3,5 hour tour
- The first part starts and ends near Auschwitz main gate – 1.5 hour
- Then, a short break and 3-kilometer drive to Birkenau – 0.5 hour
- The second part starts and ends near Birkenau main gate – 1 hour
Regular route
Auschwitz I Main Camp
Auschwitz I Main Camp
The “Arbeit macht frei” gate
After 10 min walk form reception building you get to the gate on the right. Exit is on the left.
After the gate, pay attention to the camp orchestra and head towards the exhibition.
Block 4
Extermination exhibition consists of rooms:
- Deportations, human ashes
- Different people sent to the camp
- Photographs of Birkenau in 1944.
- (first floor) A gas chamber model
- A few tons of human hair
Notice the photos from Birkenau:
- on the right Jews during selection, you visit this place later on (barrack)
- on the left at the ramp end the biggest gas chambers (chimneys), you see a model and ruins of them
Block 5
Luggage confiscated from the deportees: eyeglasses, Jewish prayer shawls, belongings of people with disabilities, metal pots, (first floor) shoes and suitcases.
Block 6
You see pictures of prisoners in the hallway and enter two rooms on the ground floor.
Registration: uniforms, tattoos, categories
Children: labor, experiments, liberation
Block 7
Walking along the corridor you see photos taken during registration as well as the living and sanitary conditions.
Block 11
At the so-called Death Block you can see:
- Hallway: court, SS office
- Basement: prisoners’ cells
- Courtyard: the Death Wall
Hospital
This room is in Block 20. In the so called hospitals prisoners selected by the SS as unable to work were killed on regular basis.
Roll call square
On your way to the gas chamber, you will stop near the camp kitchen to learn more about roll calls and public executions. A reporting officer often stayed in the wooden booth.
Roll-call 1941/1942
W. Gawron
Gas Chamber I
Next to the gallow for R. Höss you enter Gas Chamber and Crematorium I (more around). Pay attention to the roof gaps for Zyklon B.
Auschwitz exit
After the gas chamber go right, hand over the headset, walk back to the main parking lot and proceed to Birkenau. Tours start on the left.
Before passing through the gates, you can enter the door on the left to use the restroom.
Get to Birkenau
Organized groups return to buses, arrive at Birkenau carpark, and walk.
Individual visitors can use the shuttle bus to get to the main Birkenau gate.
Auschwitz bus stop
Birkenau bus stop
Free shuttle buses run between the two sites every 10 or 20 minutes. Timetables are at the bus stops. The ride takes about 8 min.
Going by car you get to a Birkenau carpark. You pay again and have to walk.
A cab ride between Auschwitz and Birkenau costs 25 PLN. Cabs are nearby or on request.
Auschwitz II Birkenau
Main gate and ramp
After a break, you meet your guide and walk through the gate (view from tower). You learn when and how this part of Auschwitz was built.
In the middle of the ramp, you learn about the conditions of deportation and selections of Jews. Then, walk on towards the distant trees.
Gas chamber ruins
At the ramp end, between ruins of the biggest gas chambers and crematoriums, is a post-communist memorial to Auschwitz victims.
Brick barracks
On the way back from the ruins you can see the living and sanitary conditions in brick barracks. Some are special – virtual tour:
In the last row of smaller brick barracks you can enter the washroom and see the toilets.
Women, kept in the brick barrack sector, left for work through a nearby gate.
On the way to work
J. Tollik
Birkenau exit
Exit through the gate on the right (by brick barracks). Then go left to the shuttle bus or the carpark (400 m). The grey doors is WC.
WC | Books | Carpark | Bus | Exit
Beyond regular route
During a tour, one passes the places listed below in the given order.
More at Auschwitz
You can enter:
Between Blocks 1 and 2 you can see the remains of the first kitchen and bathhouse.
Blocks 2 and 3
Both buildings are in their original condition. They can only be seen on a study tour. Block 2 virtual tour
The Heaters
According to German regulations, heaters had to be build in every concentration camp. They were installed all over the area, even though prisoners were not allowed to use them.
A typical tiled heater at Auschwitz I.
A double heater from a wooden barrack.
A heater in a Birkenau brick barrack.
Fire reservoir
The fire reservoir behind Block 6 only looks like a swimming pool. See more at Birkenau.
Block 10 – Experiments
Dr. Clauberg conducted sterilization experiments here. It cannot be entered, but you can take a virtual tour of Block 10.
Block 11 – Resistance
At the Block 11 hallway end you can find out more about Polish resistance and Witold Pilecki (read his famous report).
Hooks
Between Blocks 10 and 11, you can see the poles used for tortures. Hands were tied behind and the knot was hanged on the hook, so that arm muscles were slowly stretching.
Functional buildings
Near Block 11, the Zyklon B storage is on the left and the camp laundry on the right.
The camp post office is next to Block 26.
