Auschwitz tours

Inside the museum, your Auschwitz tour begins with a short but harrowing documentary film. It features original footage, shot by the Soviet troops who liberated the camp in 1945. It’s a good - if startling - introduction for trying to comprehend what you’re about to see. You then pass through the infamous gates to Auschwitz which are inscribed with the cruel slogan Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Makes Free).

About 30 cell blocks, as well as watchtowers and barbed-wire fences, survived the Nazi attempt to destroy the camp when they fled at the conclusion of the war. At Auschwitz’s Block 4 you can find out about the handlings of exterminations, with further explanation about the deportation process and the mass killings. On display are a number of original artefacts, such as the cannisters of Zyklon B which Nazis used to experiment on gassing prisoners with, as well as plans, maps and models of the extermination facilities, as well as shocking photographs taken from during its operation.

While photography and text allow us access to the finer details of life at the time, the physical evidence really brings home just how real - and ordinary - the prisoners were. The prisoners’ confiscated items are on display here, including suitcases with the name and addresses of prisoners - who were told they were simply being relocated to a new town - stencilled on them. Other original everyday items include toothbrushes, children’s clothing, kitchen utensils and Jewish prayer garments.

It goes without saying that the living conditions at Auschwitz were terrible. While walking through, anyone can imagine the stench that must have prevailed from the sanitation facilities. This block was largely reproduced by former prisoners to present what life was like, along with photographic displays, too. The hallways are lined with rows of prisoner mugshots, some adorned with flowers from surviving family members.

Although used for many things, Block 11 was primarily known as the death block at Auschwitz. This was the site of the camp jail: where the SS placed prisoners who were suspected of being involved with resistance or escape movements. The jail is on the basement level, while on the ground floor visitors can explore the SS duty room, summary court, and further displays about punishment, execution and the camp resistance movement. Just outside in the yard of Block 11 is the Wall, a reconstruction of the original where thousands of prisoners were flogged or shot.

At Auschwitz I, you’re able to see three furnaces in the crematorium: two are reconstructions using original parts, along with the chimney. However, once Birkenau’s gas chambers had been completed, they phased the Auschwitz gas chambers out as they transferred prisoners across to Birkenau; once the other gas chamber was in operation, they shut down the crematorium I completely. There is a commemorative monument nearby - see below.

Cross over to Birkenau (same hours as Auschwitz). You can take a bus or walk between the two camps; most guided tours of Auschwitz will include the two in the same ticket. Here, visitors can climb to the second storey of the principal watchtower at the entrance, from where it is apparent just how vast this camp was. Stretching out are seemingly unending lines of barracks, watchtowers and barbed-wire fences; the camp could hold a total of 200,000 inmates.

At the rear of the camp, beyond a grisly pond where the ashes of the murdered were unloaded, is an enigmatic monument to the dead of the Holocaust, with inscriptions in the 20 languages of the prisoners who were murdered at Auschwitz and Birkenau. Stop, pause and pay your respects to the victims and victims’ families.