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13 Best Concentration Camps & Holocaust Memorials to Visit in Europe

The Holocaust is a gruesome part of the world’s history, and there are many must-visit Holocaust sites across Europe that have been preserved with the goal of helping future generations learn from what occurred. The Holocaust was a mass genocide of Jews and other populations that lasted from 1933 to 1945. During the Holocaust, millions of Jews , Poles, political dissidents, and other marginalized groups were imprisoned and brutally murdered by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. While it is a difficult time in history to recall, it is imperative that we learn from the past, and visiting Holocaust sites is part of that. They offer us a chance to learn and confront ourselves with hard truths. I’ve spent more than a decade studying the Holocaust , traveling to visit sites like Auschwitz, Dachau, and the Anne Frank House multiple times. I can confidently say that visiting these historical sites will change the way you view the world. Below are some of the most well-preserved and educational Holocaust sites around Europe which are definitely worth your time to visit, including many of the best concentration camps to visit in Europe.

Best Concentration Camps to Visit In Europe

During the rise of the Nazi Third Reich , it is estimated that more than 40,000 concentration camps, death camps, labor camps, and transport camps were established. Many of these were smaller subcamps, and thus they disappeared once World War II came to an end. However, many larger camps were preserved for history and learning opportunities, and you can still visit them today. After visiting numerous concentration camps and other Holocaust sites, these are the best concentration camps to visit in Europe:

1. Auschwitz Birkenau Concentration Camp and Memorial (Poland)

Auschwitz Birkenau, located in Oświęcim, Poland , is one of the most-visited Holocaust sites in the world and is something you should not miss if you’re traveling to Krakow, Poland. It remains at the top of this list because seeing Auschwitz is an incredible learning experience. I’ve visited personally three times, and I learn something new each time I am there. The grounds of Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau are well-preserved, making it one of the best concentration camps to visit. Auschwitz, the largest Nazi Concentration Camp, was in operation from 1940-1945. It is widely known as the largest death or extermination camp , and, out of the 1.3 million prisoners who walked through its gates, only about 200,000 survived. During a visit, you’ll be able to tour both camp locations (Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau) and see numerous permanent museum exhibitions, barracks, gas chambers, crematoriums, and guardhouses. For everything you need to know about planning a visit to Auschwitz, read How to Best Visit Auschwitz. Visit Auschwitz From: Krakow, Poland For tickets and additional visiting information : Auschwitz Birkenau Museum and Memorial

Travel Tip: The easiest town to visit Auschwitz Birkenau from is Krakow, Poland . Since it’s located more than an hour outside the city, book a guided tour to travel easily to the camp site.

2. Dachau: The Best Concentration Camp to Visit in Germany

Dachau, located just outside Munich, Germany , was the first “model” concentration camp for all others. It is the best concentration to camp to visit in Germany, and it is also incredibly easy to reach. The Bavarian government keeps up with restoration projects around the camp complex, preserving the site as an important piece of German history so that others can remember and learn from it. Prisoners first entered Dachau in 1933. Originally created for political prisoners, Dachau was never officially classified as a death camp. Meaning, the showers, gas chambers, and crematorium you’ll see here were never used for mass-scale incineration. The grounds of Dachau are extensive , and there is so much more to learn than is depicted on the plaques around the camp enclosure. Because of this, I highly recommend you take a guided tour of Dachau . They are affordable and will add so much value and knowledge to your trip. Visit Dachau From: Munich, Germany For tickets and additional visiting information : Visit the Dachau State Museum Website .

3. Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp (Germany)

Another one of the best concentration camps to visit in Germany, Sachsenhausen, is located just outside of Berlin and still welcomes visitors today. The camp site has been divided into thirteen exhibitions, all situated in buildings and specific portions of the camp. Separate areas exist for information regarding Sachsenhausen’s SS staff and their duties, Jewish prisoners, medical experiments, and many others. You’ll also find information on a nearby satellite camp, Oranienburg. While you can reach Sachsenhausen via public transportation, it is about 45 minutes from Berlin. I recommend booking a tour from the city center in order to save time and guarantee yourself a guide in the camp. Visit Sachsenhausen From: Berlin, Germany For tickets and additional visiting information : Gedenkstätte und Museum Sachsenhausen

4. Majdanek Extermination Camp (Poland)

In Lublin, Poland, lie the remains of the Majdanek, now a concentration camp memorial. Majdanek is far less visited than the other larger camps like Dachau and Auschwitz, but it has made the list of must-visit Holocaust sites because of how much of the area has been preserved. It is definitely one of the best-preserved extermination camps , making it a must-visit Holocaust site in Europe. Most of the original buildings still stand, including long stretches of barbed wire dotted with guard houses. Rows of barracks stretch far into the distance, helping visitors understand the grotesque, unending feeling of being imprisoned here. In Majdanek, you can visit gas chambers, a bathhouse, many barracks, monuments, and a visitor’s center museum. In addition, the Mausoleum is an immense tribute that stands to commemorate the lives lost at Majdanek, beneath which lies ashes from those cremated in the camp. Majdanek looks eerily similar to the way it did when it was in operation, making it a concentration camp worth your time to visit. Visit Majdanek From: Lublin or Warsaw, Poland For tickets and additional visiting information : Majdanek Museum Website

5. Theresienstadt- Terezin (Czechia)

Terezin, known also as Theresienstadt , is a former transport concentration camp outside of Prague in the Czech Republic. The grounds of the concentration camp were largely set up inside the Terezin Fortress, a walled defense building laid out in the shape of a star. The Nazis used Terezin as a ghetto and a tool for their propaganda machine. Famously, this was the concentration camp that received visitors from the Red Cross. Beautification projects were done and a film crew was brought in…all to prove to the world that concentration camps and the Nazi regime weren’t all that bad . Even today, the film footage from Terezin is haunting. On a visit to Theresienstadt, you can walk through numerous original camp buildings. Places like showers, an execution yard, and bunks have been preserved and stand almost as they were then. Many significant works of art came out of Theresienstadt . In fact, the largest collection of children’s artwork from the Holocaust has been preserved from Terezin. Make sure you view the separate museum and the Magdeburg Barracks, where this artwork from Terezin inmates is still displayed. As far as notoriety goes, this camp is often overlooked, which is a shame. A visit here has so much unique history to share with visitors. Visit Terezin From: Prague, Czech Republic For tickets and additional visiting information : Terezin Memorial Website

Other Holocaust Sites to Visit in Europe

There are so many other Holocaust Sites to visit in Europe other than just the grounds of former concentration camp memorials. Visits to memorials, hiding places, or burial grounds offer just as much knowledge and insight into the Shoah from a different perspective.

6. Anne Frank House (The Netherlands)

Anne Frank is perhaps the most well-known voice from the Holocaust. Over a million people visit her house in central Amsterdam each year. During World War II, Anne Frank and her family went into hiding with four other people. They lived in the Secret Annex above her father’s warehouse for more than two years until they were betrayed- by whom, no one knows. The family was deported to various Nazi concentration camps, and Anne’s father, Otto Frank, was the only member of the Frank family who survived. After liberation, Otto Frank returned home to Amsterdam where a family friend, Miep Gies, gave him what had been left of Anne’s diary when the family was deported. Otto Frank eventually published Anne’s diary under the name The Diary of a Young Girl . Ultimately, he decided to clear out the Secret Annex and open it as a museum, hoping to encourage young people to fight against injustice. Without a doubt, this is one of the top must-visit Holocaust sites in the world. Walking through the Secret Annex is a surreal experience. I’ve visited many times, and, still, I can’t help but be in awe of the strength and courage that Anne and her family had. Make sure to get tickets early, as they release on the second Tuesday of each month and always sell out! Visit the Anne Frank Huis From: Amsterdam, the Netherlands For tickets and additional visiting information : Anne Frank House

7. Ponar Forest (Lithuania)

Although a lesser-known Holocaust site, Ponary (also known as Ponar or the Paneriai Memorial Park) is incredibly important and moving and well worth visiting. Until recently, Ponar was just a forest outside of Vilnius, Lithuania. Over the past several years, researchers have dug deeper into the history surrounding the forest and have unearthed (literally) artifacts and remnants of what happened there. The Ponar Forest is a mass execution grave site. Here, an estimated 100,000 Jews and other prisoners were lined up on the edge of a ravine in the forest and brutally murdered, shot to death. However, it was recently discovered that some prisoners in Ponar found a way to escape . A hand-dug tunnel was excavated in Ponar in 2016. This tunnel began in the holding pit of Ponar and allowed 12 of the Jewish leichencommando unit to escape into the forest. A visit to Vilnius (Vilna) would not be complete without paying your respects to those murdered in Ponar Forest. Visit Ponary From: Vilna, Lithuania For tickets and additional visiting information : There is no official museum, but take a guided tour of the Paneriai Memorial Park and Memorials as well as other Lithuanian sites.

8. Schindler’s Enamelware Factory (Poland)

Oskar Schindler is one of the most well-known rescuers from Holocaust history, thanks, in part, to the fame of the movie Schindler’s List . Schindler, a Nazi officer, ran a factory in Poland where he worked to save Jews from deportation and death by giving them legitimate jobs and working papers. You were lucky if your name was found on Schindler’s List. In all, Oskar Schindler saved the lives of about 1,200 Jews. He has been designated as Righteous Among the Nations , a title reserved for those who actively worked to save Jewish individuals during the Holocaust. In Krakow, the building where Schindler’s Enamelware Factory was housed still stands. It has since been converted into a museum that covers Polish resistance and the story of Oskar Schindler. This museum is a must-visit Holocaust site to tour if you are in Krakow, Poland. Visit Schindler’s Factory From: Krakow, Poland For tickets and additional visiting information : Museum of Krakow Website

9. Warsaw Ghetto (Poland)

The Warsaw Ghetto was the walled-in section of Warsaw, Poland, where Jews were forced to live during the Holocaust. Throughout World War II, about 375,000 Jews lived within the confines of the ghetto and were starved, shunned, and murdered. The conditions within the ghetto were notoriously difficult, and residents were not permitted to leave without special papers or directions. One of the most popular resistance efforts, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising , occurred here, where a group of Jews led by Mordechai Anielewicz fought back against their oppressors. Today, not much of the Warsaw Ghetto and its walls remain . After the uprising, Nazis destroyed the ghetto. However, you can still walk the Warsaw Ghetto Trail . This trail takes visitors past monuments and locations throughout the city of Warsaw that are pivotal to the Jewish community’s history. As well, you can still see some fragments of the Warsaw Ghetto wall during this tour. Because the fragments of the ghetto can be difficult to locate, I recommend you take a tour of the Warsaw Ghetto which will guide you past the ghetto wall, surviving streets of the ghetto, the place where the bridge connecting the ghetto was, and the memorials. Visit the Warsaw Ghetto From: Warsaw, Poland For tickets and additional visiting information : Take a tour around the ghetto ruins

Must-Visit European Memorials to Victims of the Holocaust

All around the world, memorials commemorate and remember the lives of those who were victims of the Holocaust. In Europe, many of these memorials are popular. Visit a few European Holocaust Memorials and spend some time paying your respects.

10. Shoes on the Danube Promenade (Budapest, Hungary)

For some reason, the Shoes on the Danube Promenade is one of the most moving memorials I have visited. Located on the banks of the Danube River in Budapest, Hungary, these haunting shoes tell the story of those murdered by the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party. In Budapest, Jews were rounded up and made to stand along the waters of the river. They were told to take off their shoes and were shot, brutally, into the Danube, where their bodies were lost to the waters. These iron shoes are all different, representing the unique identity of each person . and rest on the banks right where this horrific event happened years ago. Visit the Shoes on the Danube Promenade From: Budapest, Hungary For tickets and additional visiting information : Budapest City Website

11. Berlin Holocaust Memorial (Germany)

The Berlin Holocaust Memorial, also known as The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, is Berlin’s tribute to the Jews murdered in the Holocaust. This is perhaps the most unique memorial to Holocaust victims in Europe, simply because of its artistic design. The Berlin Holocaust Memorial is made up of more than 2,500 concrete slabs that stand upright at different heights. Through the slabs run cobblestone pathways that allow visitors to weave their way through the site with no particular direction. What visitors will quickly notice is that there are no names, dates, or symbols on any of these markers. The artist who designed The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe wanted visitors to understand the vast, nameless, unending feeling that Jews may have encountered during the Holocaust. What many don’t know is that there is a visitor’s center beneath the memorial. This museum tells the stories of those murdered and helps visitors remember that each person lost in the Holocaust was a unique person. Visit The Berlin Holocaust Memorial From: Berlin, Germany For tickets and additional visiting information : Berlin City Website

Best Holocaust Museums To Visit

Along with memorials and Holocaust sites, visiting Holocaust Museums is also worthwhile. While there are many must-visit Holocaust Museums throughout the world, I’ve listed the two foremost below. Both are enormously informative and have multiple exhibitions, projects, and educational initiatives happening all the time.

12. Yad Vashem (Israel)

Yad Vashem, which stands on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem, is Israel’s tribute and memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. This museum aims to preserve survivor testimony and collect artifacts and stands firm in its belief that everyone remembers and learns from the Holocaust . Yad Vashem is open to visitors. Most who come to the site head to the Holocaust History Museum, the largest part of the museum. However, the Museum of Holocaust Art, rotating temporary exhibits, and synagogue are also open to the public. One of the things you don’t want to miss at Yad Vashem is the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations. Non-Jewish Holocaust rescuers are honored here. You can search for the trees or inscriptions that honor people like Oskar Schindler and thousands of other rescuers during the Holocaust. Visit Yad Vashem From: Jerusalem, Israel For tickets and additional visiting information : Yad Vashem Website

13. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington, DC, United States)

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is widely known as the foremost Holocaust museum in the world, aside from Yad Vashem. Nestled in the museum district of Washington, D.C., this exhibition stands as both a museum and a memorial to those murdered during the Holocaust. The four-floor, winding, permanent exhibition draws visitors into a chronological timeline of the events and facts surrounding the Holocaust. Thousands of artifacts tell the stories of prisoners, and first-hand survivor accounts really add a unique touch to the museum overall. In addition, rotating temporary exhibitions and educational series offer insight into varying topics such as the idea of neighbors during the Holocaust and what part Americans played in the Holocaust. During a visit, you can even meet Holocaust survivors, as many volunteer at the “Survivor’s Desk” in the museum atrium. The USHMM is free to visit, but you do have to reserve tickets in advance. Tickets often sell out, so be sure to grab them well ahead of time here! Visit The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum From: Washington, D.C. For tickets and additional visiting information : USHMM Website

FAQ: Must-Visit Holocaust Sites in Europe

Here are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions I get in relation to Holocaust sites in Europe:

Which Concentration Camp is Best to Visit?

