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MEMORIAL AND MUSEUM. AUSCHWITZ – BIRKENO

http://www.auschwitz.org.pl/

VISITING

Guides. Options for guided tours. Prices.

We offer visitors several options for guided tours. Each includes tours of Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau.

• General tours
• One-day study tours
• Two-day study tours
• Guided tours for individual visitors

Guided Tours for Individual Visitors

PLEASE NOTICE THAT TICKETS FOR INDIVIDUAL VISITORS ARE NOT SUBJECT TO RESERVATION AND CAN BE PURCHASED ONLY AT THE MEMORIAL

English-language groups will enter the grounds of the camp at the following hours: 10.30 a.m., 11.30 a.m., 1.30 p.m. and 3.30 p.m. If needed groups will be also organized in other languages.

PLAN A VISIT

The grounds and most of the buildings at the sites of the Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau sites are open to visitors. Some buildings are not accessible to visitors (including the blocks reserved for the Museum administration and its departments).

TIME REQUIRED FOR A VISIT

In order to take in the grounds and exhibitions in a suitable way, visitors should set aside a minimum of about 90 minutes for the Auschwitz site and the same amount of time for Auschwitz II-Birkenau. It is essential to visit both parts of the camp, Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau, in order to acquire a proper sense of the place that has become the symbol of the Holocaust.

Auschwitz I is where the Nazis opened the first Auschwitz camps for men and women, where they carried out the first experiments at using Zyklon B to put people to death, where they murdered the first mass transports of Jews, where they conducted the first criminal experiments on prisoners, where they carried out most of the executions by shooting, where the central jail for prisoners from all over the camp complex was located in Block No. 11, and where the camp commandant's office and most of the SS offices were located. From here, the camp administration directed the further expansion of the camp complex.

Birkenau is where the Nazis erected most of the machinery of mass extermination in which they murdered approximately one million European Jews. At the same time, Birkenau was the largest concentration camp (with nearly 300 primitive barracks, most of them wooden). Over a hundred thousand prisoners were here in 1944: Jews, Poles, Roma, and others. The nearly 200 hectares of grounds include the ruins of the gas chambers and crematoria and places filled with human ashes. There are primitive prisoner barracks and kilometers of fences and roads.

For an admission fee, visitors may view the 15-minute film presenting the first moments after liberation. The film is shown in the visitor reception building at the Auschwitz I site.

Persons interested in a more in-depth exploration of Auschwitz may take advantage of the lectures, workshops, and seminars offered by the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust.

BASIC INFORMATION

• Admission to the grounds of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial is free of charge. The fees are charged for engaging a guide.

• The grounds and buildings of the Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau camps are open to visitors. The duration of a visit is determined solely by the individual interests and needs of the visitors. As a minimum, however, at least three-and-a-half hours should be reserved.

• From September 1 to October 6 the Dutch national exhibition in block 21 will be closed for visitors.

• Taking pictures indoors is not allowed. Photography and filming on the Museum grounds for commercial purposes require prior approval by the Museum.

•Admission to the grounds of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial is free of charge. The fees are charged only for engaging a guide, renting a headphone guiding system (only for groups more than ten people) and watching a documentary movie

•Guides. Visitors in groups must be accompanied by a guide; individual visitors may engage a guide. Individual visitors can also engage a guide. For them we offer organized tours .

•Groups of more than 10 people are required to hire a headphone guiding system – rental: 4 zlotys per person

•For statistical purposes, please inform the information point about the number of visitors in your party and their country of origin

•Taking pictures indoors is not allowed. Photography and filming on the Museum grounds for commercial purposes require prior approval by the Museum. In case of commercial photographing/shooting a prior consent by the Museum is required

•Watch tower in Birkenau is available only for groups accompanied by a guide. Groups of no more than 30 visitors can go up at one time. Accessibility hours - May: 9-17; June, July, August: 9-19; September: 9-18; October: 9-17; November: 10-16; December: 10-15

•It is not recommended that children under 14 visit the Memorial

OPENING HOURS

Admission to the Museum is free (see Guides). The Museum is open seven days a week during the following hours:

•8:00 AM - 3:00 PM December through February
•8:00 AM - 4:00 PM March, November
•8:00 AM - 5:00 PM April, October
•8:00 AM - 6:00 PM May, September
•8:00 AM - 7:00 PM June, July, August