Auschwitz-Birkenau: What the Visit Requires of You

More than 2.3 million people visited Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in 2025, making it one of the most visited sites in Europe. That number is worth sitting with. It says something about the place’s enduring necessity as a site of historical education and remembrance, but it also means that a visit requires planning, not because it’s difficult to reach, but because the experience deserves more than a rushed afternoon.

The complex consists of two main sites a few kilometres apart: Auschwitz I, the original concentration camp established in 1940 in the town of Oświęcim, and Auschwitz II-Birkenau, the larger extermination camp where the systematic murder of approximately 1.1 million people, mostly Jewish, took place between 1941 and 1945. Walking both sites in a single day takes a minimum of four to five hours. Most people who’ve been will tell you that is not enough.

Booking Your Visit

As of March 2026, on-site ticket sales have been permanently discontinued. All visits must be booked online in advance at the official site, visit.auschwitz.org. This includes both free individual entry passes and paid guided tours.

For most visitors, the standard option is a 3.5-hour guided tour covering both Auschwitz I and Birkenau, conducted by a licensed museum educator with a headset system. The 2026 price is 150 PLN per person (approximately 35 euros). English-language tours sell out weeks in advance during peak season (May through September). Book four to six weeks ahead at a minimum. Tuesday through Thursday slots have consistently better availability than weekends.

Individual (unguided) entry remains free and can also be booked online, though the guided tour is strongly recommended for anyone visiting for the first time. The historical context provided by a trained guide transforms what would otherwise be a walk through ruins into something intelligible.

Auschwitz I

The entrance gate with its cynical motto, Arbeit Macht Frei, is where most visits begin. The original brick barracks now house exhibitions documenting daily life in the camp, the categories of prisoners, the mechanics of the genocide, and the process of liberation. Block 11, where prisoners were held in punishment cells and executed in the courtyard, is particularly difficult. The gas chamber and crematorium at Auschwitz I have been preserved in their original form.

The exhibitions include rooms displaying vast quantities of personal belongings confiscated from victims on arrival: shoes, suitcases, eyeglasses, children’s clothing, human hair. The scale of these displays is intentional and is one of the most effective aspects of the memorial in communicating what the numbers alone cannot.

Auschwitz II-Birkenau

Birkenau is where the extermination camp operated. A free shuttle runs between the two sites during visiting hours. The scale of Birkenau is different from Auschwitz I: it covers 175 acres, and the rows of barracks, guard towers, and the remains of four large crematoria extend across the flat Polish plain to a horizon that remains genuinely disturbing to look at even in full daylight.

The ruins of the gas chambers and crematoria at Birkenau were partially destroyed by the retreating SS in January 1945. They were left in their damaged state after liberation as a monument. The international monument at the end of the main rail line, between the crematoria ruins, is the focal point for visitors.

Practical Notes

Arrive at least 30 minutes before your booked slot. Security checks are thorough and the queues add time. Photography is permitted throughout, including inside the barracks and exhibitions, with the exception of a few specific locations marked on-site.

Kraków is the standard base for a visit, 30 to 40 kilometres away, with frequent organised day trips and direct bus services from the city centre. Travel time is approximately 1.5 hours. Hotel Stary and Hotel Copernicus in Kraków’s old town are excellent mid to upper range options. The Wieliczka Salt Mine, a UNESCO World Heritage Site 15 kilometres from Kraków, is a common addition to the same trip.

Visiting Auschwitz is not comfortable. It is not supposed to be comfortable. What the site does well, and what makes the visit worth making, is the combination of physical presence with documentary depth: being in the actual place, rather than reading about it, produces a quality of understanding that nothing else substitutes for. The 2026 booking system makes planning harder than it should be, but it also means the experience, when you get there, is less overwhelmed by crowds than the pre-2020 walk-up system allowed.