this Austrian café staffed by seniors hits the sweet spot

MEMORIAL AND MUSEUM AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU FORMER GERMAN NAZI CONCENTRATION AND EXTERMINATION CAMP

The post-camp relics are protected by the Museum created in 1947. The Memorial today is i.a. the Archive and Collections as well as research, conservation and publishing center.

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KL Auschwitz was the largest of the German Nazi concentration camps and extermination centers. Over 1.1 million men, women and children lost their lives here.

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The authentic Memorial consists of two parts of the former camp: Auschwitz and Birkenau. A visit with an educator allows better understanding of this unique place.

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There is no way to understand postwar Europe and the world without an in-depth confrontation between our idea of mankind and the remains of Auschwitz.

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"Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away" exhibition in Boston

The travelling exhibition created by the Auschwitz Museum and the Spanish company Musealia was opened at The Castle at Park Plaza in Boston on 14 March. It will be on display there until 2 September.

Evil does not beget good, but good cannot be conquered. 79th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

On 27 January 2024, twenty Auschwitz and Holocaust Survivors took part in the commemoration of the 79th anniversary of the liberation of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp. The event was held under the honorary patronage of the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda.

"To reach people in the most remote corners of the world". The launch of the online tours of the Auschwitz Memorial.

"Auschwitz in Front of Your Eyes" is an application through which millions of people from around the world will gain access to education conducted directly from the authentic Memorial Site. It allows an online guided tour of the former German Nazi camp. Reservations: visit.auschwitz.org .

New online bookstore of the Museum

The new online bookstore of the Museum is now available at books.auschwitz.org . In addition to printed publications in many languages, ebooks are also available on the website.

New research laboratory of the Museum conservators

A new research laboratory was opened at the Auschwitz Museum. It will allow specialized research on objects from the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz. 

The new laboratory is equipped to carry out physicochemical research and molecular biology analysis, including microbiology and genetics.

Today, once again, comes the time for essential human choices. 78th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz.

On January 27, a group of 18 Auschwitz and Holocaust Survivors met at the former Auschwitz camp to commemorate the 78th anniversary of the liberation of this German Nazi concentration and extermination camp.  The main theme of the anniversary was the process of planning, creating and expanding the system of dehumanisation and genocide at Auschwitz, which was particularly strongly defined by the words of survivor Marian Turski 'Auschwitz did not fall from the sky'.

ONLINE LIVE GUIDED TOURS OF THE AUSCHWITZ MEMORIAL   FOR GROUPS AND INDIVIDUAL VISITORS

"Preserve Authenticity" - online educational session on preservation - 28 May 2024.

Memoria Magazine no. 79

Call for participants of the German-Polish seminar “How to Deal with Difficult Past?”

Prof. Marc van Berkel appointed Honorary Consul of the Auschwitz Memorial in the Netherlands

Camp chess pieces found in one of the historic buildings

Volunteers from the Brynek Forestry Technical School help protect the Museum's green spaces

Memoria Magazine no. 77

"A piece of the world surrounded by barbed wire..." The fate of Polish citizens in KL Auschwitz - a new temporary exhibition

The fate of the Sinti and Roma in KL Auschwitz - free study visits for young people

"The film would not have been possible without the Museum's cooperation.” Polish premiere of “The Zone of Interest".

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Wyświetl ten post na Instagramie. "Come here you free citizen of the world, whose life is safeguarded by human morality and whose existence is guaranteed through law. I want to tell you how modern criminals and common bandits have betrayed the morality of life and nullified the postulates of existence." - Zalman Gradowski, member of Sonderkommando at Auschwitz, murdered during the uprising on October 7, 1944. Auschwitz I. Block 27. Shoah exhibition. --- Photo by @tofudonbe --- #Auschwitz #Birkenau #AuschwitzMemorial #Nazi #Germany #concentrationcamp #extermination #genocide #history #Holocaust #Shoah #Jews #Poles #Roma #people #life #death #humanity #humiliation #dehumanization #remembrance #commemoration #memory #museum #Poland #igerspoland #UNESCO #worldheritage #worldHeritagelist @unesco #photography Post udostępniony przez Auschwitz Memorial and Museum (@auschwitzmemorial) Paź 27, 2019 o 11:17 PDT

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The Michigan Daily

One hundred and thirty-three years of editorial freedom

‘Music from Auschwitz’ debuts before SMTD European tour

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About 30 U-M students and community members gathered at Britton Recital Hall Tuesday night to hear ‘ Music from Auschwitz ,’ a performance of 10 musical pieces composed by Polish political prisoners from the Auschwitz I men’s orchestra. None of the pieces have been performed for an audience since they were played in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp between 1940 and 1945.

