AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU: (Oswiecm): Poland
37 miles (60 km) west of Krakow. Preserved as a museum and memorial.
Rick Steves: "While many camps were slave-labor camps, Auschwitz, the dreaded destination of Polish Jews such as those on Schindler's list, was built to exterminate. View the horrifying film shot by the Russians who liberated the camp in early 1945. In the museum, the simple yet emotionally powerful display of prisoners' shoes, hairbrushes, and suitcases puts lumps in even the most stoic throats. Allow plenty of time to wander and ponder. .... A second Auschwitz camp, Birkenau (also known as Auschwitz II), is about a mile away. This bleak ghost camp, an endless panorama of demolished barracks and looming watchtowers overlooking an ash-gray lake, is left as if no one after the war had the nerve to even enter the place. Today, pilgrims do. Auschwitz-Birkenau is just 90 minutes by train from Kraków..."
Auschwitz concentration camp - Wikipedia
Auschwitz - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau
Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp | Jewish Virtual Library
Auschwitz Photo Album
The History Place - Auschwitz Today
UPDATE [July 2014] Shabbat services being held in town.
UPDATE [July 2014] Memorial stones at Auschwitz.
page updated Apr 2014