Things to Do in Auschwitz

If you are organizing a visit to Auschwitz, you should know that there are two ways to visit it: either on your own, buying tickets, or joining one of the Auschwitz tours from Krakow. I personally recommend the second option because, besides not having to worry about the logistics of how to get there, you will be accompanied by an expert guide who will help you understand this tragic episode of history.

During your visit, you will see the two main camps: Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II, separated by only 3 kilometers. Here is a list of what you will see during the tour.

This is the entrance to the extermination camp and the original part of the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex and, of course, is included if you book a tour to Auschwitz. It was built in 1940 by the Nazis with the idea of housing between 15,000 and 20,000 prisoners.

The visit to Auschwitz starts here, where the visitor center is located. You will immediately recognize the iron gate that appears in all the photos, headed by the famous writing "Work will set you free".

The Auschwitz tour booking includes a visit to the visitor center at the beginning, which offers a short documentary (about 15 minutes) that will help you to contextualize everything you will see next.

In my opinion, it is worth spending time (especially if you have not hired a guide or audio guide for the visit) because it is very dynamic and everything is very well explained. The documentary is in black and white and shows original images of the time.

The first thing that will strike you when you enter the area will be the huge brick barracks where the Jews arrived and where they were housed during their stay in the camp.

Some of them have been converted today as a museum, where some of the prisoners' belongings that were recovered after the liberation of the camp are exhibited. You will see small objects of personal hygiene, clothes, shoes, suitcases... In this part, the tension of the visit starts to rise and become harder.

The exhibits inside the barracks

Along some of the corridors you will also see endless walls filled with pictures of the Jews whose lives ended in Auschwitz. On them, you will see the date of their arrival at the camp and their date of extermination. While those who arrived during the first months spent a long time working there until they were exterminated, those who arrived last barely lasted weeks or months before their lives ended.

If you book the Auschwitz tour with children, my advice is not to dwell too much on this part of the exhibition, as the details may hurt their sensibilities (there is even a large room with the hair they shaved off the prisoners upon arrival).

Along one side of the camp and also connecting the first with the second, you will see abandoned railroad tracks. These tracks were used to transport prisoners from one camp to another or to receive them from different parts of the country and the rest of Europe.

If you book the excursion to Auschwitz, please note that the guide will put you in context of how these transfers were made and how the prisoners traveled completely crammed into crowded wagons. Today these train tracks are not used for anything, but are maintained as part of the Auschwitz memorial.

After an emotionally charged visit to Auschwitz I, it is time to move on to the Auschwitz II camp. In case you book the excursion to Auschwitz and go to this part, you will find that it is much less touristic and less visited than Auschwitz I. And, in addition, being so big, it is much more interesting. And, in addition, being so big and keeping so few barracks still standing, it will give you a much greater feeling of coldness and abandonment.

This camp was built by the Nazis as an extension annex to the first camp. The number of Jews that could be housed here was much greater: up to 90,000 prisoners lived here simultaneously.

The speed with which this part of the camp had to be built made the materials used and the quality of the barracks much worse: wood was used and the spaces were completely diaphanous so that as many people as possible could fit in. Creepy. Very few are left standing.

When you book your tour of Auschwitz and take the tour, you will see that some of the gas chambers used in the extermination of prisoners have been preserved and you will be able to visit some of them. The guide will explain how the Nazis who ran the camp tried to blow them up when the liberation of the Jews began. They tried by all means to eliminate the tortures to which they subjected their prisoners. Today they are preserved as they were after that.

The walk through this area is, needless to say, really creepy. If you also visit Auschwitz in the winter season, you will see that the temperatures, the humidity and the feeling of cold in the middle of that wasteland is terrible. Imagine the situation that the prisoners lived there dressed in simple cloth pajamas and practically without food for days, weeks or months.

While initially it seemed that these camps were going to be labor camps, with the brief passage of time they became directly extermination camps. Wagonloads of people arrived who never even made it to Auschwitz, but instead "landed" en masse in these gas chambers where their lives were ended.

One of the highlights of this part of the camp is the still standing watchtower, which you can climb for a panoramic view that will help you understand the enormous dimensions of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The view from the top is bleak, especially if one tries to imagine what the actual views of the Nazis guarding the prisoners were from here. Terrifying.

Another thing that surprised me when I booked the excursion to Auschwitz was to see that there are still kilometers of barbed wire fences that surround the camp and that perimetered the little space of freedom and movement that the prisoners had.

If after the visit you have time to walk around the camp, you will see that there are still some huge houses that were once the homes of the Nazis who ran the concentration camps.

A terrible contrast compared to the living conditions, work and torture to which the prisoners were subjected for years in this place.

With the ticket to Auschwitz, one of the things that struck me the most during the tour, besides the details and objects that you will see during your visit, was that only when you are there you get an idea of what the prisoners' daily life was like.

Until then, I had heard and read about many episodes of this part of history, but when I got there, saw the dimensions of the camps and heard from the voice of an expert guide how was the daily life of the prisoners, I really got to imagine how all the people who went through there lived.

If you take the tour to Auschwitz, they will explain how were the schedules, routines and operation of the various pavilions, always with respect for the memory of the victims. Definitely, a reality check that is worth knowing in order not to forget one of the worst episodes of the most recent history of mankind.

Before making this visit, regardless of whether you book a tour to Auschwitz or do it on your own, I recommend that you find out more:

• How to get to Auschwitz from Krakow.
• Auschwitz opening hours.
• How to buy the entrance ticket to Auschwitz.
• The duration of the visit and the Auschwitz tours.
• How much it costs to visit Auschwitz, whether you buy the entrance ticket or take the guided tour, so that you can analyze which option you prefer.
• Excursions to Auschwitz from Krakow available.

In addition I leave you 10 tips to visit Auschwitz from Krakow and information about tours to Auschwitz and the Wieliczka Salt Mine from Krakow, in case you are looking for a more complete experience.