Each of the original pieces and arrangements were prefaced by quotes from their composers. Rising Music, Theatre & Dance senior Jack Morin, a vocalist, recited a testimony by Ralph Maria Siegel, a Jewish composer and Auschwitz survivor. The testimony mentioned how prisoners of Auschwitz would perform for the SS, or Schutzstaffel , which were Nazi guards later charged for leading the “Final Solution”, or the mass murder of European Jewish people. 

“‘After our concert for the SS we had a 30-minute break,’” Morin recited. “‘Then we would play for the prisoners in the yard by the camp kitchen. They certainly would have preferred something to eat but almost half of them came to listen, thousands of them.’”

Patricia Hall, professor of music theory at the Music, Theatre & Dance School, first began to bring the work of these composers to life in 2016. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, she said her interest in the manuscripts began when she read about musical scores commissioned by the SS and written by Jewish composers that contained unique instructions on how to play in the likely event that members of the ensemble were murdered.

“I read a book by Simon Laks , who was one of the conductors in Auschwitz,” Hall said. “He talked about this special notation he was forced to use because so many of his ensemble members were suddenly sick or they were dead, and so I became curious if there might be manuscripts in the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum .”

From there, Hall said she traveled to Poland and delved into the archives of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, looking to discover more about these orchestrations. 

“I got an appointment, and I went there not expecting to find anything,” Hall said. “Instead, I found literally hundreds of pages of manuscripts that no one had ever studied before, and I was immediately drawn to this one piece, ‘The Most Beautiful Time of Life,’ because I just could not imagine a title like that in Auschwitz. Even though I knew nothing about the music, I decided I just had to realize that piece.”

Pam Oatis, a community member, sat in the audience with her husband, John Kiely. In an interview with The Daily, Oatis said she was moved by the juxtaposition between the harrowing postwar testimonies of the composers and the cheerful nature of the music they had written at that time. 

“I’ll quite honestly say I cried through most of it,” Oatis said. “Just the horror of what humans could do to one another, yet (at the same time) have parties, and how the prisoners would rather have gotten food but thousands came to hear the music. (It shows) there’s something about the therapy of music. I mean, what does music do for us? It lifts us out of horror to joy.”

Hall told The Daily the original goal behind retrieving the manuscripts was to produce recordings for the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum .

“My idea was that we could make a recording for the archive,” Hall said. “So they could actually hear what this ensemble sounded like because there are lots of thoughts about these ensembles … but no one really knows what they sounded like (because) there’s no recordings.”

In an interview with The Daily, Music, Theatre & Dance graduate Margot Cunningham, a viola player in the ‘Music from Auschwitz’ orchestra, said the project eventually expanded to a tour of concerts in 2020 but was halted due to the pandemic.  

“We were actually supposed to do the project back in 2020,” Cunningham said. “We had a US tour and a Europe tour, but because of COVID, the Europe tour got canceled … Then, Professor Hall reached out to us three years later and asked us if we wanted to do the European tour.”

This performance is considered a “launch” concert for the European tour taking place this summer. About 20 Music, Theatre & Dance students and faculty will travel to Vienna, Austria and Kraków to debut music orchestrated by Jewish artists who were local to these cities before being sent to Auschwitz.

Hall said she hoped holding these concerts in the cities the composers were from would greatly impact the members of those communities today. 

“The audience we’re going to perform for is at the Jewish Museum in Vienna, and the Jewish population of Austria was decimated during World War II, (and likewise) when we go to Kraków there will be a similar audience there,” Hall said. “So I think this is going to be very special for them to hear this music.” 

Cunningham said the Music, Theatre & Dance School plans to visit Auschwitz while they tour across Europe, which she hopes will help the musicians connect with the music on a deeper, more emotional level. 

“We’re going to be touring Auschwitz, and seeing where the orchestra played,” Cunningham said. “It’s just gonna be so powerful … I don’t know what it’s gonna feel like, but I’m very grateful to be part of it.”

Daily Staff Reporter Anna Javier can be reached at [email protected] .

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