The vegetable storage is by the kitchen.
Block 27 – Israel
The Shoah exhibition prepared by Yad Vashem was officially opened in 2013. It is divided into several galleries:
- Jewish communities before the war
- (first floor) German Nazi Propaganda
- Mass murder sites
- Testimonies of Shoah survivors
- Reproductions of children drawings
- (downstairs) The Book of Names
Block 21 – Sport (closed)
Sport and sportspeople in KL Auschwitz (temporary exhibition).
Block 21 – Netherlands
Opened in 2005, the exhibition depicts the lives of Dutch citizens and Jewish communities before and during World War II.
Block 20 – France
The exhibition, opened in 2005, presents biographies, photos and testimonies. Topics: exclusion, deportation, extermination, returns.
Block 20 – Belgium
Opened in 2006, the exhibition highlights the German occupation, persecution of Jews, and deportations from Belgium.
Road rollers
Road rollers next to Block 18 were usually pulled by the penal unit.
An unusual team for a road roller
J. Baraś-Komski
Block 18 – Hungary
Opened in 2004, the exhibition explains the situation of Jews in Hungary during World War II and the changes after March 1944.
Block 17 – Austria
The exhibition opened in 2021 depicts Austrians as prisoners and victims of Auschwitz, as well as perpetrators.
Block 16 – Slovakia
The exhibition, opened in 2002, presents the origins and history of Holocaust in Slovakia. It covers persecution, deportations and more.
Block 16 – Czech Republic
The exhibition opened in 2002 explains the mechanism of deportation from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
Block 15 – Poland
The exhibition opened in 1985 highlights terror, deportations and economic and cultural destruction under German occupation.
It also shows the persecution of Poles in the territories occupied by the USSR and the Polish armed forces in the Allied war effort.
Digging foundations for Block 15
W. Siwek
Block 14 – Russia
The (temporarily unavailable) exhibition opened in 2013 presents the repression of Soviet prisoners of war and civilians. Visit Museum website to see more photos.
Block 13 – Roma
The exhibition, which opened in 2001, depicts the persecution and genocide of the Roma in the Third Reich and occupied Europe.
SS accommodation
Buildings near Gas Chamber I were used by SS:
- restaurant (notice the barrel)
- garages, storages, offices
- soldiers’ blocks of flats
- Rudolf Höss villa
- administration
The present gas chamber entrance and such anti-aircraft bunkers were build in 1944.
Blocks of flats for the SS are visible from the main carpark. The mass grave is nearby.
More on the way
The Mass Grave
The Grave Of The Last Victims Of Auschwitz is 150 m to the right from the main parking lot.
Judenrampe
Between 1942-1944, transports arrived and Jews were selected at the so called Alte Judenrampe. Nearby you can find ruins of the Birkenau food warehouses.
More at Birkenau
You can enter:
Wooden barracks
Near Birkenau gate, you can see the living and sanitary conditions in wooden stables.
Inside of a male barrack in Birkenau
M. Kościelniak
Fire reservoirs
Along the Birkenau rail tracks, you pass two fire tanks (Auschwitz pool) on the way to gas chamber ruins. In the background from left:
- registration office
- white tent – restoration
- kitchen – many chimneys
Registration
In the middle of Birkenau ramp you can see registration offices. The biggest one is Sauna.
Kitchens
The cart by the kitchen in sector BIb was used to transport food or corpses.
Kitchen chimneys and water tank in sector BII.
Sewage plant
The sewage plant at Birkenau was never finished, but you can see its many remains.
Royal ditch
The largest drainage ditch was built by the penal unit which worked the hardest.
Penal unit at work
J. Tollik
Sauna (temporarily unavailable)
In the main office for registration newcomers were shaved, disinfected and got camp numbers. The photos in the last room were found in nearby Canada.
Canada
Work – sorting out shoes
M. Kościelniak
The 30 wooden warehouses, where property looted from the newcomers was sorted, almost completely burned down. However, some remnants can be seen at the site.
Ponds with ashes
The biggest pond where human ashes were dumped is near the Sauna building, where you can see a metal cart used to transport the ashes. Close by there are Crematoriums IV and V ruins.
Crematoriums and Gas Chambers IV and V
Jews were told the gas chamber was a bathroom, so they undressed before entering. Later on, their corpses were burned, sometimes outdoors. Both events were photographed by Sonderkommando.
Sectors
After the ruins you can visit BII sectors and Mexico. The way back leads through sector BIIa or between BIIc and BIId.
Where to rest
At Auschwitz: WC is in Block 18 next to Block 7. There are benches in some buildings, e.g. Blocks 17 and 27 where the air conditioning lets you cool down on hot days.
At Birkenau: WC is behind the gate on the right. Another toilet is in the small woods with benches behind the monument. More benches are in the Sauna building nearby.
800 m from the Museum you can relax at the Soła River.