Auschwitz is the best concentration camp to visit in Europe and is the first concentration camp you should visit if you’re looking to learn about the Holocaust. The exhibition portions are incredibly informative, and there are so many different displays to view. Here, you’ll be able to learn a lot of background knowledge about the Holocaust in addition to learning about the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz. A visit to Auschwitz puts the Holocaust into perspective, and, just by sheer size, you’ll be stunned.

What is the best concentration camp to visit in Germany?

If you are only going to visit one concentration camp in Germany, visit Dachau. It is well-preserved, easy to get to, and is unique. It is a good entry point into learning about the Holocaust.

Why you should visit a concentration camp?

Visiting a concentration camp is a way to learn from the horrors of the Holocaust; there is nothing quite as impactful as hearing stories from history as you’re walking the grounds of a concentration camp. While visiting a concentration camp is undoubtedly difficult, it is also a sobering and moving experience that is worthwhile.

Tips For Visiting Concentration Camps in Europe

Visiting a Nazi concentration camp is difficult, and it can be somewhat scary. There are a lot of unknowns, and it is a strange experience. Below are a few tips to help you best prepare for a visit to a concentration camp.

Should You Take Children to Visit a Concentration Camp?

Most concentration camps recommend that visitors under the age of 12 not attend. However, you are the parent. I would caution bringing young children. As an educator and someone who has studied the Holocaust deeply, I can confidently say that it can be difficult for children, and even adolescents, to understand the complexities of the Holocaust. If you choose to bring your children to a concentration camp, preview what you’ll see ahead of time and educate yourself on what happened. Give your children context before you show up, and perhaps avoid certain areas of the camps that may be triggering, such as the crematorium.

Dress for the Weather

Most concentration camps are almost entirely exposed to the elements. The majority of your tour will take place outside, regardless of what area or camp you are visiting. Make sure to dress for the weather in Europe ! You don’t want to miss important information because you’re too cold or hot!

Be Aware of How Emotionally Taxing Holocaust Sites Can Be

When you visit a Holocaust site, nothing, and I mean NOTHING, is sugar-coated. You will view graphic images, you will read heartbreaking stories, and you will see things you can’t unsee. This can be incredibly devastating and emotionally taxing. Don’t be afraid to cut your visit short if you become overwhelmed, and make sure to have open time for conversation and reflection following your visit.

Take Guided Tours

Almost all concentration camp grounds are free to enter. However, in visiting many of them, I’ve found that going on guided tours is the best way to learn. With a guided tour, you have the benefit of having a personal guide dedicated just to your group. You get commentary others don’t, and you can ask questions. While signposts and other informational things around the camps are generally very helpful, I’ve found that you get much more information if you participate in guided tours.

Conclusion: Must-Visit Holocaust Sites in Europe

The history of World War II and the Holocaust cannot be forgotten. One of the best ways to study history and learn is by walking in the places where this history happened. Although visiting a Holocaust historical site is a difficult, emotional experience, it is important that we keep visiting them. There are hundreds of Holocaust sites around the world, but these are some of the top places to visit where you can learn a lot and still find preserved memories and tributes.

↳ Read Other Helpful Holocaust Travel Content Below!

✔ These are the Top Holocaust Sites to Visit Around the World! ✔ Traveling Around Europe? Don’t Miss these Holocaust Tours ✔ Full Guide to Visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp or Dachau Concentration Camp ✔ Here are the Best Auschwitz Tours to Take From Krakow! ✔ Everything You Need to Know About Visiting the Anne Frank House ✔ Make sure you have the best travel items for a trip abroad!

Taylor Beal, owner and author of Traverse With Taylor, has been traveling in Europe for more than a decade and helps others explore Europe easily through amazing guides and itineraries. She has adventured through more than 20 countries, searching for the best experiences, must-try foods, and delicious beers! She spends a lot of time in Scotland and Amsterdam, two of her favorite places! Taylor is also a Holocaust educator focused on raising awareness around WWII historical sites.

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The History Hit Miscellany of Facts, Figures and Fascinating Finds

15 Holocaust Sites, Museums and Memorials to Visit

Explore the harrowing events and effects of the holocaust through these important sites, museums and memorials around the world..

Harry Sherrin

21 sep 2021.

Between 1942 and 1945, the Nazis embarked upon the so-called ‘Final Solution to the Jewish Question’, a systematic program of extermination. In concentration camps across Europe, 6 million Jewish people were killed – around 78% of all Jews in occupied Europe.

The Holocaust was the most widespread and industrialised act of genocide the world has ever seen.

Today, that devastating moment in modern history is remembered in sites, museums and memorials across the globe. Here are 15 of the most significant, where visitors can learn more about the history of the Holocaust.

1. Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem in Jerusalem is a museum and a memorial of the Holocaust, in which over six million Jews, and at least five million from other ethnic groups, were murdered in an act of genocide perpetrated by the German National Socialist Party under Adolph Hitler .

Through exhibits including photographs, victims’ accounts, art installations and information panels, Yad Vashem offers a moving – and harrowing – account of the events of the Holocaust.

2. Anne Frank’s House

Anne Frank’s house was the site where German Jewish teenager and Holocaust victim Anne Frank , her family, the van Pels family and later a man called Fritz Pfeffer went into hiding from the Nazis during World War II. Tragically, the group’s whereabouts were betrayed to the Nazis and they were arrested and imprisoned in concentration camps. Anne Frank died in Bergen-Belsen in March 1945, but her diary was later discovered by her father and published to worldwide acclaim.

Anne Frank’s House is now a museum allowing visitors to see the moving bookcase, walk through the cramped secret annex and gain a true appreciation of the hardship this group endured in their fight for survival. The museum has collected and exhibits many original letters, photos and objects belonging to the Frank family as well as to the van Pels and Fritz Pfeffer. Anne Frank’s original diary is also on display.

3. United States Holocaust Museum

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC is dedicated to commemorating the Holocaust. Combining eyewitness testimony, displayed in films and documents, with over 900 artefacts including one of the railcars used to transport prisoners, the Holocaust Museum tells the story of this world event.

The museum also looks at the issue of genocide as a whole, displaying exhibitions about other atrocities around the world. On average, a tour of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum takes between 2 and 3 hours.

4. Auschwitz Concentration Camp

Auschwitz Birkenau was a concentration camp founded by the Nazis near the town of Oświęcim or ‘Auschwitz’ in Poland . It became the largest and most infamous camp of them all, central to Hitler’s campaign to exterminate the Jews. By the time Auschwitz was liberated by Soviet forces on 27 January 1945, the camp had claimed 1.3 million lives, the vast majority of whom were Jewish.

Auschwitz Museum is based at the original concentration camp site and offers visitors the chance to pass through the camp’s infamous arches bearing the chilling slogan of “Arbeit macht frei” or “Work will set you free”. Inside, visitors can tour Auschwitz Birkenau individually or in group tours.

5. The Holocaust Memorial - Berlin

The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin is an installation commemorating the genocide of the Jewish people perpetrated under Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. The Memorial is a monument to the six million European Jews who died in the Holocaust.

Made up of a vast dark granite maze and a subterranean information centre which has details about the victims, the memorial is a moving site.

6. Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp was used by the Nazis between 1936 and 1945. Its primary function was for the imprisonment and execution – or extermination – of Jews and political dissidents, including many Dutch freedom fighters, Russian prisoners of war and even some political leaders from invaded countries.

Estimates put the number of Sachsenhausen casualties at between 30,000 and 35,000, many of whom were shot, hung or exterminated in a specially built room in its infirmary. Much of Sachsenhausen was destroyed during and after its liberation by Soviet and Polish troops on 22 April 1945, but was rebuilt as part of the project to turn it into a memorial and museum.

7. Warsaw Ghetto

The Warsaw Ghetto was established by the Nazis to forcibly house the city’s Jewish population, with up to 400,000 people confined here from October 1940. In 1943, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising took place, a dramatic rebellion which occurred when the Nazis attempted to liquidate the ghetto and one which saw it razed to the ground.

Very little of the Warsaw Ghetto survives today. There are fragments of the original ghetto wall and several memorials including the Mila 18 monument where the uprising headquarters were located and an inscription where insurgent leader Mordechaj Anielewicz and the last of the uprising fighters perished. There is also the Warsaw Ghetto Fighters Monument and a monument at Umschlagplatz , the site from where Jews were transported to the death camps .

8. Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz

The Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz was the site of the infamous Wannsee Conference in which the Nazis planned how to carry out the “Final Solution”, the plan to murder the Jewish population of Eastern Europe.

Today, the site provides a moving memorial to the Holocaust as well as an in-depth history of the rise of the Nazi party, the growth of anti-Semitism and the atrocities committed against the Jews.

9. Dachau Concentration Camp

Dachau Concentration Camp was one of the first of many concentration camps set up by the Nazis to imprison and murder certain groups as part of their campaign of genocide.

Today, Dachau houses a memorial to those who suffered and perished under the Nazis. Visitors can tour the grounds and the remains of the camp and audio guides are available as are guided tours. There are several exhibitions detailing the history of the camp as well as a documentary shown at various times.

10. Jewish Museum - Berlin

The Jewish Museum in Berlin in Germany chronicles the history of German Jews over the course of two millennia. Housed in an incredibly modern building, the Berlin Jewish Museum displays historical objects, documents, photographs, multimedia presentations and even computer games relating to different periods of Jewish history and culture.

The exhibitions are arranged chronologically and cover various themes such as the living conditions of German Jews over the centuries, the role of Jewish women, tradition and change and the meaning of emancipation. The museum also looks at the issue of persecution, in particular during the Nazi era and the Holocaust, offering an insight into both the overall historical context and the lives of individual victims of the atrocities.

11. Theresienstadt Concentration Camp

Theresienstadt Concentration Camp in Terezin in the Czech Republic was a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust. Theresienstadt was originally an 18th-century stronghold known as Terezin Fortress. It was taken over during the Nazi occupation of the then Czechoslovakia in World War Two. Some 30,000 prisoners died at the camp, despite Nazi attempts to portray it as a humane institution.

Today, Theresienstadt Concentration Camp is open to the public and includes a museum as well as the possibility of visiting the former ghetto.

12. Krakow Ghetto Wall

Krakow Ghetto Wall is a stark reminder of the Krakow Ghetto, established by German Nazi forces in March 1941 as part of their campaign to persecute the Jews. Much of the Jewish population had already been conscripted to carry out forced labour since 1939, when the Nazis occupied Poland. In 1942, Krakow Ghetto was closed and all of its inhabitants were sent to concentration camps.

Some inhabitants of Krakow Ghetto were saved during the War by Oskar Schindler, whose famous Schindler’s List was made into a film by Hollywood director, Stephen Spielberg. Now, the Ghetto Wall, flanked by a former ghetto home, is the last remaining wall of those which once bordered Krakow Ghetto. The Ghetto Wall bears a plaque commemorating Krakow Ghetto.

13. Mauthausen Concentration Camp

Mauthausen Concentration Camp or ’KZ Mauthausen’ was a vast Nazi concentration camp in northern Austria. First established in 1938, Mauthausen Concentration Camp was built through the slave labour of prisoners from another such camp, Dachau. Over 119,000 of the almost 200,000 prisoners at Mauthausen Concentration Camp had died there by the time it was liberated by American forces on 5 May 1945.

Today, Mauthausen Concentration Camp is open to the public, who can see the original camp and the terrible conditions to which prisoners were subjected. There is a visitor centre and many memorials to the different national, ethnic and religious groups who suffered at Mauthausen.

14. Burgkloster

The Burgkloster (Castle Monastery) in Lubeck is considered to be one of the most important medieval monasteries in Germany. Established in 1229, the Burgkloster served as a monastery until the Protestant Reformation, after which it was used as a poorhouse until the 19th century. Under the Third Reich, the Burgkloster was used as a Nazi prison, bearing witness to terrible atrocities, particularly against Jews and those who formed the resistance movement.

Today, the Burgkloster is a museum of Lubeck’s history. Visitors can tour the building as well as viewing exhibits on the history of Lubeck’s Jewish community and about Lubeck’s time as an important member of the Hanseatic League. This was a medieval trade block which controlled much of the North Sea and Baltic Sea.

15. Tolerence Center

The Tolerence Center is one branch of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum. A permanent exhibit operates at the Tolerance Center featuring the historical cultural and artistic heritage of the Litvaks, the Jewish community in Lithuania.

The displays include unique relics of the Great Synagogue of Vilnius and Jewish folk and professional art. The non-permanent exhibits, thematic events and projects are oriented toward themes including the cultural education of society, social dissemination of culture, unique cultural heritage and fundamental human rights.

Famous Holocaust Sites You can Visit Around The World

In this guide, we provide you with information on some of the most well-known sites of the Holocaust which you can visit today including:

• Auschwitz 1,2 and 3
• Anne Frank’s House

The Holocaust Memorial Berlin

• Schindler’s Factory

Warsaw Ghetto

The Holocaust is one of the most unfathomable events in human history. Many say that it can never truly be appreciated or understood until you see some of these sites for yourself. It is also important to further educate yourself on the atrocious which were allowed to happen during this time, and what better way to visit the places where they took place.

Probably the most famous site is Auschwitz near Krakow, Poland . Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration camps and multiple extermination camps; this may come as a surprise as many believe Auschwitz to be a singular camp.

In reality, “Auschwitz” was split into Auschwitz I, which was the building mainly holding political prisoners, and Auschwitz-Birkenau, which was a combination of a concentration camp and an extermination camp which held predominantly Jews, as well as homosexuals and gypsies.

A visit to Auschwitz can put things into perceptive. The sheer scale of the camp will act as a reminder as to how real and how terrible the Holocaust was. The long train track upon arrival and the outline of the building can bring on shivers. You can go on guided tours of Auschwitz, which are both harrowing and informative.

If you do decide to go with an organised tour, you will have with you an expert guide or survivor, all the information and personal uncovered stories you need to further your understanding of the atrocities that took place there – along with transport between the different parts of the camp as they are actually relatively far away from each other.

