We will take you to the trip you never forget. Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial in Oswiecim is one of the most important museums in the country. It’s the only concentration camp that is on the UNESCO list of the World Heritage Site. The Museum represents the symbol of horror of the Holocaust, that took more that 1,1 million people life. At least once in your life, you must visit this former concentration and extermination camp in Auschwitz and face the truth of the tragic history and Nazis atrocities in the occupied Poland.
Private tour from Krakow to Auschwitz
We offer you the private guided tour from the magnificent city of Krakow, that is located around 70 km from Oswiecim.
Here’s the plan of the tour:
- You book your tour on our website. You chose the hour of the tour; however, we recommend setting off not later than 11 am. The earliest hour is 7 am.
- Our driver picks you up from your hotel in any part of Krakow.
- You travel for about 1 h 10 min in a comfortable private car and relax. The English-speaking driver is willing to answer you any questions and always happy to help.
- You visit the Museum with our private professional guide. Your visit takes around 3 h 30 minutes.
- When you’re ready to go, our driver picks you up from the meeting point and you drive back to Krakow.
- The driver drops you off at your hotel in Krakow or at any other spot in the city you wish to go
Please make a note in your reservation if:
- You are planning to visit Auschwitz in a bigger group (more than 4 people), please contact us. We will arrange the bigger vehicle (minivan or bus).
- Any of the passengers need the wheelchair assistance. There are free wheelchairs to rent in the Museum as well.
- You are travelling with kids under the age of 14. some of the exhibitions are not appropriate for kids.
- You are travelling with infants.
- You wish to have a guide in language other than English. Our company offers the tours in Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, French and Greek, but the guides are not available at all times.
- You have any other special need – we will do our best to provide the facilities.
To sum up, we provide:
- a Pick up and drop off in your hotel in Krakow
- a English/German/French/Italian/Russian/Spanish speaking driver
- a Private guide
- a Comfortable, air-conditioned car
- a Flexibility, experience
- a Nice atmosphere
Auschwitz concentration camp
The Auschwitz concentration camp was set up by Germans in 1940 in the occupied Poland. It was prospering only for 5 years but managed to kill more than 1.1 million people. The major part of the victims were Jews but there were other nationalities as well: Hungarians, French, Dutch or Poles. Due to the developing techniques of the mass extermination, SS officers were killing the prisoners in quantity every day (more than 700 victims could be killed at once). They used the numerous gas chambers with the Zyklon B gas to instantly suffocate people to death. The huge crematories were used to burn plenty of bodies every day.
Prisoners were living in the barracks with an extremely little space to sleep. They were getting small portions of food and many of them starved to death. Plenty of the prisoners died of exhaustion as they work was acutely hard. However, the official motto of the camp was: ‘Arbeit macht frei’ which means “Work sets you free”. This infamous and slogan stayed till today on the entrance gate of the camp.
Although the Germans tried to destroy all the evidences of their crime, they haven’t managed to do that. When the war was going to be over, they blew up many buildings in the camp and burned the right smart of the documents. Fortunately, there are still plenty of the original papers and the remnants of the buildings that you can see in the museum in Oswiecim.
Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum
Although the concentration camp was created in 1940, as far back as in 1947, it was already turned into museum. The museum complex contains 2 main parts of the former concentration camp: Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II Birkenau including 150 buildings and over 300 ruins. It occupies the area of almost 192 ha in the Oswiecim city. You well find there the main, permanent exhibition as well as a dozen of ‘national exhibitions’, organized by different countries.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum is one of the most important Holocaust museums in the world. Every year, it hosts millions of tourists and cooperates with many significant international institutions. It owes its popularity to the unique monuments and collections that represent the precious historic heritage for the whole world. It organizes numerous seminars, lectures, even summer academies to spread the valuable knowledge to each age group. One of the main aims of the museum is to help to prevent from prevent repetition of those terrible events through the remembrance.
Check our other tours from Krakow
Check out our tours to other significant places in the surroundings of Krakow:
- Wieliczka Salt Mine. It’s an absolute ‘must see’ destination, especially if you visit Southern Poland.
- Zakopane – the winer capital of Poland located in the picturesque area of Tatra Mountains.
Visiting the museum – Good to know
- According to the official rules and regulations of the museum, it is not recommended to visit the place with children under the age of 14. Some of the exhibitions can be too brutal and inappropriate for them.
- There are certain zones in the museum, where it is not allowed to use your mobile phone for talking. It’s better to switch off or at least mute your phone before entering the complex.
- There are kiosks with the snacks and beverages available.
- Keep in mind that the weather can easily change, and you will be walking through the open areas for most of the time. It’s better to take an umbrella and some coat with you.
- Remember to dress appropriately – cover your legs and shoulders.
- Be prepared to see the places of mass extermination where brutal genocide took place. There are many photographs in the museum that depict those events and they can be very shocking.
