The currency in Poland is Zloty.

Admission to Auschwitz and Birkenau is free. They are open at 8am daily to the public, but closed on Good Friday and Christmas day.

Note: Closing times vary seasonally, restricted due to the limited hours of sunlight. If you visit in mid-winter, as we did, you'll find it closes at 3:30 pm. In summer it stays open until 7pm, but varies at other times of the year. A guided tour is recommended. Guides are specifically trained, and give an informative, factual and anecdotal, overview tour of the major points of interest for a nominal fee of around £2.

We also recommend you save enough time after the tour to walk around yourself and look through the barracks at both sites. Many of these at Auschwitz I have been converted to memorialise various nationalities that were persecuted here, as well as the incredible efforts of the Resistance Movement.

Auschwitz I has indoor facilities including a small café, toilets, left-luggage facilities and two bookshops. You may also purchase devotional candles, batteries, 35mm film and camcorder cassettes besides postcards and posters. Inside the Visitors Centre entry building there is also a cinema that screens a short documentary film several times a day in Polish, English, French, Russian, German and Italian. Check which time of day your language version is screened at the Information counter.

Birkenau has no indoor facilities, other than the remaining barracks and the watchtower over the train tracks. Don't miss the 360-degree view from the tower. Some of the remaining wooden barracks are open to the public. Of the original camp, only one row of barracks in the men's camp, and the women's' camp are now still standing. Allow at least an hour to fully walk around this extensive site. The background photo of this page shows snow on the ruins of one of the four gas chambers at Birkenau. Nazi soldiers hastily destroyed parts of the camp in an effort to hide evidence of their crimes, as the Russian forces advanced toward them in January 1945.

Please note that smoking is prohibited in the grounds of the two sites. Lighting devotional candles is restricted to non-wooden structures.

 

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