Parts of Auschwitz, such as a number of the infamous gas chambers, were destroyed by the Nazis upon learning they had lost the war. Other parts remain intact, such as the dormitories known as barracks and the wooden shelves where people slept and thousands of prisoners were held in small spaces. Other features include the clock towers, the trains, train track and prison cells.

Auschwitz is notorious for the long train track that leads into the site:

At Auschwitz Majdanek, a separate site, much less has been destroyed and supposedly, it can be functioning and operating ‘within a day.’ Visitors can see gas chambers, barracks, crematoriums and a huge mountain of ashes – all located within suburban Kravow (the site is overlooking flats and residential homes).

Auschwitz also features exhibitions which honour famous Jewish people as well as ones which display the actual inmate’s possessions, hair and millions of shoes – there is even a cabinet dedicated to prosthetic limbs taken from prisoners upon arrival in the camp.

Anne Frank’s House

In the heart of Amsterdam, Holland is Anne Frank’s house and her family lived in hiding during World War II to avoid persecution. Living with them there was a family called the van Pels and later, a man called Fritz Pfeffer joined the two families.

Anne Frank is famous for keeping a diary during her time in hiding, documenting her thoughts and feelings, which were at times surprisingly and endearingly optimistic.

Tragically, the group’s whereabouts were told to the Nazis and this betrayal resulted in their transfer to concentration camps. This sort of betrayal was very common in Nazi-occupied areas and unfortunately led to the death of so many Jews and other persecuted groups. Anne died in Belsen in 1945, just days after she found her sister Margo had died of disease, but her diary was discovered and published by her father, Otto, who survived the Holocaust.

Her house is now a museum which is hugely popular. Visitors are able to see the moving bookcase which they lived behind, walk through the cramped secret annex and see the conditions they lived in simply to survive. The museum has collected various objects and photographs which belonged to the Frank and van Pels family and the original of Anne Frank’s diary is on display to see.

The Holocaust Memorial, also known as the Memorial to the Murdered Jews, situated in Berlin is dedicated to commemorating the genocide of the Jewish people as directed by the Nazi Party.

It is presented with thousands of concrete slabs, over 6 feet high and positioned like dominos at different levels, to give perspective, turbulence and uncertainty. It is a place of contemplation, remembrance and also warning.

Schindler’s Factory

You can visit the site of Oskar Schindler’s factory where he employed Jews, offering them protection from the Nazi Party’s hunt. Schindler was a German Businessman living in Krakow, Poland.

This was not a hiding situation, the Nazis actually knew that he was employing Jews, but he had a good relationship with the SS and claimed he needed them because they cost less and their labour was “necessary for the German war effort”. As a result, thousands upon thousands of Jews which worked in his factory avoided being transported to extermination camps.

His former-factory has been turned into a museum open to the public. The museum is dedicated to educating people on the wartime experiences in Krakow under the five-year Nazi occupation during World War II.

In addition, parts of the museum are dedicated to Schindler and the workers he housed. The rest of the museum shows pre-war Krakow, the turn of the German invasion in 1939, Krakow under Nazi occupation. It also details everyday life of locals, family life as well as the resistance movement and it ends with the Soviet capture of the city.

In the Holy Land of Jerusalem, you will find Yad Vashem which translates to ‘the hand of God.’ It is a huge and very impressive museum which is a living tribute and memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, who did not receive a burial.

Yad Vashem aims to keep the conversation going. The exhibits feature photographic accounts written and spoken by victims, remains from survivors, art installations and information panels.

There is a side dedicated to children of the Holocaust which is complete darkness – highlighting that as children, we do not see things clearly.

The site is modern and shows very impressive architecture and creativity. There is also a very historical aspect to the centre, which is highly educational.

Warsaw in Poland was home to the largest and deadliest Nazi-cultivated Ghettos in Europe. Ghettos were segregated areas where Jewish people were forced to live when under Nazi occupation.  At its highest capacity, the Warsaw Ghetto housed an estimated 380,000 people, which works out to about 8 people per room.

Today, you can visit the site which is commemorated by “The Footbridge of Memory”, which was the bridge which linked the two smaller Ghettos together at the time.

Pictures of the victims are displayed on the buildings for you to see as you walk down the streets.

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Next post holocaust films based on true stories, about holocaust matters.

Holocaust Matters is an interactive educational tool for anyone interested in the Holocaust including schools and those with a professional or personal research interest. It is run by the family of Holocaust survivor Dr Ernst Israel Bornstein to showcase excerpts of his memoir ‘The Long Night’ which tells of his miraculous survival from seven Nazi labour and death camps during World War II.

Users can explore and learn from the historical topics and universal themes within the book.

As well as being a historical source Ernst’s survival story has thrown up sensational new perspectives on the Holocaust and how history is remembered or forgotten to this day.

Without the words as his legacy his story would be lost.

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Markstädt camp

Fünfteichen camp, gross rosen camp.

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Although Ernst was never an inmate at the notorious Auschwitz camp he relays his fear of being sent there. His parents and two younger sisters perished at Auschwitz. The camp’s deadly reputation was well-known amongst inmates of other camps. Nearly one million Jews were murdered at Auschwitz along with tens of thousands of Poles, Roma and people of other nationalities.

Find out more

Zawiercie in southern Poland, was Ernst Bornstein’s hometown. On the eve of the WWII there were 7,000 Jews in Zawiercie – about a quarter of its residents. They made their living primarily from trade, crafts, the clothing industry and the metal industry. The city had a traditional “cheder” (religious primary school), a Talmud Torah, and a school and kindergarten.

Grünheide forced labour camp

Ernst was dragged from his family home on 25th March 1941 and sent to Grünheide camp in modern-day Sieroniowice, Poland. Nothing is thought to remain of the camp apart from a hidden memorial.

Markstädt was one of the largest Schmelt forced labor camps for Jews. Located 22 kilometers southeast of Wrocław (Breslau), it was established for Alfried Krupp’s artillery factory the “Bertha-Werk”.

Fünfteichen was the largest subcamp in the Gross Rosen system. Most of the prisoners worked for the Krupp Factory, manufacturing 75mm and 150mm cannons as well as torpedo launchers. Prisoner beatings by SS men were a daily occurrence. Many prisoners could not stand the conditions prevailing in camp and committed suicide.

Gross Rosen concentration camp was located in modern-day Rogoznica in Poland. At its peak activity in 1944, the Gross Rosen complex had up to 100 subcamps located in eastern Germany, Czechoslovakia, and on the territory of occupied Poland. The population of all Gross Rosen camps at that time accounted for 11% of the total number of inmates incarcerated in the Nazi concentration camp system. There is now a museum on the site.

Flossenbürg Camp

Flossenbürg was a Nazi German concentration camp built in May 1938. Until its liberation in April 1945, more than 96,000 prisoners passed through the camp, around 30,000 of whom died there.

Leonberg Camp

From spring 1944 to April 1945 there was an outpost of the Natzweiler concentration camp run by the “SS” in Leonberg. Prisoners from 24 European countries, mainly from Poland, the USSR, France, Hungary, the Balkans and Germany were held captive in the shacks working almost exclusively for the Messerschmitt AG company making wings for the ME 262 jetfighter.

In mid-1944, the SS established the Mühldorf camp complex in Bavaria as a satellite system of the Dachau concentration camp to provide labour for an underground installation for the production of the Me-262 jet fighter.

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• The Holocaust

Poland and the Nazi Death Camps

Experience Tours General History Tours Holocaust Tours

26th June - 3rd July 2024 (8 Days)

Expert Historian : Professor Alexander Korb

Tour price: £2,800

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Your Holiday Essentials

26th June - 3rd July 2024 (8 Days)

4-star hotels, meals as indicated,

drinks with dinner, all entrance

fees, tour manager and expert

historian throughout, all internal

travel, optional travel from UK.

Activity Level : 2

Standard price: £2,550

Incl. travel from UK: £2,800 Room sole occupancy supplement: £315 Non-refundable deposit: £275

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28th August - 4th September 2024 (8 Days)

Expert Historian : Dr Isabel Wollaston

Use the button below to be put on the waiting list

2nd - 9th October 2024 (8 Days)

Expert Historian : Martin Winstone

Tour Introduction

In this 8-day tour to Poland, we visit the sites of the former ghettos in Warsaw, Lublin and Krakow alongside four of the concentration and death camps - Treblinka, Majdanek, Belzec and Auschwitz-Birkenau - that played such a significant role in this genocide. We look at the struggle of both the Jews and the Poles against their oppressors,visiting the scenes of Ghetto Uprising in 1943 and the memorial to the Warsaw Rising in 1944. You will see the shift from complete physical destruction of ghetto and camp to the actual remnants due to the rapid advance of the Soviets. However, the tour is not limited to the serious and emotive history of the Holocaust, with its clear message for future generations. We also enjoy expert guided tours of the historic cities of Warsaw and Krakow. We sample much of the local culture and visit the world famous salt mine at Wieliczka. Each evening we will dine in a different local restaurant to enjoy a wealth of diverse local cuisine. The topography of the sites we visit involves a fair amount of walking: at Auschwitz/Birkenau you will cover almost 8 miles over the course of the day, but that is necessary to achieve a full appreciation of the subject.

Read reviews of this tour by past travellers

Under Communism, in Poland it was traditional to refer to ‘six million Poles murdered during World War II, a figure that referred to 3 million ethnic Poles and 3 million Polish Jews. Those Polish Jews were murdered in ghettos, forests in the east of the country, or purpose-built death camps set up after the German occupation of Poland. By far the largest of these was Auschwitz-Birkenau, which was the site of over one million deaths, mainly Jews brought here from all over Europe. The smaller, purpose built 'killing' camp of Treblinka, where Warsaw's Jews were taken, was said by its commandant SS-Obersturmfuhrer Franz Stangl to be able to murder over 1000 people per hour at its peak. With the positioning of the Majdanek camp on the outskirts of Lublin, the Germans made no effort to disguise the killings, its gas chambers and crematorium being plainly visible to passers-by. The overarching narrative of the tour is about the shift from Polish Jews to European Jews and the evolution of policy from concentration camps to death camps.

• With  Dr Isabel Wollaston , Prof Alexander Korb or Martin Winstone
• See parts of ghetto walls in Warsaw
• The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
• Treblinka memorial and museum
• The multi-purpose prisoner of war camp, concentration camp and death camp at Majdanek, on the outskirts of Lublin
• Belzec camp and museum
• Guided tour of the architectural wealth of Krakow's Old Town, and former Jewish quarter in Kazimierz, now a major cultural and heritage site (and which featured heavily in Steven Spielberg’s film Schindler’s List.
• Full day at Auschwitz and Birkenau
• Visit the awesome 700 year old salt mine at Wieliczka

What's Included

• Return flights from London (optional)
• 4 Star Hotels
• Buffet breakfast each morning
• A three-course dinner party on 6 evenings hosted by your expert historian and tour manager
• Two drinks i,e wine or beer at each dinner and a welcome drink on first evening
• Dedicated Tour Manager
• Entrance fees for sites included in itinerary
• Modern, comfortable, air-conditioned coach
• Tour information booklet
• Access to the Cultural Experience app
• Helpful and friendly travel advice
• The company of like-minded travelers

"All in all an incredibly enriching and moving experience, I am so glad I went with The Cultural Experience. With the guides vast expertise brought everything to life. Examining events in chronological order was an amazing way to learn".

"One doesn’t need to be an expert hiker for this tour, but you need a lot of stamina – there is a lot of walking and standing, often for hours, with nowhere to sit down and rest...this was an amazing once in a lifetime experience...I thought I understood the Holocaust, but I had only superficial knowledge. I have learned so much."

Day 1 - Depart

We fly from London to Warsaw before checking-in to our central hotel for two nights. (D)

Day 2 - Warsaw

A busy day exploring the Polish capital on foot to explore the key sites associated with the former ghetto and its subsequent uprising: the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the Umschlagplatz (a holding area set up by Nazi Germany) and the Warsaw Jewish cemetery, one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in the world.(B,D)

Day 3 - Treblinka & Lublin

This morning we drive to the extermination camps at Treblinka, where between 700,000 to 900,000 Jews lost their lives. Operational between July 1943 and October 1943, more Jews lost their lives at Treblinka II than at any other death camp, other than Auschwitz. Spend time in the small but informative museum before visiting the memorials to those who lost their lives. We spend the night in Lublin, a city which had a large pre-war Jewish population and which served as the administration centre for Action Reinhardt. (B,D)

Day 4 - Belzec & Majdanek

Our day will begin at the concentration camp of Majdanek, just on the outskirts of Lublin, where approximately 80,000 people from 28 different countries lost their lives. Today it is a well-preserved Nazi concentration and death camp where we find barracks, guard towers, gas chambers, crematoria, museum, “Gates of Hell” memorial and the mausoleum memorial, a gigantic structure which contains the ashes of victims beneath it. Continue to Belzec, the small but lethal death camp, where between 430,000 & 500,000 Jews lost their lives in six-months with as a few as 7 people surviving. Our hotel for the evening is based in Rzeszów. (B,D)

Day 5 - Krakow

This morning we drive to Krakow where we take a change of pace and emphasis with an afternoon orientation tour of Krakow's Old Town and its busy street life. Check-in to our hotel for three nights.(B,D)

Day 6 - Auschwitz and Birkenau

An early start as we are immersed in a comprehensive tour on foot of the concentration and death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. To enter the camp of Auschwitz, one passes under the infamous inscription 'Arbeit Macht Frei' mounted upon its main gate, before visiting the exhibitions in the surviving prison blocks. In the afternoon we visit Birkenau, also known as Auschwitz II, the purpose-built camp that had hundreds of barracks and 4 massive gas chambers and functioned as the epicentre of the Holocaust during 1943 and 1944. The day at Auschwitz and Birkenau explores two large camps and will involve a good amount of walking. This evening you are free to find your own restaurant for dinner and perhaps explore Krakow. (B)

Day 7 - Kazimierz and Wieliczka

Before WW2, some 70,000 Jews lived in Krakow, mostly in the suburb of Kazimierz. We explore this tiny area including the Old Synagogue Museum and there will be an opportunity for an optional unaccompanied visit to the museum situated in the former Oscar Schindler's Factory. We visit the awesome 700-year-old salt mine at Wieliczka, its labyrinth of 300km of tunnels revealing chapels, underground lakes and a museum. (B,D)

Day 8 - Home

Transfer to Warsaw airport for your return flight to London. (B)

Recommended Reading List

• Auschwitz : The Nazis & The 'Final Solution'
• Holocaust Landscapes
• Marching into Darkness: The Wehrmacht and the Holocaust in Belarus
• Ordinary Men
• Survival in Auschwitz: The Nazi Assault on Humanity
• Traces of the Holocaust: Journeying In and Out of the Ghettos

Professor Alexander Korb

Alexander Korb was director of the University's Stanley Burton Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies between 2012 and 2018. Alexander is an expert of the Holocaust in Central and Southeastern Europe. Moreover, he specializes in the history of genocide, of international relations within wartime Europe, and in a transnational intellectual history of right-wing Europe.

