Introduction

Europe in the second half of the previous century, the century of genocide, became Europe without Jews. Millions of them died in Holocaust, invented by the devilish ideology of the Nazism. Also the almost thousand-years’ history of Polish Jews burned in the ashes of the Second World War and will never be reborn. It is important to realize that Poland without Jews is not the same any more – a unique atmosphere of the markets, where Jews used to sell their goods, or the close neighborhood of the churches and the synagogues disappeared. More than fifty years ago Poland, as it lasted for centuries, was burned down in Hitler’s crematories on the Polish soil; still more dramatic is the fact that it all happened on the eyes of helpless and mostly indifferent world.
On this Polish land millions of innocent Polish citizens were murdered: among them children and women. All over the world, Auschwitz has become a symbol of terror, genocide and the Holocaust. It was established by the Nazis in 1940, in the suburbs of the town of Oswiecim (Auschwitz). Auschwitz functioned throughout its existence as a Nazi concentration camp and eventually became the largest of its kind. The Auschwitz -Birkenau Death Camp Museum has been entered on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Established in 1940 first as a concentration camp for Polish political prisoners, Auschwitz became the centre for extermination of the Jewish people. In 1940 - 1945 the Nazis killed about 1,100,000 people here, mainly Jews, but also Poles, Gypsies, Russians and members of other nationalities. While learning about the Nazi concentration camps, we would like you to think not only about those murdered there, but also about the present day, and of what can be done in order to prevent a repetition of this tragic history...

Programme
Auschwitz is situated about 70 km from Krakow – our journey will take us about 1 h 15 min. The tour begins with a 17- minutes documentary about the history and the liberation of the camp. Then an expert guide shows you the gas chamber, the crematorium and the exhibition in some of the surviving prison blocks. We continue to Birkenau to see this largest of all Nazi extermination camps. Here we see the entrance gate known as the gate of Death and the wooden barracks.

Duration
approximately 6 hours (standard tour)

Our offer includes
An assistant’s service and an expert guide's service in Auschwitz - Museum Expert Guide’s service; transport service.

Our recommendation
You can combine this tour with the tour Schindler's List.

Additional information
If some members of your family might have died in the Holocaust – please inform us in advance. We will do our best to find some traces of them.

Note
If you prefer to buy this tour as a regular, go to Regular tours by Cracow Tours