Visiting Auschwitz. What Is It Like To See A Nazi Concentration Camp? [2025]

Visiting Auschwitz is a difficult experience. You feel tightness in your chest, your hands shake, your eyes get wet.

Everybody experiences it differently, I don’t know how you will. But you will be full of thoughts and reflection after this tour. Visiting Auschwitz will change a part of you. And it will be a valuable change.

If you plan a trip to Auschwitz, this post will help you prepare. Polish version is available here.

Visiting Auschwitz

Historical facts in a nutshell

Parts of the camp

The concentration camp existed from 1940 till 1945. At first only political prisoners and opposition were there. Then it became an extermination camp where over a million people died.

The camp consisted of three parts – Auschwitz I, the original camp from which the whole complex was managed, Auschwitz II-Birkenau – taking an area of 140 ha, a place of mass extermination with five big crematoria and Auschwitz III Monowitz – a labour camp.

Today you can visit the museum in the two first parts.

Number of victims

We don’t know for sure how many people died in Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Nazis destroyed a lot of documentation and they often didn’t even take notes of all people who got killed in Auschwitz II-Birkenau.

Different sources mention numbers between 2 and 5 million people. Now historians say that in the camp there were at least 1,3 million people – including 1,1 million Jews and 150 thousand of Poles. Heinrich Himmler – one of the most powerful people in Nazi Germany wanted to make Auschwitz the place of his “final solution to the Jewish question” – the extermination of the whole nation.

Extermination methods and prisoners’ lives

The prisoners were dying in gas chambers suffocating with the poisonous gas Zyklon B. They were told they go to take a shower – gas chambers looked like baths, and they even had showers. When everybody was inside, the SS dumped the gas through holes in the ceiling. Weaker people died immediately but the young and strong – after up to 20 minutes.

Some prisoners after interrogation and torture were shot by the death wall.

The prisoners who didn’t go to gas chambers were forced to labor. Many died of exhaustion and starvation. The Nazis expected the laborers to live for three months with the amount of food they got.

Doctors conducted medical experiments on living prisoners in Auschwitz too. They tested sterilization methods and the results of infectious diseases or starvation in the human body.

Transportations of prisoners

Prisoners arrived at the camp by trains, often in freight wagons. After their arrival SS officers conducted “selection” – they divided people into the ones going straight to gas chambers and the laborers. They took personal belongings from everybody. From that moment they belonged to Nazi Germany. New prisoners got a number tattooed on their bodies and in the camp it replaced their name and surname.

Visiting Auschwitz – what is it like?

You start the trip by passing the famous gate of the original camp. It says “Arbeit macht frei” – work sets you free. The prisoners passed it on their way to work.

Then you see camp barracks. Today you can find museum exhibitions there. In each of them, you learn about the history of the camp and prisoners’ lives.

You can see prisoners’ personal belongings – pots, crutches, shaving brushes, hair…

Pictures of some prisoners hang on the walls. You will see a huge book with the names of people who died in Auschwitz.

You can see the death wall – a place where people were executed by shooting. It’s located between blocks 10 and 11 – where the SS tortured prisoners.

You can enter a gas chamber where you notice nail scratches marked on the walls. You can’t help but imagine panicked people looking for a way out.

The most touching part of the trip for me was an exhibition of kids’ drawings found in the camp after liberation. I don’t remember it from my first visit so it could’ve been a temporary exhibition.

It touched me more than passing an empty gas chamber.

After seeing the main camp, go to Auschwitz II-Birkenau. That’s where prisoners arrived by trains from many parts of Europe.

The majority of prisoners lived here and the biggest crematoria were here too. It’s a huge area to see, here you will learn how the prisoners lived, and you will see the crematoria ruins.

This place is a little less overwhelming for visitors than Auschwitz I – even though historically it’s where the biggest tragedies took place.

Visiting Auschwitz – practical information

Guided or individual tour?

It depends on what you like more and how much you already know about the camp’s history. I visited Auschwitz with a guide for the first time and on my own for the second time.

A guided tour was a difficult but interesting experience. I learned a lot and I won’t ever forget many of these facts. I couldn’t pull myself together for a few days after that.

For the second time I went there alone – I had more time to think, I could stay longer in places that touched me the most. I had time to look for frames – I wanted to show in the pictures how deeply touched I felt there for the first time.

I also went there early in the morning so other people didn’t disturb me.

Both visits were different. Both were valuable and touching. If you’re visiting Auschwitz for the first time, you don’t know much about it and you’re not patient enough to read all the information – take a guided tour. You’ll learn and benefit from the trip more.

How to get to Auschwitz?

The museum is located in the city of Oświęcim. You can access the parking of the main museum from Leszczyńskiej street 16 . If you’re on a backpacking trip in Eastern Europe, a bus or train will be the best option for you. Oświęcim is well connected by buses and trains with Cracow and Katowice. I usually check the best connections on e-podroznik.pl. It shows you both buses and trains. For more details refer to this post on how to get to Auschwitz from Kraków.

You can also book a tour with a direct transfer from Cracow and even a hotel pick up. Check this option by clicking here >>

Links to tours in this post are affiliate links. If you book a tour using them, I will get a small commission with no difference in price for you. Thank you in advance for using them!

dorota