Photo Gallery

• SS Canteen, Auschwitz I
• Isabel guiding the group at Majdanek
• Warsaw Uprising Monument
• Group picture inside Wieliczka Salt Mine
• Auschwitz Train
• Anne & Margot Frank Memorial

Tour Reviews

Take a look at some independent reviews of this tour by previous participants here

Take a look at some of the images taken on our most recent tour

View a diary of our Holocaust tour here

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10 Significant World War II Sites to Visit in Germany

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If you’re a World War II aficionado or history buff in general, there’s no other trip quite like seeing the sights left behind by the Third Reich and Nazi Germany. Some were bombed into obsolescence, others were destroyed to cover over the reminder of the atrocities of war, but many significant spots remain accessible to the public today. Here are 10 historically significant WWII sites to see in Germany:

1. Vorbunker/Führerbunker -Berlin

Vorbunker and Führerbunker were once the places where Adolf Hitler took shelter and eventually lived. The elaborate underground concrete bunker complex was designed to be a temporary air-raid shelter for Hitler, his family and his guards. While the site has been redeveloped into the current residential housing that stands today, this remains an important place of WWII significance as it was in the Führerbunker that Hitler committed suicide. Today a commemorative sign can be seen explaining the layout and significance of the bunker complex.

2. Dachau Memorial and Museum -Dachau

Dachau was the first of many Nazi concentration camps opened in Germany and was designed to hold political prisoners from Germany and Austria as well as Jewish prisoners. It was also open the longest, from March 1933 to April 1945 spanning nearly all 12 years of the Nazi regime. Today the site of the former concentration camp is home to a memorial as well as a museum and can be visited by the public.

3. Nazi Party Rally Grounds -Nuremberg

The rally grounds of the Nazi party covered about 11 square kilometers in Nuremberg’s southeast and were the site of six Nazi rallies between 1933-1938. While not all of the historic buildings remain, many are preserved and can be visited by the public as the entire site is now a memorial.

4. Holocaust Memorial -Berlin

This 4.7 acre site in Berlin was designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold and serves as a tribute to Jewish victims of the Holocaust. The site is covered with 2,711 concrete slabs known as ‘stelae’ and includes a Place of Information on the site’s eastern edge which lists the names of all known Jewish Holocaust victims.

5. St. Nicholas’ Church -Hamburg

This Gothic Revival church was once the tallest building in the world from 1874-1876 and played an important role in WWII. During the extensive air raids on the city of Hamburg, the church tower served as a goal and visual orientation marker for the Allied Air Forces. Unfortunately, on July 28, 1943 the church was severely damaged by bombing and was reduced to the only remaining tower which can still be seen today.

6. Kehlsteinhaus (Eagle’s Nest) – Obersalzberg

The Kehlsteinhaus or ‘Eagle’s Nest’ as it’s known in English speaking countries is a Third Reich-area complex that was given to Adolf Hitler for his 50th birthday as a retreat to entertain friends and guests. The Kehlsteinhaus sits on a rocky outcrop known as Obersalzberg near the town of Berchtesgaden.  Today the Eagle’s Next can still be visited by the public as it houses a restaurant, beer garden and tourist site.

7. Colditz Castle -Colditz

Colditz is a Renaissance castle located in Germany’s Saxony state. During WWII the castle was converted and used as a high security prisoner-of-war camp for officers who were particularly dangerous or were regarded as escape risks. The German’s believed the castle’s location on a rocky outcrop above the River Mulde made it an excellent spot for a high security prison, however Colditz POW camp had one of the highest records of successful escape attempts during WWII.

8. Mittelbau-Dora Memorial -Nordhausen

Mittelbau-Dora was a WWII Nazi concentration camp located near Nordhausen in the German state of Thuringia. This camp was notorious for its extreme cruelty towards prisoners and roughly 1 in 3 of the 60,000 prisoners sent here did not survive. Today the site is home to a memorial and history museum and serves as a place of mourning and commemoration of the victims of this concentration camp.

Photo by: Buchewald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation

9. Soviet War Memorial -Berlin

The Soviet War Memorial is located in Berlin’s Treptower Park and was build to commemorate the Soviet soldiers who fell during the Battle of Berlin in 1945. The main feature of the memorial is a 12-m tall statue of a Soviet soldier with a sword holding a German child, standing over a broken swastika. The central area before the monument is lined with 16 stone sarcophagi, one for each of the 16 Soviet Republics. Each of the sarcophagi are adorned with carvings of military scenes and quotations from Joseph Stalin in both Russian and German languages.

10. Besseringen B-Werk -Merzig

The Besseringen B-Werk is the only completely preserved fortification bunker located in the Siegfried Line; a 630 kilometer defensive system built between 19 and featured more than 18,000 bunkers, tunnels and tank traps. 32 bunkers in the Seigfried Line were built to construction standards or thickness ‘B’ hence the term B-Werk. Post-war, the site was used as a rubbish dump but it was restored and opened in 2005 as a museum which can be visited by the public today.

Like this? Check out  15 Must See World War II Sites in Europe

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The Unforgettable Experience of Visiting Auschwitz Camps

As part of a week long trip to Eastern Europe, with our main destination set on visiting Auschwitz, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect during the visit. I know no better word to describe my visit to the two Auschwitz concentration camp sites than the word harrowing  (extremely disturbing or distressing; grievous).

My Experience Visiting Auschwitz

We spent about 6 hours between the two sites, and the visit is something that is nearly impossible to even describe. The best I can do is show you what I experience with a little bit of the history I learned while there and hope just a little piece of my experience can be carried over. This is a place everyone needs to visit when going to Eastern Europe. It is a place that just cannot be grasped without going there yourself.

Auschwitz I

Auschwitz, which had been a Polish barrack prior to World War II with the Germans took over Poland. The Nazi’s then used the site as a concentration camp initially to house Polish prisoners. The camp was expanded and eventually was large enough to house 16,000 people.

The entrance gate to Auschwitz was framed with the saying, “Arbeit macht frei” meaning “Work will set you free.” It was intended to give a false hope to the people imprisoned there. As we walked through the gate to what felt like a very large site we tried to comprehend the number of people that would have been imprisoned here.The guidebook said that by the end of the camp, there were 16,000 people imprisoned here.

Many of the buildings held memorials and historical information about the events of the war and the things that happened here. It was hard to take in everything that we read and saw. One of the most moving exhibits was these rows of proped up striped uniforms behind barbed wire fencing. They looked as if marching to their death with a wall of actual photos of people from the camps in the background. It was a horrible thing that took place here, and it is so important that we learn about and remember what happened so that history is not repeated.

The heart wrenching memorials continued with exhibit rooms filled with belongings of the people from the Auschwitz camps – including their pottery, shoes, suitcases, even their hair which was crudely shaved from their heads before they were sent to work or to their death.

It was at Auschwitz I where they trialed the first crematory and gas chamber. Walking in through the gas chamber was something that is hard to put into words. You could just feel the impact of this place and see the claw prints on the walls from the innocent people who were locked in and poisoned by gas. The gas chamber lead to the crematorium where they would then dispose of the bodies by fire. This gas chamber was eventually put out of use as they expanded their extermination efforts with a series of gas chambers at the nearby Auschwitz II – Birkenau.

At Auschwitz I also experimented with mass sterilization, experimentation on twins, drug trials and more. These inhumane experiments left survivors permanently disabled and many were killed either for the experiments or during experimentation due to the effects. Many executions took place at Auschwitz as well.

It was a place of so much death that it was hard to be there and experience everything that this place once was, but so important to do so. We spent about 3 hours at this camp, then went back to the apartment for lunch and to head to the second site.

Auschwitz II – Birkenau

Just 2 miles from Auschwitz I, the Germans began to build a second camp, Auschwitz II – Birkenau that would become the largest Nazi concentration camp and a place of mass extermination of Jews and other captives. It was important that we had visited Auschwitz I first to learn of the history and see the exhibits so that we could come to this second site with more awareness.

But when we walked through the large entrance gates and onto the railway tracks that brought so many people here we were completely blown away by the sheer size and capacity of this second camp. We had thought the first camp was large. This second camp, was impossible to grasp the magnitude.

Most of the sites lay in ruins with just the brick fireplaces and foundation still in place, which makes it such a harrowing site to see cabin after cabin in ruins but as far as you could see in both directions. The camp was being built to hold 200,000 prisoners on 432 acres of land, but was only partially completed by the spring of 1944 with more than 300 buildings on the site and 11 miles of electrified barbed-wire fencing!

The tracks that ran right through the entrance of the camp to the very back of the camp brought in the prisoners who would then undergo a “selection” where the majority were deemed unfit to work. In most train loads brought in, 75% or more of the people were sent immediately to the gas chambers to be killed. We were able to see the ruins of these gas chambers, as they were destroyed towards the end of the war to hide evidence of their war crimes committed.

Those not immediately killed would be sent through an humiliating process at the “Sauna” house. The people would be filled through a series of rooms, sometimes taking hours between each of the rooms. Their belongings were taken from them including their clothing, their heads were crudely shaved, they were then showered en mass with often very hot or very cold water and disinfected. From there, they would be given a camp uniform and wooden clogs along with a camp number.

The people were then shuttled into one of the barracks. We were able to go into one of the wooden barracks that was designed to hold 400 people, with a total of 15 people per triple bunk. In practice, the bunk platforms would hold 10 people sleeping on simple straw mats with not enough room to even roll over.

There was an incredibly moving display of the prisoners photographs of their peaceful and happy lives up until this horrific war. To see these thriving people that lived lives very similar to my own was heartbreaking. I tried to grasp all that they were put through during these terrible years, but it was impossible to experience the gravity of the events that took place here.

In the Auschwitz camps, it is estimated that over 1.3 million people were brought including over a million Jews. Of those brought to the camp, over 1,100,000 people were killed the majority of which were gassed and cremated.  About 90% of the victims were Jews.

For ever let this place be a cry of despair  and a warning to humanity,  where the Nazis murdered  about one and a half million  men, women, and children, mainly jews  from various countries of Europe.

Auschwitz – Birkenau 1940 – 1945

It is my hope that we will learn from the past and never let something like this ever happen again. In order to hold this resolve, we must try our best to grasp the cruelties that have happened at places like Auschwitz. By understanding them we will better be able to spot and fight against the cruelties of humanity and stand up against what is so clearly wrong.

I would absolutely recommend taking a trip to Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II – Birkenau, it is a place that everyone should visit as it is an experience you will never be able to forget.

To see how we set off on a 7-day vacation while sticking to a $1,000 budget, see our tips for budget-friendly travel .

Then, read about the rest of our journey through 5 different European countries . Auschwitz was just one of our stops, but needed it’s own post to cover this incredible place. Read on to experience the rest of our vacation including an easy itinerary you can follow!

Wednesday 10th of January 2018

Wow, this is heart breaking indeed, I am always interested in learning more about history. I couldn't even phantom living back in that time nor any of my family being in that camp. I would love to have my family visit Auschwitz concentration camp, I'm sure it would be very emotional that's for sure!

Tuesday 9th of January 2018

We went there several years ago, it really is a place you never forgot and leaves such a lasting impression.

I can only imagine how heavy it must be to be there, to know what had happened. I think it would be a meaningful experience to share with my family when all of my kids are a little older.

Monday 8th of January 2018

Thank you for posting this. As a Jew this is especially meaningful to me. Both sets of my Grandparents went through the war and were the only survivors of their entire family. My grandmothers were both sent to labor camps and managed to survive while one grandfather managed to stay alive by hiding in the forest and joining up with some partisans. My other grandfather was sent to Siberia and made it through! #neverforget

Friday 12th of January 2018

Oh man, you have a strong family! #fighters

We just watched Defiant last night and not sure if that was anything like your grandfather's experience, but it was definitely amazing all that they went through hiding in the forests!! I was so inspired that seeing these people through it all not lose their faith!

Desiree Lopez

It is an important thing that Auschwitz still stands so that we can be reminded of what happened here. I enjoy visiting historical places like this.

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Visiting Auschwitz – How to Plan the Auschwitz Tour

Visiting Auschwitz, albeit a very somber experience, is one of the must things to do in Poland. The largest Nazi Germany concentration and extermination camp during World War II, where over 1,3 million people lost their lives, needs no introduction. Conveniently located near Krakow , Auschwitz can be an easy addition to your Poland itinerary.

It took me almost 37 years to finally visit Auschwitz (although I’ve been to other Nazi Germany camps in Poland), and even if I knew very well what to expect, the place still overwhelmed me with its cruelty and tragedy. And I think everyone should plan a trip to Auschwitz to understand history better and see what people are capable of when the ideology brainwashes them. And, of course, to pay respect to all the unnecessary victims. It’s important to visit places like Auschwitz so we can do our best to prevent similar tragedies from happening in the future.

If you are visiting Poland (especially Krakow , Warsaw , Katowice , or Wroclaw ), I prepared this guide to help you plan your Auschwitz tour without too much hassle. There are different ways to visit Auschwitz, but no matter which one you choose, be prepared for one of the most difficult yet necessary travel experiences of your life.

Table of Contents

Where is Auschwitz

The former Nazi Germany Concentration Camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, is located in a town of around 37.000 inhabitants called Oświęcim in southern Poland. Krakow is less than 70 km away, and Katowice is 35 km away. Warsaw, the capital of Poland, is around 330 km away from Oświęcim.

A brief history of Auschwitz

Even if Auschwitz is known mainly as the extermination camp, it was established as a concentration camp in mid-1940. It was one of over 40 camps in Poland that were supposed to be a solution to the problem of overflowing prisons full of arrested locals. The first people were brought to Auschwitz on June 14th, 1940, from the prison in Tarnow.

