Visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau: History, context, and Experience

Travel puts you in situations where you ask yourself: should places like this be visited? We believe the answer is yes. It is clearly not an “easy” or pleasant destination, but it is a necessary one, essential to understanding history so it is never repeated. 

This is one of those places we had seen countless times in history books, yet it remains almost impossible to imagine. You can read facts, hear testimonies, and look at photographs, but actually being there, standing in that space and grasping the sheer scale of what happened, is something entirely different. Auschwitz represents the peak of Polish collective memory. 

It’s also not for everyone. While planning our trip, we heard several people say, “I would never go there.” One of those comments even came from a German. For us, being so close, it felt important to go, to see it, and to experience firsthand what numbers, stories, and images alone can’t fully convey.

A bit of context

In September 1939, World War II began with the German invasion of Poland. But as we know, Adolf Hitler’s goal wasn’t merely territorial expansion. The Nazi plan was the so-called “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”, what we now know as the Holocaust.

Auschwitz was one of the central pillars of that plan.

The Auschwitz Complex

Construction began in January 1940 in Oświęcim, about 43 km from Krakow. The complex consisted of three main camps: Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II–Birkenau, and Auschwitz III–Monowitz, along with nearly 40 subcamps.

Auschwitz I

This was the first camp. It was built using abandoned brick barracks from the Polish army. It served as the main camp and administrative center of the complex. At its entrance hangs the infamous sign Arbeit macht frei (“Work sets you free”), meant to convince prisoners they were entering a labor camp, and nothing more.

Nearly 70,000 people died here, mainly Polish intellectuals and Soviet prisoners of war. Although prisoners arrived from many Nazi-controlled territories, the first inmates were German repeat offenders. This camp held members of the Polish resistance, intellectuals, Soviet POWs, Jehovah’s Witnesses, German common criminals, individuals labeled “antisocial,” and homosexuals.

Different blocks had different functions. Block 11, for example, was used for punishment and confinement. It was also where the first Zyklon B gas experiments took place, killing 850 Polish and Russian prisoners. From there, the construction of gas chambers and crematoria began.

Medical experiments were also conducted here, including forced sterilizations of Jewish women and experiments on twins carried out by Josef Mengele.

Auschwitz II - Birkenau

As the need for space grew, construction of Auschwitz II-Birkenau began in October 1941. This camp was no longer intended for forced labor, it was built for extermination.

Birkenau became both the largest camp in size and the largest extermination center. The first deportees were murdered in gas chambers in February 1942. Between March and June 1943, additional gas chambers and four crematoria were built, each capable of holding approximately 2,500 people.

Prisoners arrived by train, often after journeys lasting three to four days without food or water, packed into freight cars. In 1944, the railway tracks were extended directly into the camp. Upon arrival, SS officers and doctors selected those deemed fit for forced labor. The rest were sent directly to the gas chambers, disguised as showers. Calm was maintained at all costs, sometimes even with music playing.

Inside the gas chambers, once victims were naked, locked in, and in darkness, Zyklon B was released through openings in the ceiling. After about 25 minutes, the chambers were ventilated and the bodies removed.

Today, very little remains of Birkenau’s gas chambers, only ruins. In November 1944, the SS destroyed them to conceal their crimes from advancing Soviet troops, and from the rest of humanity.

Auschwitz III - Buna, Monowitz

This camp was created in October 1942 to house prisoners forced to work at the IG Farben Buna-Werke synthetic rubber and fuel plant.

Writer Primo Levi was imprisoned here, one of the authors who most powerfully put the horror of Auschwitz into words. This part of the complex was not included in our visit, but it was mentioned during the tour.

Never Forget

Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet army in January 1945. It was the largest extermination center of Nazi Germany. Nearly 1.4 million people passed through here; approximately 1.1 million did not survive. Most were Jewish, but victims also included political dissidents, Roma people, and prisoners of war.

To preserve its memory, the Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau was established in 1947. In 1979, it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

About the Visit

We decided to visit Auschwitz from Krakow. With limited time, we wanted to make the most of it, so we booked a full-day tour combining Auschwitz and the Wieliczka Salt Mines. We were picked up near our hotel before 7 a.m. and traveled by van to Auschwitz in about 1.5 hours. During the drive, we watched a documentary to better understand what we were about to see. Almost no one visits Auschwitz without knowing what it represents, but it helps refresh certain details.

We first visited Auschwitz I with an English-speaking guide. The entire camp and its blocks are toured, though not all buildings are accessible.

The museum is where the magnitude of it all truly begins to sink in. Not just photos and numbers, but personal belongings: mountains of suitcases labeled with names that would never be reclaimed, tons of human hair, piles of bowls and mugs that -at best- were meant to help someone “start over” in the camp. There are also Zyklon B canisters and scale models of gas chambers.

The guide contextualizes each space: the Death Wall where thousands were executed, the gallows where prisoners were publicly hanged as a warning, and the spot where Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss was executed by hanging in 1947 after being sentenced for his crimes. Nearby stands the gas chamber of the first camp.

That concluded the first part of the visit. We then returned to the van to head to Auschwitz II–Birkenau. This is perhaps the most overwhelming section, not only because of its brutality, but because of its scale. From the entrance gate and railway tracks, you immediately grasp how many people passed through this place. It’s an immense field that seems to stretch endlessly.

Birkenau is defined by its vastness. Much of it was destroyed to erase evidence of what happened there, but what remains is preserved and restored by the museum to ensure this history is never forgotten.

Auschwitz leaves a deep impact, not only because of what happened, but because of its scale. Massive camps, enormous structures, all designed in service of cruelty.

Important Information

- We booked the Auschwitz-Birkenau and Wieliczka Salt Mines tour several days in advance through GetYourGuide. The operator was Legendary Krakow. Both Gregory, our driver, and the guides at each site were excellent. It’s also possible to reach Auschwitz by public transport.

- Needless to say, visiting these places requires respect and adherence to dress codes, security checks, and entry rules.

- Guided entry (English): 85 PLN (~€18.50).

- Entrance to the Auschwitz-Birkenau grounds is free, but a guided visit is highly recommended to truly understand the site.

📝 Tip: Now that we know and can compare, booking directly through Legendary Krakow’s website is cheaper than using GetYourGuide.

🗂 Helpful Resources

There is, of course, a vast amount of films, series, and content related to this topic.

By chance, after returning from Poland, we came across Los aprendices de la historia, a TEDx talk by Diana Wang. We won’t spoil it, but we highly recommend it.