The National Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Kraków area. Visitors from around the world come here to honor the victims of the concentration camps and to better understand the terror of World War II. When visiting the City of Kings, it’s worth setting aside a few hours to tour the former camp. To book a tour, please contact the reception of H11 Aparthotel.
Auschwitz guided tours – key information
Admission to the Auschwitz Museum grounds is free. However, online reservation in advance is required. It’s a good idea to do this earlier, as the number of admission cards is limited. Visitors to the memorial site can choose from two options:
free self-guided tour
organized Auschwitz tour
To learn more about the camp’s history, we recommend a group visit to the museum with a licensed guide. In this case, depending on the selected tour type, it can last from 2.5 to 8 hours and take place over one or two days.
Reserve your visit on the official website of the State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau.
For H11 Aparthotel guests, we also offer to arrange such a tour. We organize:
admission tickets
a guide
transport directly from the Aparthotel
insurance
We invite you to contact the reception.
Memorial Site and Auschwitz Museum
Konzentrationslager Auschwitz was the largest German Nazi concentration camp and an extermination center for Jews. It was established on the outskirts of the city of Oświęcim. It consisted primarily of three main camps:
Auschwitz I – the oldest part, created in spring 1940
Auschwitz II (Birkenau) — the largest camp, completed in 1942. Main site of the extermination of Jews
Auschwitz III (Monowitz) – from October 1942
In addition, the complex included over 40 sub-camps.
In 1945, during camp evacuation, the SS tried to erase remaining evidence: they burned documents and blew up crematoria and gas chambers. Still, many original buildings and items remained.
By 1946, former prisoners helped begin preserving the memorial site. About a year later, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum opened officially.
Visiting Auschwitz
At the Auschwitz Memorial, facilities are on the former Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II–Birkenau grounds. The museum commemorates victims and raises general awareness. Key exhibitions: the main one on extermination history and prisoner living conditions, and the “national exhibitions” with deportees’ stories from various countries.
Exhibitions were designed to keep camp conditions as close to the original as possible. Visitors can see authentic barracks and watchtowers. Preserved ruins of the gas chambers and crematoria leave a lasting impact.
The only new large element at the former Birkenau grounds is the International Monument to Victims of the Camp, unveiled in 1967.
At the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, thousands of items are displayed: mainly personal belongings left by deportees—clothing, utensils, combs—helping visitors grasp suffering and death’s scale. There are also objects from prisoner life, showing harsh conditions and also evidence of resistance and mutual support among deportees.
Alfred Kantor’s diary
In April 2026, the Auschwitz Memorial Site added an original diary by Czech artist Alfred Kantor. It includes drawings and notes from the Theresienstadt ghetto, Auschwitz and Schwarzheide camps, plus authentic documents: a deportation order, the yellow star, letters, and photographs. The diary is a unique account of extermination and a prisoner’s experiences.
Even though only part of the camp drawings survived, combined with works made after the war, it provides an irreplaceable chance to view history through a camp prisoner’s eyes.
After conservation work, the diary will be added to the collection of artworks by prisoners and Survivors.
A place you must never forget
The museum and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation operating with it seek to preserve victims’ and events’ memory, guided by Henryk Appel’s words:
“There is only one thing worse than Auschwitz itself… namely, if the world were to forget that such a place existed."
Auschwitz tours often evoke many intense emotions in visitors—not because of macabre exhibits, but through an authentic presentation of a story that should never have happened. The remains of the former camps speak to humanity’s conscience like no other place. That’s why the museum in Oświęcim should be an essential stop on your visit to Kraków to remember the camp victims and understand the crimes of World War II.