Since 1942 Auschwitz has also been used as the extermination camp where Nazis implemented their plan to murder Jewish people from all over Europe. At the peak of its operation, in 1944, Auschwitz was divided into three parts: Auschwitz I (the oldest one, in the old Polish military barracks), Auschwitz II-Birkenau (the largest one, founded in 1941, the majority of victims were killed here), and Auschwitz III (this was a group of over 40 sub-camps created near industrial plants, made for work prisoners).

Numerous Polish villages were demolished, and locals were evicted to develop such a large institution. The camps were isolated from the outside world. The total area was around 40 square kilometers, including all three Auschwitz camps and the so-called “interest zone” used for the technical or supply background, offices, and barracks for Nazis.

Since Auschwitz had a strategic location on the front line, in August 1944, the camp’s liquidation began – the prisoners were taken to Germany, and the evidence of the crimes was covered up. The liberation of Auschwitz took place on January 27th, 1945, when around 7,5 thousand prisoners were still held there.

Altogether, in the almost four years of operation, over 1,3 million people lost their lives in Auschwitz; the majority were Jewish (around 1,1 million), but also Polish (about 150 hundred thousand), Roma people (23 thousand), and other nations.

In 1979 Auschwitz was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List – it is the only former Nazi concentration camp with that title in the world.

How to visit Auschwitz

You can visit Auschwitz two ways: with a tour from where you are staying in Poland (most likely Krakow, Katowice, Warsaw, or Wroclaw) or independently, reaching the site by car or using public transport. Both options are doable; however, the tour is a slightly better one as everything will be taken care of for you.

There is a wide selection of tours to choose from that depart from Krakow as well as other mentioned cities. Most of them cover more or less the same things: pick-up from your accommodation, transportation to/from Auschwitz and back, the entrance ticket to the concentration camp, and the guided tour on-site.

When I visited Auschwitz, I arrived by train from Warsaw, with the change in Katowice. I was at the museum almost an hour before my guided tour of the site was supposed to start, and despite the poor weather (it was raining on that day), there was no place to hide and wait for the tour. Visitors were not allowed to enter the museum until a few minutes before the tour was about to start. Me and a few other unlucky visitors just stood near the trees, hiding under the umbrella and waiting for our time to enter the site. I can’t say it was a comfortable situation (but at least the weather worked perfectly well for such a sad place to visit). Recently, a new visitors center was opened so hopefully the situation is better.

When using public transport, you need to rely on the schedule of trains/buses and, just in case, plan to be at the site with some extra time ahead; hence a tour is a better option. Still, visiting Auschwitz is doable independently – I did it, and once the tour of the site started, it was really good.

Visiting Auschwitz – practical information

Visiting Auschwitz memorial site is free of charge; however, I recommend joining the tour with the educator provided by the museum. They have a huge knowledge of the place and the tragedy that occurred here and can answer all the questions visitors always have. Tours are available in various languages: Polish, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Czech, and Slovak.

Even if you decide to visit the site independently, you still need to book the entry pass – those with free entrance start in the afternoon. You can buy/reserve your ticket online at the website of Auschwitz Museum here.

Currently, the price for the tour with the educator is 80 PLN for Polish and 90 PLN for other languages. When booking the ticket, you must state your full name and surname – this will be checked later.

Since tickets can sell out quickly, booking one at least a month in advance is recommended. If there are no tickets left for the day you want to visit Auschwitz, you can join the organized tour from Krakow or other cities, as tour operators usually have tickets booked in advance. Due to the sensitive nature of the place, children under 14 years old should not visit Auschwitz Museum.

Once you have your ticket, you need to arrive at the Auschwitz visitors center 30 minutes before your tour starts to go through the security check (it’s rather thorough, similar to the airport), have your ticket inspected (remember to have the ID or passport with you), get the headset for the tour and meet your group. You are allowed to have a bag or backpack with a maximum dimension of 30x20x10 cm; any larger luggage must be left in the paid lockers.

Auschwitz Museum is open every day except January 1st, December 25th, and Easter Sunday. Opening hours vary depending on the month and are as follows:

• 7:30-14:00 in December
• 7:30-15:00 in January and November
• 7:30-16:00 in February
• 7:30-17:00 in March and October
• 7:30-18:00 in April, May, and September
• 7:30-19:00 in June, July, and August

The closing time means the last entrance – after that, you are allowed to stay on-site for an hour and a half. However, if you want to see Auschwitz Museum properly, you need at least 3,5 hours for that – that’s also how long the standard tour with the educator lasts. It is usually divided equally between Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II- Birkenau. A free shuttle bus runs between the two sites every few minutes.

Taking pictures and making videos is allowed in Auschwitz, for individual use, except in two places: the hall with the hair of Victims (block nr 4) and the basements of Block 11. Your educator will remind you not to take pictures there.

Remember what sort of place you are visiting and behave there with respect. It might be obvious for most, but I can’t count how many times I’ve read news about inappropriate behavior in Auschwitz and other similar sites in Poland, so I think it’s worth reminding this is not your typical tourist attraction but a place of one of the greatest tragedy that ever happened in the world.

Getting to Auschwitz independently

If you decide to visit Auschwitz on your own, you must get to the visitors’ center, where your tour will start. The new visitors center, which opened just recently, is located at 55 Więźniów Oświęcimia Street in Oświęcim ( here is the exact location ). If you drive there, there is a large parking lot where you can leave your car before visiting the museum.

If you use public transport, there are both trains and buses you can take to reach Oświęcim. I recommend trains as they are slightly faster and more comfortable; however, some buses stop next to the museum, so that’s convenient. You can check all the connections on this website , where you can also find the location of the bus stop in Oświęcim (there can be three different ones).

The train station in Oświęcim is located at Powstańców Śląskich Street, some 20 minutes walking from the Auschwitz museum. It’s a straightforward way; you can check the map with the directions here . I recommend catching the train that gives you at least an hour between arriving at Oświęcim and when your tour starts.

Auschwitz tour from Krakow

Numerous Auschwitz tours depart from Krakow, so you will easily find the one that suits your itinerary and needs. Here are some recommended ones:

• Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial Guided Tour from Krakow
• Auschwitz & Birkenau – Fully Guided Tour from Krakow
• Auschwitz-Birkenau Guided Tour with Private Transport from Kraków
• Auschwitz-Birkenau Guided Tour by Private Transport from Krakow

You can also combine visiting Auschwitz with Wieliczka Salt Mine , another UNESCO-listed site near Krakow and a must-visit place in Poland. Here are the tours that go to both places in one day:

• Day Trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau and Wieliczka Salt Mine from Krakow including Lunch
• Full-Day Tour of Auschwitz and Wieliczka Salt Mine from Krakow
• Auschwitz-Birkenau and Salt Mine Tour with private transport from Krakow
• Combined: Auschwitz Birkenau and Salt Mine private chauffeur from Krakow

If you decide to go to Auschwitz from Krakow on your own, you can take the train from the main train station to Oświęcim. They are rather frequent, more or less every hour, and the journey takes a bit over an hour (depending on the connection, the longest one is 1h20min).

If you want to take the bus, they depart from the MDA bus station, next to the main train station. The price for trains and buses is similar, between 15 and 20 PLN, although trains tend to be cheaper and faster. You can check all the connections and buy a ticket here .

Auschwitz tour from Warsaw

Even if Warsaw, the capital of Poland, is located over 300 km away from Oświęcim, it is possible to go for a one-day Auschwitz tour. However, you can expect a long day, and a large part of it will be spent traveling. But if you are visiting Warsaw only, Auschwitz can be a good addition to your Poland itinerary, so you can better understand the country’s complex history.

Here are some of the recommended Auschwitz tours from Warsaw:

• From Warsaw Auschwitz and Krakow one day tour by train with pick up and drop off
• One day tour to Auschwitz-Birkenau from Warsaw with private transport

Going for the day trip from Warsaw to Auschwitz independently is also possible using trains. You can take the 6 am train to Katowice and then change for the train to Oświęcim, arriving in the town around 10:30. If you decide to do that, you can book your Auschwitz tour for 11:30 or 12:00. On the way back, you can catch the train after 16:00 from Oświęcim to Katowice, and after changing for the train to Warsaw, you will be in the capital after 20:00.

Auschwitz tour from Katowice

Since Katowice is less than 40 km from Auschwitz, it’s easy to go for a day trip. You need to take the local train to Oświęcim, it takes less than 50 minutes, and the connections are more or less every hour.

Or you can go for a tour, here are the Auschwitz tours from Katowice:

• Auschwitz – Birkenau from Katowice
• Auschwitz & Birkenau English guided tour by private transport from Katowice
• Auschwitz tour from Wroclaw

Wroclaw is another popular place to visit in Poland, and since it’s located around 230 km from Oświęcim, you can go for an Auschwitz tour from Wroclaw too. If you decide to do it independently, you can take the train to Katowice and then change for the local train to Oświęcim. A one-way trip should take you less than 4 hours.

Or you can go for a tour; here are the recommended ones from Wroclaw:

• Auschwitz-Birkenau Tour from Wrocław
• Private Full-Day Tour to Auschwitz-Birkenau from Wroclaw

Auschwitz Museum Tour

As for the museum itself, here is what you can expect.

You will start in the oldest part of the concentration camp – Auschwitz I, where the infamous gate with the sign “Arbeit macht frei” (meaning “Work Sets You Free”) is located. Here, you will visit numerous barracks where inmates were kept – now you can see different exhibitions there, showing the reality of Auschwitz and halls with personal belongings taken from arriving prisoners – luggage, shoes, glasses, etc., or hair of Victims. You will learn all about cruel practices here, including medical experiments or torture.

Visiting this part of Auschwitz museum is a very somber experience, and it’s really difficult to comprehend the tragedy that happened in this very place.

Besides the barracks in Auschwitz I, you will also see where the camp commander lived or the first crematorium where Nazis started their experiments with killing using gas. In this part of the Auschwitz tour, you can take pictures everywhere except the two places in Blocks 4 and 11 – they will be clearly marked, and your educator will remind you about this restriction.

The visit to Auschwitz I takes around 1,5 hours. Afterward, together with your group and educator, you will take the shuttle bus to Auschwitz II-Birkenau, located some 3 km away.

Auschwitz II-Birkenau is where around 90% of victims died. It is a huge area that worked kind of like the killing factory, with four gas chambers and crematoriums. This is also where most prisoners arrived – you most likely know the view of the railway tracks and brick gate – that’s Auschwitz II-Birkenau. This part of the visit is mostly outdoors.

You will walk around the area, see the remnants of the camp, visit some barracks inside, and learn all about the horrific tragedy that happened here. When Auschwitz I has a more intimate, even claustrophobic feeling, Auschwitz II-Birkenau can overwhelm you with its scale and enormity.

You will spend around 1,5 hours here, too; afterward, you can take the shuttle bus back to the visitors center when you started your tour.

Final thoughts on visiting Auschwitz

Even though I’ve lived in Poland almost my whole life, and Auschwitz has been a familiar topic since I remember, it took me nearly 37 years to finally visit the place. Before I was in different Nazi Germany sites in Poland, mostly in Majdanek in Lublin, so I didn’t feel the need to visit Auschwitz too. But I don’t regret the decision to go there eventually.

You can read and learn about the place, but nothing can prepare you for visiting Auschwitz. Some areas look familiar (after all, pictures of the “Arbeit macht frei” sign or Birkenau gate are present everywhere), but you will still be overwhelmed by the place and seeing it in real life. It’s hard to comprehend the cruelty and tragedy that happened here, and dealing with all the thoughts invading your mind afterward can take a while. It can be one of the most difficult-to-understand places you will ever visit.

Still, despite it all, I think everyone should go to Auschwitz to see where fanaticism and totalitarianism can lead and why we should avoid them at all costs.

Travel Resources

You can find the best accommodation options at Booking . They have many discounts and excellent customer service. Click here to look for the place to stay in Poland

Never travel without travel insurance , you never know what might happen and better safe than sorry. You can check the insurance policy for Poland here.

I recommend joining organized tours to get to know the place better and to visit more places during your trip. You can find a great selection of tours at Get Your Guide – click here .

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What we fought against: ohrdruf.

On April 4, 1945, the US 4th Armored Division and 89th Infantry Division of the Third US Army came face to face with the horrors of Nazi brutality. The men discovered Ohrdruf, a Nazi labor camp and a subcamp of the Buchenwald system.

In November 1944, the Nazis established Ohrdruf south of Gotha, Germany. As a subcamp, Ohrdruf was located about 30 miles west of Buchenwald. Codenamed SIII, the Ohrdruf camp was established to supply forced labor to construct a route that would lead to a communications center in the basement of nearby Mühlberg Castle, located in the town of Ohrdruf. Prisoners were to connect the castle with a railway by digging tunnels through nearby mountains. The tunnels would also serve as an emergency shelter for the train that contained Hitler’s headquarters, the Führersonderzug, in the event of an evacuation from Berlin. Local civilians were hired to handle the dynamiting, while prisoners would come in behind to dig and pick up rocks. With poor working conditions and no protective gear offered, many prisoners suffered from serious injuries and often were killed in the process. The communications center, however, was never completed and the project was abandoned due to the advance of US troops.

By March 1945, the prisoner population in Ohrdruf reached 11,700. The prisoners included people of various nationalities—French, Belgian, German, Hungarian, Czech, Latvian, Italian, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, and Yugoslav. In addition, the camp housed prisoners who the Nazis judged as anti-social,  plus homosexuals and Jews. In early April, with the oncoming advance of Allied forces, the SS evacuated almost all of the prisoners in a death march to Buchenwald. Many prisoners who were too weak or ill to partake in the march were summarily killed.

Ohrdruf was the first Nazi camp to be liberated by US forces. On April 12, a week after the camp’s liberation, Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, George S. Patton, and Omar Bradley toured the site, led by a prisoner familiar with the camp. Numerous corpses were found scattered around the camp grounds, lying where they were killed prior to the camp’s evacuation. A burned out pyre was discovered with the charred remains of prisoners, proof of the SS’s hurried evacuation and attempt to cover their crimes. Evidence of torture was present, and prisoners demonstrated for the generals various torture methods used by the guards. In a shed, a pile of roughly 30 emaciated bodies were discovered, sprinkled with lime in an attempt to cover the smell. Patton, a man privy to the violent scenes of war, refused to enter this shed as the sights and smells in the camp had previously caused him to vomit against the side of a building. German citizens from the nearby town of Ohrdruf were forced to view the camp and bury the dead, a practice that was later repeated in other camp liberations. Following the tour, the mayor of Ohrdruf and his wife were discovered to have hung themselves in their home.

Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, George S. Patton, and Omar Bradley view charred remains in a crematorial pyre and bodies of prisoners killed prior to the SS evacuation of Ohrdruf. The National WWII Museum.

Following the generals’ visit to the camp, Eisenhower ordered all American units in the area and not engaged in frontline battle to be sent to Ohrdruf. He cabled General George C. Marshall, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, D.C., requesting that members of Congress and journalists be sent to liberated camps to witness and document the horrific scenes US troops were uncovering. Additionally, the generals discovered the prisoner who acted as their guide during their visit to Ohrdruf was recognized by another prisoner as a former camp guard, and was beaten to death.

Eisenhower's cable to General George C. Marshall requesting members of Congress and journalists to view newly liberated camps. Courtesy of Eisenhower Library.

A letter to Eisenhower from Patton describing the fate of their camp guide at Ohrdruf. Courtesy of Eisenhower Library.

The liberation of Ohrdruf opened the eyes of many Americans, soldiers and civilians, to the barbaric conditions innocent people faced under Nazism. American troops would move on to discover and liberate multiple camps, including Dora-Mittelbau, Dachau, Mauthausen, and Buchenwald. Elie Wiesel, author of Night , was imprisoned in Buchenwald at the time of the camp’s liberation. As more camps were uncovered by Allied forces, it became evident to the world that the Third Reich had committed unprecedented atrocities everywhere the regime had reigned. Following the discovery of Ohrdruf, Eisenhower stated simply but profoundly: 

“We are told the American soldier does not know what he is fighting for. Now, at least, we know what he is fighting against.”

General Dwight D. Eisenhower

This article is part of an ongoing series commemorating the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II made possible by Bank of America.  

Connie Gentry

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Concentration Camp System: In Depth

The camp system was extensive. It included concentration camps, labor camps, prisoner-of-war camps, transit camps, and killing centers.

• concentration camps
• Third Reich
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Camp System: Maps German authorities under National Socialism established a variety of detention facilities to confine those whom they defined as political, ideological, or racial opponents of the regime. In time their extensive camp system came to include concentration camps, where persons were incarcerated without observation of the standard norms applying to arrest and custody; labor camps; prisoner-of-war camps; transit camps; and camps which served as killing centers, often called extermination camps or death camps.

In the earliest years of the Third Reich , various central, regional, and local authorities in Germany established concentration camps to detain political opponents of the regime, including German Communists, Socialists, trade unionists, and others from left and liberal political circles. In the spring of 1933, the SS established Dachau concentration camp, which came to serve as a model for an expanding and centralized concentration camp system under SS management.

Camp Administration

During 1934, Reichsführer SS (SS chief) Heinrich Himmler centralized those camps that held prisoners under orders of “protective custody” ( Schutzhaft ) under an agency called the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps ( Inspekteur der Konzentrationslager ; IKL). Himmler appointed Dachau concentration camp commander Theodor Eicke as chief of the IKL. In 1939, Richard Glücks replaced Eicke as Inspector of Concentration Camps; he held this position until 1945.

Subordinate to the SS Main Office from 1934 until 1939 and the SS Operations Main Office from 1939 until early 1942, the IKL became a department of the SS Economic-Administrative Main Office (SS- Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt ; WVHA) in March 1942. This move corresponded to Himmler's decision to engage concentration camp labor more intensively in support of the German war effort.

Named for the insignia they wore on their uniform collar lapels, the SS Death's-Head Units (SS- Totenkopfverbände ; SS-TV), later called SS Death's-Head Battalions ( Sturmbann ) and, eventually, Regiments ( Standarten ), commanded, administered, and guarded the concentration camps. Subordinated to the IKL, these units came to be renowned for their cruelty.

The German Security Police ( Sicherheitspolizei ; Sipo) had exclusive responsibility for arrest as well as orders for incarceration, release, execution, or other “official” disciplinary punishment. The Security Police was incorporated into the Reich Main Office for Security ( Reichssicherheitshauptamt ; RSHA) along with the SS Security Service ( Sicherheitsdienst ; SD) in 1939. It consisted of two branches of the pre-Nazi police detective forces: the German Political Police detective agencies, centralized and renamed the Secret State Police ( Gestapo , for Geheime Staatspolizei) in 1934, investigated politically motivated crime; while the Criminal Police Detective agencies, centralized in 1936–1937, investigated crime that lacked apparent political motive.

Outside the Laws of the German State

The IKL, however, was responsible for the concentration camp prisoner from the moment he or she entered the camp until the moment he or she died in the camp or was released. The camp commandant and the SS Death's-Head Battalion personnel were responsible for constant “unofficial” cruelty that often led—and was intended to lead—to “unofficial” killings. These deaths each had to be reported to the Security Police. They were routinely written up as “suicides,” “accidental” deaths, and “justified killings” of prisoners who were “trying to escape,” “assaulting a guard,” “sabotaging production,” or “inciting prisoners to revolt.” The camp authorities also reported murders as deaths from acute illness, such as “weak heart” or “interruption of circulation.”

From 1933, the concentration camp system , including its prisoners and its guards, was not subject to review by any judicial or administrative authorities outside of the SS and police apparatus. Based on an extra-legal jurisdiction authorized by Hitler as Führer , the concentration camp literally stood outside the laws of the German state. It was intended to serve as a detention center for persons whom the Nazi leaders deemed to be a subversive danger to the German race. Incarceration in a concentration camp was rarely linked to a specific crime or actual subversive activity. The SS and police ordered incarceration based on their suspicion that an individual person either had committed a crime or engaged in subversive activity or would likely commit a crime or engage in a subversive activity in the future.

Who was Incarcerated?

Hence, individuals could be incarcerated in concentration camps indefinitely

• without ever being charged for a specific act;
•  after having been acquitted on charges relating to a specific crime;
• upon release from prison after serving a sentence handed down by a German court for a specific act;
• or because the SS and police authorities deemed that individual—often on the basis of alleged racial inferiority or alleged racially driven “hostility to Germany”—was a danger to German society.

After the SS leadership, with Hitler's blessing, detached the pre-Nazi police detective forces from state administrative and judicial oversight in the years 1933–1936, only the centralized SS and police authorities could determine who was a danger to the German “race” and order the incarceration of such persons in a concentration camp. For persons perceived to be political and racial opponents of the Reich, the Gestapo issued “protective custody” ( Schutzhaft ) orders, which authorized the incarceration in the camps of Jews, Social Democrats, Communists, liberals, Freemasons , Jehovah's Witnesses , clergy who opposed the Nazis, members of national opposition movements, non-Germans in general after Germany began to occupy Europe, and any others whose behavior—real or perceived—could be interpreted as politically motivated opposition.

For persons whose real or perceived behavior or actions were considered criminal but non-political in nature, or socially deviant so as to create a so-called danger to German society, the Criminal Police office issued “preventative arrest” (Vorbeugungshaft) orders. Under these orders, which were often motivated more by racial and social prejudice than by actual criminal violations, Roma and Sinti (Gypsies), so-called asocials, repeat criminal offenders, gay men , and so-called security suspects were incarcerated in the concentration camps. Although the language of these arrest orders contained limits on the time during which a prisoner could be incarcerated, in practice incarcerations were routinely extended indefinitely. After World War II began, Himmler forbade in general the release of concentration camp prisoners for the duration of the war.

Source of Forced Labor

In addition to serving as detention centers for persons deemed to be of danger to the Reich, the concentration camp system served two other key purposes of the Nazi regime. First, corresponding to a close relationship between the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps and the business and administrative offices of the SS, the camps were to be the source of inexpensive forced labor for SS-owned or operated businesses. After 1938 and well into World War II, concentration camp labor was deployed in producing construction materials for actual SS-managed construction projects (including the expansion of existing camps and the construction of new camps).

In exceptional cases, concentration camp prisoners were “leased” to private firms, such as the I.G. Farben synthetic fuel and rubber plants established in 1941 in Monowitz in Upper Silesia, near the Auschwitz concentration camp. After the incorporation of the camps into the WVHA in 1942, the SS increasingly engaged concentration camp prisoners in producing for the German war effort, deploying them, still under SS guard, to German state-owned firms and private firms, which compensated the SS for the increasingly scarce labor.

Systematic Murder

The concentration camps, standing outside the reach of the German justice authorities, had always been places where the SS could kill prisoners. After the beginning of the war, however, the camps increasingly became sites for the systematic murder of individuals or small groups of persons.

Such groups included: Soviet prisoners of war selected by Gestapo officials as particularly dangerous; members of national resistance groups; persons deemed by the Criminal Police (Kripo) to be particularly violent criminals; groups of partisans, real or perceived; “Night and Fog” prisoners from western Europe; Polish or Soviet civilian forced laborers in Germany, who were then alleged to have had sexual relations with German women or to have committed a violent crime; and recaptured US and British military officers, who had escaped from prisoner-of-war camps and were to be killed under the provisions of the so-called Bullet Decree of 1944.

Such prisoners, like the European Jews who were murdered upon arrival in the gas chambers at the killing centers , were never officially registered as prisoners, but were killed usually within 24 hours of arrival. Recognizing the increasing numbers of these small-scale killing operations and because they needed an efficient way to kill prisoners who had become too weak to work, the SS authorities equipped several concentration camps with gas chambers during 1941-1942.

Even before the war, the camp system expanded with the construction of the major camps of

• Sachsenhausen (1936)
• Buchenwald , near Weimar (1937)
• Flossenbürg (1938)
• Mauthausen (1938)
• the women's concentration camp Ravensbrück (1939)
• Auschwitz (1940), which would later also serve as a killing center
• Natzweiler in Alsace (1941)

As the need for prisoner labor increased, especially after the beginning of World War II, the SS authorities in these major camps established satellite camps. Buchenwald, for example, had 88 satellite camps, or subcamps, by the end of war in 1945. Some satellite camps, like Gross-Rosen and Neuengamme , both subcamps of Sachsenhausen, grew so large that they became concentration camps in their own right.

Expanding Prisoner Populations

Most prisoners in the early concentration camps represented real or perceived political opponents of the regime. However, as time went on, the prisoner population expanded to include ideological and religious dissenters, such as Jehovah's Witnesses and dissident members of the clergy. The prisoner population also expanded to include individuals whose behavior did not comply with existing social norms, such as gay men , the “work-shy,” vagrants, other so-called “asocials,” and Roma , who, to Nazi leaders, represented at once an alien racial and criminal element on German soil. Habitual criminals were also incarcerated in concentration camps beginning in the 1930s, often after they had served their legitimate sentences in prison.

After the Kristallnacht ("Night of Crystal,” more commonly known as “Night of Broken Glass") pogroms in November 1938, SS and police officials conducted mass arrests of adult male Jews and imprisoned them in camps such as Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen. The particularly brutal treatment of Jews in the concentration camps served as further impetus for German and Austrian Jews to emigrate.

The outbreak and expansion of war radically altered the makeup and composition of the concentration camp system. The camp population expanded dramatically with the arrival of foreign forced laborers, foreign political opponents and resistance fighters, and prisoners of war.

Implementation of the "Final Solution" 

Before the general deportation of Jews out of the so-called Greater German Reich began in October 1941, the burgeoning prisoner population of many concentration camps on German soil inspired some of the initial prisoner selections. SS doctors and so-called euthanasia functionaries conducted these selections. Beginning in spring of 1941, German officials sent ill and exhausted prisoners from Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Flossenbürg, Gross-Rosen, Niederhagen, Neuengamme, Ravensbrück, and Auschwitz to their deaths at various euthanasia killing centers under the auspices of Operation 14f13, the extension of the so-called euthanasia program to the concentration camp system.

During World War II, Nazi doctors also performed medical experiments on prisoners in some camps. Experiments to test pharmaceuticals and medical treatments, formulate rescue and survival strategies for Axis troops in the field, devise efficient and economic methods of mass sterilization, and underpin Nazi racial and antisemitic theories claimed the health and lives of thousands of concentration camp prisoners.

One of the most significant events to alter the makeup of the concentration camp system was the decision to deport and systematically murder the European Jews. To facilitate this "Final Solution" (the physical annihilation of the Jews), SS and police officials established four killing centers in German-occupied Poland exclusively for this purpose: Chelmno , Belzec , Sobibor , and Treblinka . The SS and police staff at each of these camps used carbon monoxide gas to murder Jews in large numbers. The SS establishment also constructed one killing center in the concentration camp system. Auschwitz II , better known as Auschwitz-Birkenau, began killing operations in spring 1942. In Auschwitz-Birkenau, the SS had within the concentration camp system a killing center that had four gas chambers and that, at the height of the deportations, could kill up to 6,000 Jews each day.

In order to ensure an efficient flow of Jews from German-occupied countries, German officials and their collaborators established transit camps, such as Westerbork in the Netherlands, or Drancy in France, from which SS and police officials coordinated the deportation of French Jews and Jews on French soil, primarily to Auschwitz. In Auschwitz II, planners of the “Final Solution,” aiming at greater efficiency, used the pesticide Zyklon B (prussic acid) to kill prisoners by means of gas. Beginning in 1941, SS authorities constructed gas chambers to kill smaller groups of prisoners as part of “routine” operations at Auschwitz I, Lublin/Majdanek , Sachsenhausen , Mauthausen , and other concentration camps.

Evacuations and Liberation

As the Third Reich began to collapse, thousands of prisoners in German-occupied territories were sent on forced marches to the German interior in order to prevent the mass capture of prisoners by Allied forces. Surviving prisoners described these brutal ordeals as “ death marches ,” due to the high mortality rate and the ruthlessness with which the SS guards shot those unable to keep up. Due to both the forced marches and the collapse of supply shipments to the camps during the last winter of the war, the death count among prisoners from starvation, disease, and exposure increased dramatically. Historians estimate that nearly half of the more than 700,000 prisoners left in the concentration camp system in January 1945 had died by the end of May. Hundreds more died even after liberation because their bodies had sustained too much abuse to permit survival. In the last months of war, the discovery of the horrors of the German camp system by Allied units brought the staggering scope of Nazi atrocities to the attention of the world.

