Entry to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum is free of charge, but you must book a time slot in advance online via the official website. While entry is free, you will likely need to pay for a guided tour (which is recommended/sometimes required) or if you book through third-party transport services.
Visits to the memorial site (Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau) are free of charge. Due to the large volume of visitors, visitors are now only permitted to visit the memorial site without a guide at certain times. The memorial offers a wide selection of guided tours for individuals and groups.
Only a limited number of guided tour entry cards for the given day will be available at the entrance to the Museum. Due to the huge interest, visitors suggest booking in advance at the website visit.auschwitz.org, as well as to arrive at least 30 minutes before the start of the tour.
Material may be used only in undertakings and projects that do not violate the good name of the Victims of Auschwitz. Photography and filming on the Museum grounds for commercial purposes, at spaces closed to visitors or with a drone, require prior approval by the Museum.
Use mobile phones for telephone conversations in the exhibition buildings included in the tour and the silence zone in the courtyard of Block 11. j. Record and take photographs in buildings using flash and tripods. Recording and taking photographs is completely forbidden in Block 4 Room 5 and underground Block 11.
A cynical lie: the inscription above the main gate of Auschwitz I concentration camp: “ARBEIT MACHT FREI” (work makes you free). When the SS ordered them to make this sign, the prisoners placed their hidden message in the word “ARBEIT”: they turned the letter “B” upside down.
Mala Zimetbaum, the first woman and the first Jewish woman to escape from Auschwitz-Birkenau, was born on January 26, 1918, in Brzesko, Poland, the fifth and youngest daughter of Pinhas and Chaya Zimetbaum.
How many Auschwitz survivors are still alive in 2025?
As of 2025, there are around 220,000 Holocaust survivors worldwide, though the specific number of Auschwitz survivors isn't detailed separately, with their median age being 87, and numbers rapidly declining as 70% are projected to pass within the next decade. Organizations like the Claims Conference https://www.claimscon.org/demographics2025/ track these demographics, highlighting the urgent need for testimony as these witnesses, many of whom were at Auschwitz (like the 99-year-old Leon Weintraub at the 2025 liberation anniversary), are the last generation to share their direct experiences.
Two hours is generally not enough time for a meaningful visit to both Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau, as official tours take around 3.5 hours, with most visitors needing 3-5 hours total to experience both sites properly, considering walking and transport between them. While you might rush through key parts of Auschwitz I in 2 hours, you'd barely see Birkenau, the larger extermination camp, making it a very superficial experience, and official guided tours, which are recommended, last much longer.
1. Light candles in places other than specifically designated areas, i.e., the Death Wall in Auschwitz I and the International Monument to the Victims of the Camp in Auschwitz II-Birkenau. 2. Carry and consume food or alcohol; smoke cigarettes and e-cigarettes on the visiting route.
Auschwitz wait times vary wildly: pre-booked, skip-the-line tickets mean short security waits (10-30 mins), but arriving without tickets, especially in peak season, can mean 1-2+ hour queues just for entry, even with online booking confirmation, as many third-party sites don't secure immediate entry. For the best experience, book direct via visit.auschwitz.org and arrive 30 mins early for security; otherwise, expect significant waits, especially if you need to pick up tickets or buy them on the day.
Visitors planning a trip to Auschwitz should be aware of museum closures and increased crowds in April: April 24, 2025 – The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum will be closed due to the March of the Living. April 20, 2025 – The museum will also be closed for Easter Sunday.
Oskar Schindler saved approximately 1,200 Jewish people during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunition factories in Poland and Czechoslovakia, giving them protected status as essential workers and preventing their deportation to death camps, a group known as Schindlerjuden or "Schindler's Jews". He used his personal fortune to bribe Nazi officials and provide for his workers, ultimately saving them from the genocide.
So the bombing of Auschwitz was not a practical proposal in the eyes of British air commanders, because, firstly, the RAF had to concentrate their forces on bombing the military and industrial installations, which were vital for the German war economy, and, secondly, he said that their experience showed that a sporadic ...
BONN, July 31—Only one marriage took place at the Auschwitz concentration camp, where the Nazis killed an estimated total of three million people during World War II, a Frankfurt assize court was told today.
Was Schindler's List actually filmed in Auschwitz?
To avoid filming inside the actual death camp, the film crew constructed a replica of a portion of the camp just outside the entrance of Birkenau. There were some antisemitic incidents. A woman who encountered Fiennes in his Nazi uniform told him: "The Germans were charming people.
The tattoo was the prisoner's camp entry number, sometimes with a special symbol added: some Jews had a triangle, and Romani had the letter "Z" (from German Zigeuner for "Gypsy").
The Museum does not grant permission for the production of feature films at the Memorial Site. The Museum grounds are located in the EPP20 no-fly zone. The Museum grants permission for aerial filming only in exceptional cases (e.g. TV footage or documentary films).
Visitors of the former Auschwitz death camp are forbidden to: ride any vehicles at the area of the camp. enter the camp with any pets (except for assistance and guide dogs after showing the training certificate and the current vaccination booklet)