Scholars have estimated that the Nazi regime incarcerated hundreds of thousands, even millions of people in the concentration camp system between 1933 and 1945. It is difficult to estimate the total number of deaths. One estimate notes a range of between 795,889 and 955,215 deaths of registered prisoners, excluding the deaths of registered Jewish prisoners at Auschwitz and Lublin/Majdanek. If one counts the number of Jews (registered and unregistered) killed at Auschwitz (approximately one million) and at Lublin/Majdanek (at least 89,000), the number of deaths in the concentration camp system ranges between 1,885,889 and 2,045,215.

Series: Concentration Camps

Concentration Camps, 1933–39

Concentration Camps, 1939–42

Concentration Camps, 1942–45

Classification System in Nazi Concentration Camps

Critical Thinking Questions

• Explain the systematic nature of the attempt to annihilate the Jews of Europe
• What kind of a society or government may be a precondition to implementing such a systematic effort?

Thank you for supporting our work

We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies and the Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia. View the list of all donors .

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What would you recommend?

Thank you so much for your help.

Near Prague is Theresienstadt, also called Terezin https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005424

I see two choices for you:

- Buchenwald (close to Weimar)

Strongly suggest that you prepare yourselves on the history of both camps.

Hi. Thanks for the suggestions. I've read about Terezin too and wondered about it. Buchenwald is quite far, also. It's almost the same distance as Auschwitz. And yes, I will read plenty about the places we decide to visit. I still have almost 6 months before the trip. :)

For Terezin http://www.outsideprague.com/terezin/getting_to_terezin.html

Erfurt looks lovely! Wonderful tips. Thank you very much.

Do visit Terezin, too, if you can. Maybe you could spend a night nearby, because I'm not sure what you'd otherwise do with your luggage.

But Terezin was different. It was a "model camp", designed to fool the Red Cross. And it worked. So, it is not typical.

There is a train station nearby, called Bohusovice nad Ohri. When I was there, I didn't see any taxis. There was a bus, but I didn't know it existed until it drove past, and the next bus was not for an hour or two. So I walked, it was between 3 and 4 km from the station.

This topic has been closed to new posts due to inactivity.

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Dachau concentration camp and the Eagle's Nest

Spend the day visiting two reminders of Nazi history on this tour to the Dachau concentration camp and the Eagle’s Nest, a repurposed Nazi government property on a mountaintop.

You’ll begin your day with a visit to Dachau, the first of the official concentration camps to open in 1933. You’ll learn about the brutal efficiency its original commandant put into practice and the way Dachau served as the model for the rest of the camps. You’ll also see what remains of the site, and learn more about the specific history of Dachau.

In the afternoon, you’ll head up the mountain road to the Eagle’s Nest, a teahouse originally built for Adolf Hitler and used by Nazi party officials. The mountaintop retreat is the only remaining property that belonged to Hitler, and it now offers both historical tours of the entire mountain site and a restaurant and beer garden inside the property itself.

In the morning, your guide and driver will pick you up at your Munich hotel for your half-day visit to Dachau concentration camp. You’ll learn about the site's historical context and see the building and grounds where tens of thousands were held, tortured and killed in accordance with the Nazi plan.

Dachau was one of the first camps to be opened in 1933 by Heinrich Himmler, and remained open for nearly the entire 12 years of Nazi rule, ending with its liberation by US forces in 1945. Dachau’s practices were to serve as the model for later camps, and so it was here that the horrors that would follow throughout Europe were first tested and implemented.

As you approach, you’ll see the iron gate at its entrance with its slogan, ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’, or ‘Work makes us free’. Beyond the gate is the vast roll-call square and a replica of the accommodation barracks, where prisoners were packed in horribly overcrowded conditions. A line of trees, originally planted by the prisoners, marks the route to the barracks.

The museum, housed in the room the Nazis used to strip and sort prisoners on arrival, contains historical records and confiscated belongings like still-intact address books. You can also see the bunker where prisoners were sent as punishment. Beyond the barbed wire fences stand the disinfecting room, gas chamber and crematorium, which the SS used to hide the evidence of their murders.

In the afternoon, you’ll go from Dachau to another relic of Nazi history, the Eagle’s Nest, or Kehlsteinhaus. This mountain outpost, originally built as a teahouse for Hitler, is the only property left standing that belonged to him. It was a common government and social meeting place for Nazi party officials.

Your guide will bring you to the highest point reachable by car, after which a shuttle will carry visitors the rest of the way up the winding road. At the top, you can walk the paths around the site for great mountain views and visit the restaurant and beer garden now established in the building itself.

Back down the mountain, you’ll head to the documentation museum, which details the Nazi history of the area and shows you the original underground bunkers beneath the property.

Start planning your tailor-made trip by contacting one of our Germany specialists

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Photos of Dachau concentration camp and the Eagle's Nest

Other experiences in Munich

These activities are designed to give you the most authentic experiences around where you're staying. We work with local guides, who use their knowledge and often a resident's eye to show you the main sights and more out-of-the-way attractions. Our specialists can suggest tours and activities that will introduce you to the local ways of life.

A day in Bavaria

This day trip from Munich takes you to the Bavarian Alps, where you can get high-mountain views, visit the site of the 1936 Winter Olympics, see a brightly painted Bavarian mountain town and walk through a winding gorge among waterfalls.

Munich’s beerhalls and the Oktoberfest Museum

This walking tour takes you through the history of beer in Munich, the capital of Bavaria. You’ll taste samples at two beer halls, learn about the laws of production and visit the Beer and Oktoberfest Museum, with its own attached pub.

World War II history walking tour

Learn more about Munich’s role in World War II on this privately guided walking tour. You’ll also get to see memorials dedicated to those who lost their lives to Nazis and to those who opposed them.

Experience it for yourself

You can enjoy this activity as part of the suggested tours below, or we can weave it into a trip shaped entirely around you.

Highlights of Germany self-drive

13 days from $4,250pp

Berlin & Bavaria highlights

9 days from $7,190pp

Classical music tour of Germany & Austria

10 days from $7,105pp

Guided Tours for Individual Visitors

Individual visitors may tour the Memorial independently or in organised groups with a guide-educator.

Entrance to the Museum, to both Auschwitz I and Birkenau parts, is possible only with a personalized entry pass booked in advance. Reservations can be made at  visit.auschwitz.org  or on the spot at the cashier. The number of entry passes available is limited.

Due to the limited number of the entry passes visitors are kindly requested to book in advance at the website  visit.auschwitz.org ,  as well as to arrive 30 minutes before the start of the tour. Larger luggage should be left in vehicles in the car park. Before the visit, please read the  rules of visiting  and  the opening hours of the  Museum.

VISITING WITHOUT A GUIDE-EDUCATOR

Tour without a guide-educator is possible at certain times subject to free Entry Passes, which may be downloaded from  the tour booking system :

• January, November: form 1.00 PM
• February: from 2.00 PM
• March, October: from 3.00 PM
• April, May, September: from 4.00 PM
• June - August: from 4:00 PM
• December: from 12.00 PM  

During the dates provided below, entrance to Museum is only possible with a guide-educator:

• January, November: from 7.30 AM to 1.00 PM 
• February: from 7.30 AM to 2.00 PM
• March, October: from 7.30 AM to 3.00 PM
• April, May, September: from 7.30 AM to 4.00 PM
• June - August: from 7:30 AM to 4:00 PM
• December: from 7.30 AM to 12.00 PM

  VISITING WITH A GUIDE-EDUCATOR

• Polish from 8.30, 9.00 to 13.00 in every hour • English from 8.30 to 12.30 in every  hour • French 11.45 • German 10.15 • Italian 11.15 • Spanish 10.45 • Russian 9.45

• Polish from  8.15, 9.00 to 13.00 in every hour • English from 8.30 to 13.30 in every  hour • French 11.15 • German 10.45 • Italian 11.45 • Spanish 12.15 • Russian 10.15

• Polish from  8.15, 9.00 to 14.00 in every hour • English from 8.30 to 14.30 in every  hour • French 10.15, 13.45 • German 9.45, 14.15 • Italian 11.15, 13.15 • Spanish 10.45, 14.45 • Russian 11.45

APRIL / MAY / JUNE

• Polish from  8.15 to 15.15 in 30 min. • English from 8.30 to 15.30 in 30 min. • French 10.15, 12.45, 13.15 • German 9.45, 12.00, 14.45 • Italian 11.15, 12.45, 14.15 • Spanish 10.45, 12.15, 13.45 • Russian 9.15, 11.45, 15.15

JULY / AUGUST

• Polish 8.15, 8.45, 9.15, 9.45 and from 10.15 to 15.45 in every 15 min., 16.15, 16.45  • English 08.30, 9.00 and from 9.30 to 15.30 in every 15 min., 16.00, 16.30 • Czech 10.45, 14.15 • Slovak 9.45, 13:45 • Russian 9.15, 11.45, 15.15 • French 10.15, 12.45, 14:15 • German 9.45, 12.00, 14.45 • Spanish 10.45, 12.15, 14.45 • Italian 11.15, 12.45, 14.15

• Polish from 8.15 to 15.15 in every 30 min. • English from 8.30 to 15.30 in every 30 min. • Russian 9.15, 11.45, 15.15 • French 10:15, 12:45, 13:15 • German 9.45, 12.00, 14.45 • Spanish 10.45, 12.15, 13.45 • Italian 11.15, 12.45, 14.15

• Polish 8.15 and from 9.00 to 14.00 in every hour • English form 8.30 to 14.30 in every hour • Russian 11.45 • French 10.15, 13.45 • German 9.45, 14,15 • Spanish 10.45, 14.45 • Italian 11.15, 13.15

• Polish 8.15 and from 9.00 to 14.00 in every hour • English from 8.30 to 12.30 in every  hour • French 11.45 • German 10.45 • Italian 11.15 • Spanish 12.15 • Russian 10.15

• Polish 8.15 and from 9.00 to 12.00 in every hour • English from 8.30 to 11.30 in every hour • French 11.45 • German 10.15 • Italian 11.15 • Spanish 10.45 • Russian 9.45

You can book a place on a tour at  visit.auschwitz.org , where you will find information on available dates and  prices of entry passes .

A tour lasts approximately 3.5 hours and it starts at Auschwitz I. 

The price includes a tour of the former Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau camps with a guide-educator, rental of a headset. The Museum provides transfer between both sites of the former camp. The shuttle bus is intended for individual visitors in guided tours. The transfer takes place in accordance with security procedures in force in the territory of the Republic of Poland regarding public transport means.

Sale of entry passes for language tours ends 5 minutes before the start of the tour.

Concessionary entry passes are available to pupils and students aged up to 26 years, people over 75 years of age and disabled upon presentation of a proper document.

During periods of increased visitor traffic, there may be a temporary limitation in the availability of group tours.

STUDY TOURS

Study tours are organized everyday (tour takes around 6 hours):

• Polish 9.00

• German 9.15

• English 9.30

• via @auschwitzmuseum" aria-label="Udostępnij na Twitter">

Images from www.auschwitz.org may be used only in publications relating to the history of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau or the activities of the Auschwitz Memorial. Their use must not tarnish the good reputation of the victims of KL Auschwitz. Any interference in the integrity of the images – including cropping or graphic processing – is prohibited. The use of the images for commercial purposes requires the Museum’s approval and information about the publication. Publishers undertake to indicate the authors and origin of the images: www.auschwitz.org, as well as to inform the Museum of the use of the images ([email protected]).

APRIL SALE:   Discover and book at   up to 60% off!

Tours & Trips including Auschwitz 2024/2025

Find the right tour for you through Auschwitz. We've got 107 adventures going to Auschwitz, starting from just 3 days in length, and the longest tour is 28 days. The most popular month to go is August, which has the largest number of tour departures.

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107 auschwitz tour packages with 1,131 reviews.

• In-depth Cultural
• Christmas & New Year

Krakow, Auschwitz & Wieliczka Salt Mine - 4 Days

What an amazing tour! Krakow is indeed a beautiful, historic city - however, it was mainly thanks to our guide Seweryn we enjoyed it so much! He took care about everything (accommodation; day tours; recommended us some places to eat; organized us a free museum tour) and he was always kind, passionate and organized. We'll be back! ;)

Krakow & Auschwitz

I felt like I was the only person involved in this "group" tour. When I booked this I was under the impression I would be with a group. I never met a consistent guide or any other consistent person on the same activities. It seemed like the accommodations and tours were arranged for me through TourRadar/Euroadventures. But quite honestly, I could have done that myself with better accommodations.

Krakow, Auschwitz, Enamel Factory & Wieliczka Salt Mine - 4 Days

I had a great first time experience of Krakow through this tour. My tour guide Seweryn was very friendly, flexible, organised and helpful and made the whole process very smooth. The trips to the mine, factory and camps were well laid out and gave me plenty of time for independent sightseeing and fun. If you want to come to Krakow I would highly recommend you do a trip this way!

• Coach / Bus

Highlights of Southern Poland

The Poland tour was excellent! The group leader Beata was awesome and all guidance, planning and itinerary was wonderful. Totally recommended!!

• Sightseeing

Pearls of Poland (for couples)

I think this tour is just right for covering the best sites in Poland in a week's time. I doubt few travelers know anything about Poland's history. So a brief outline of the essentials at the start of the tour would facilitate understanding in Warsaw and Krakow. Our guides were excellent, but if they had structured their presentations, they would have communicated the details at the sights visited much better. Since we two were the only tourists on this tour in this Covid-marred year, we traveled with a driver (Piotr) who was tops.

Highlights of Poland (Classic, 10 Days)

Poland is a great country, however the itinerary is much too structured and fast-paced. There was no time to just enjoy the city without getting information overload. Everything was on a strict time constraint. There needs to be in a change in the itinerary, and for the price that was paid I much rather go with another tour operator. That being said I will say the food and the accommodation work great as well as the tour leader.

6 days in Krakow and Szczawnica- private exclusive tour for 2 people

6 days in Krakow and Szczawnica- private exclusive tour for 5-8 people

Highlights of Poland

I had a fantastic time on this tour. Our guide Alexandria was wonderful. This tour was absolutely great. Everything was smooth sailing. Well organized.

• 10% deposit on some dates Some departure dates offer you the chance to book this tour with a lower deposit.

Portrait of Poland

I would prefer better meals and better WiFi service on the bus

Tailor-Made Private Trip to Southern Poland with Daily Departure

• Book With Flexibility This operator allows you to rebook your dates or tours with them for free, waiving change fees.

Best of the East

It was good we enjoyed

• Walking Adventure

Best of Poland (11 Days)

Kacha the tour leader is amazing. Very well organized, knowledgeable and accommodating. I loved the tour

• €100 deposit on some dates Some departure dates offer you the chance to book this tour with a lower deposit.

Tailor-Made Private Poland Tour with Daily Departure

Highlights of Poland (Small Groups, 10 Days)

What people love about auschwitz tours.

Seweryn was a fantastic tour guide and very knowledgeable about Krakow's history. I enjoyed learning about the many historical and religious details we saw around Krakow. He also went above and beyond to help me when I had trouble purchasing train tickets, and when I got sick offered to reschedule one of the tour days. I really enjoyed his tour and would highly recommend it.

Did their Krakow, Poland trip in December during the Christmas markets. Really a great trip and experience. Everything was very organized, had really good hotel near the square/old town (I booked the 3-star hotel, private room option with my husband), guides were very good & knowledgeable and the excursions/tours were very good. We also received a lot of extra information and recommendations for things to do and places to go (food and drink too) in our free time which was really nice and helpful. I was a bit nervous reading a few of the reviews here on Yelp but our experience was fantastic and nothing like what some others wrote in their reviews. Krakow was an amazing city and one of the most beautiful in Europe. Definitely recommend this trip and company.

12 Best Places To Visit In Germany With Family In 2024!

T hinking about visiting Germany with your kids? Looking for the best places to visit in Germany with family in 2024? You’re in the right place!

Germany is a fabulous destination for families. It’s renowned for its rich history, gorgeous landscapes and interesting culture. Its fairy-tale old towns and castles add some magic and its big cities add some vibrancy. All up, Germany is a captivating blend of historical charm and modern appeal.

From landmarks such as the Berlin Wall and Neuschwanstein Castle to the beautiful landscapes of the Rhine Valley and the Black Forest to the great food and ease of getting around, there’s so much to love about traveling in Germany.

Germany isn’t just for adults though. There are many fantastic places to visit in Germany with kids. In this guide, I’ll walk you through the best choices to add to your itinerary.

Why Is A Family Vacation In Germany A Great Idea?

Where to stay in berlin for families, where to stay in nuremberg for families, where to stay in rothenburg for families, where to stay in the rhine valley for families, where to stay in trier for families, where to stay in heidelberg for families, where to stay in europa park for families, where to stay in the black forest for families, where to stay near autostadt for families, where to stay in bremen for families, where to stay in lübeck for families, christmas markets.

Germany is an incredible destination for families for the reasons I mentioned above as well as many others. The fairy-tale castles are sure to capture your kids’ imagination.

A trip to the Berlin Wall can be a great accessible educational opportunity. A walk on cobblestoned streets through a colorful old town will take your kids right back to fairy-tale classics. Families are welcome almost everywhere.

There are, of course, many attractions in Germany for kids. From huge theme parks to children’s museums and fun markets, trains and more, there is a lot to love about traveling to Germany with kids.

The efficient train system and great road network also make it easy to get around and to explore as much of Germany as you like. There’s a great range of accommodation, including many hotels that specifically created for families.

The food can also be quite kid-friendly. It’s easy to enjoy a pretzel or a bratwurst (sausage) almost anywhere which is likely to appeal to even fussy eaters.

All up, it’s a very easy place for a family vacation that your kids won’t forget.

Best Places To Visit In Germany With Family

Here are my top 12 picks of the best places to visit in Germany with kids…

The capital of Germany, Berlin offers a fantastic blend of historical and family-friendly attractions. The Brandenburg Gate and the Berlin Wall are must visits for all and a great learning opportunity for kids.

The DDR Museum is a hands-on way for your family to learn about life in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Berlin is a city with a super interesting past, and there’s no better way for your kids to learn and understand it than in the city itself.

For more family focused attractions in Berlin , the Berlin Zoo is a great place to head with a wide variety of animals. The interactive Legoland Discovery Center is also a favorite among children. Head to the German Spy Museum for lots of fun spy activities, like dressing up and debugging a room.

To let off some steam, make sure you head to Tiergarten. This huge park has plenty of space to roam with historical monuments, six playgrounds and row boats. It’s also home to the zoo. 

I recommend The Circus Apartments in a handy spot in Berlin. They have a variety of apartment options including two and three bedroom, fully self-contained apartments for up to six people.

Click here for more details and the latest prices.

Nuremberg is our pick of the best city to visit in Germany with family. It’s an easy city to explore with a great range of attractions that are easily accessible for families.

The Old Town is the natural place to start with super colorful houses and the Kaiserburg (Imperial Castle) keeping watch from above. You can also explore the city from underground and see how Nuremberg’s art collections were kept safe during World War II. You can find the Spielzeugmuseum (Toy Museum) in the Old Town with toys from various time periods.

Just outside the Old Town, the Deutsche Bahn Museum is a must visit. It centers on the history of the German Railways with old carriages, videos and more. What kids will really love is the model railway, the chance to take a light railway ride and the interactive play area specifically for kids.

If you have younger kids (10 and under), don’t miss a day out at the Playmobil FunPark. This amusement park with Playmobil theming was one of my 6 and 10 year olds’ favorite places in Germany. There are great playgrounds, pedal boats, water play area, castle area, go karts and more. It’s located just outside of Nuremberg.

You can read more about things to do in Nuremberg here.

We stayed at the Novotel Nuernberg Centre Ville which was perfect for our family. It’s on the edge of the Old Town by the main station and has family rooms. There’s also a great indoor pool, children’s playroom, restaurants and more.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Home to maybe the most photographed old town in Germany, Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber (or just Rothenburg) is a picturesque medieval gem, perfect for exploring with kids.

It’s only a small town, but this is part of its charm. Its colorful buildings, cobblestoned streets and well-preserved town walls will help you feel like you’ve gone back in time. 

The town walls are the perfect place to start exploring. They offer many pretty views, and there are information boards along the way to learn more. It’s a great way for kids to let off some steam while discovering Rothenburg. There are also some playgrounds around the walls.

Another place families will enjoy is the Christmas Museum. It’s located in the Käthe Wohlfahrt Weihnachtsdorf which is a popular chain of Christmas stores that open year round. It’s about the history of Christmas customs with many decorations on display.

A popular place to visit in Rothenburg is the Mittelalterliches Kriminalmuseum (Medieval Crime Museum). It’s located in a building which is 600 years old and covers over 1,000 years of the legal history of Germany and Europe. It focuses on interrogation (torture), crime and punishment.

This museum is for families with teenagers who have an interest – and it is a fascinating museum. I visited without my 6 year old, which was the right choice.

We stayed at the Pension das Lädle which is in the heart of Rothenburg’s Old Town. It has three and four person rooms with separate sleeping areas for kids.

Rhine Valley

The Rhine Valley may be best known for its wines but it’s also a fabulous place to travel to Germany with children. With gorgeous towns, stunning wineries and fairy-tale castles, the whole family will love a trip here.

Start your adventure with a relaxing cruise down the Rhine trying to spot the castles that dot it before driving around and visiting your favorites. Rheinstein Castle is a picturesque place to start or visit Schönburg Castle with its amazing views and slingshot simulator your kids will enjoy.

Of course, you can’t miss out on stopping in the beautiful towns. Bacharach may be the cutest with a town wall to explore, a pretty Old Town and wines to taste. Boppard is another town worth heading to with half-timbered houses, old wine taverns and a Roman fort.

There’s also a fun chairlift in Boppard with great views and nice walks at the top. You can take an easy stroll to Vierseenblick (Four Lakes View). This cool viewpoint is at a horseshoe bend in the Rhine River and gives the illusion that there are four lakes instead of one river.

We stayed at the Rhine Pearl Hideaways which is a building of apartments in the middle of Oberwesel, a picturesque town in the middle of the Rhine Valley. The apartments are modern and perfect for families.

Trier is not just the oldest city in Germany and home to nine UNESCO World Heritage sites but is also a great destination in Germany for children.

Located near the border of Luxembourg and not far from the Rhine Valley, Trier has had human settlement for over 6,000 years. It was an important place in Roman times and you can still see ruins from this time today. These ruins are fun to explore with kids and are great for capturing the imagination.

Start your adventure at Porta Nigra, a second century Roman city gate. It’s the best way to enter the Old Town and is massive. In the Old Town there are pretty streets, Hauptmarkt (the main square), many churches, an antique toy museum and more. Trier Cathedral still has parts from Roman times.

As you head further south, there are more Roman ruins from thermal baths to an amphitheatre. It is worth checking them all out.

For a more hands-on experience, you can also visit Freilichtmuseum Roscheiderhof, an open air museum, about eight kilometers from Trier.

We stayed at Ibis Styles Trier which is right in the center of everything. There are family room options.

Beautiful Heidelberg is definitely one of the places to visit in Germany with children. With its great setting by the Neckar River and surrounded by hills, there are plenty of places for kids to explore and roam.

Heidelberg’s famous ruined castle is a great place to start. You can either walk up here or get a fun cogwheel train up. In addition to exploring the castle area, you can visit the Deutsches Apotheken-Museum (German Pharmacy Museum) inside the castle which covers the history of medical science and pharmacies in Germany. It’s interesting even for young kids with old reconstructed pharmacies, labs and interactive games.

After the castle, consider taking the cogwheel train further up the hill to visit the Walderlebnispfad (Forest Adventure Trail). This is an easy 2 kilometer trail with many activities to do along the way aimed at children. There is also a small, older-style amusement park up there.

Our favorite thing to do in Heidelberg was to head up the opposite hill to explore Heiligenberg, where settlement first started in this area. There are great paths through the forest where you can feel like you are discovering Celtic and Roman ruins, old monasteries and Thingstätte, an amphitheater completed in 1935 by the Nazis to spread propaganda.

We stayed at the Heidelberg Apheartments in the heart of Heidelberg. They offer fully self-contained apartments for up to eight people.

Find more great hotels in Heidelberg here.

Europa-Park – Rust

When you travel to Germany with kids, this theme park is likely to be their favorite place in the country.

Considered one of the best in Europe, Europa Park is massive with 18 themed areas, over 100 attractions, 13 roller coasters, many live shows and so much more. Think Disneyland but with European theming. Most of the themed areas are based on different countries in Europe. There is also a separate water park here called Rulantica.

Even visiting in peak August, we had so much fun here. The kids absolutely loved the more family-friendly roller coasters, getting wet on the splash rides and watching horse shows. The  park’s VirtualLine feature in the app helped to ensure we never lined up for too long and had a great time.

There are many places to eat, stay and more and this is a great way to end a family vacation in Germany. It’s located near the French border between Heidelberg and the Black Forest.

One of the many great things about Europa Park is that there are six hotels adjacent to the park and in the immediate area each with their own theming. If you stay at any of the hotels, you can access the many facilities at all of them and you also get early access to the park.

We stayed at Hotel Castillo Alcazar which was a lot of fun. It has its own entrance directly into the theme park and is themed as a Medieval knight’s castle. There are many family room options, even for larger families.

Black Forest

The Black Forest is definitely a fantastic region to head to when visiting Germany with kids. It’s incredibly scenic with beautiful villages and plenty of opportunities to explore the great outdoors.

We loved hiking round lakes, swimming outdoors, exploring the towns and visiting picturesque castles like Hohenzollern Castle. You can visit the home of cuckoo clocks in Triberg or peddle your way around Titisee lake on a boat. You can bathe in the thermal pools at Baden-Baden or explore the picturesque Old Town in Freiburg .

Kids will love Badeparadies Schwarzwald Titisee, a big indoor waterpark with an amazing sauna complex for adults. And, of course, no visit is complete without a slice of the famous black forest cake (although technically it doesn’t come from here).

There are so many awesome experiences in the Black Forest for families that you could spend your whole trip in this region alone.

We stayed at the Feldberger Hof Family Hotel in the Black Forest. It’s an all inclusive resort specifically for families and it’s amazing. There are so many family friendly facilities (including an outdoor ropes course, horse riding and indoor pool area with water slides), activities, rooms and great food.

The hotel also includes an attractions pass for the region which gives free or discounted entry to 60 attractions plus public transport.

Autostadt Wolfsburg

Autostadt Wolfsburg is an automobile museum and theme park located in Wolfsburg, Germany. It tells the story of the history and development of automobiles, but also has attractions and activities related to automotive culture. This isn’t a big, dry museum.

Spread over 28 hectares, there are multiple museums, massive car towers, playgrounds, giant slides and various car pavilions. One of the coolest parts is definitely the round, glass, 60 meter towers that store Volkswagen cars ready to be delivered to new homes. It’s fully automated with cars being placed and removed from the tower with ease. You can take a ride up the towers yourself for an up close look.

This place is a whole world with plenty of cars and history to explore. Adults can test drive real vehicles while kids can learn to drive in some very cool miniature ones. There are many interactive exhibits. It’s easy to enjoy a half day here. 

For families, there are also some playgrounds including some huge slides up to 18.5 meters high. There’s a cool shop and plenty of eating options too.

For the full Autostadt experience, it is possible to stay on-site. The Ritz-Carlton Wolfsburg Autostadt hotel is located here.

There’s a pool, sauna, two restaurants (Including a three Michelin star option) and a lounge. Rooms cater for up to four people.

If you’re heading to northern Germany, Bremen is a great place to stop for families. At the end of the Fairy Tale Route, Bremen celebrates the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tale, the Bremen Town Musicians with a statue of the donkey, dog, cat and rooster from the tale in the main square.

There are also images and statues around town of these creatures and it’s fun to have the kids look out for them. If you aren’t familiar with this story, I recommend that you watch it on YouTube before you go.

The Old Town is fun to explore for all ages with a great main square, the stunning Bremen Cathedral and the laneways of Schnoor and Böttcherstraße. It’s easy to explore by foot. 

The Universum Science Centre is a standout attraction if you visit Germany with kids. It has interactive and educational exhibits which kids will enjoy. 

For a thought-provoking historical site, visit the Bunker Valentin. It’s an absolutely massive World War II submarine factory that has been left standing to illustrate the futility of war.

We stayed at the Best Western Bremen City . It has some great apartment style rooms for families within walking distance of the main attractions.

Also in northern Germany, Lübeck is a charming city home to a picturesque, UNESCO World Heritage listed Old Town. It is a good mix of historical and kid-friendly attractions. 

The best place to start is with a wander through the well-restored Old Town. Encircled by the Trave River, there are many great views, churches, museums and more. A feature of this Old Town are the hidden courtyards. These are courtyards from the Middle Ages accessed via small walkways from the street. We made it a family game to try to spot as many as possible.

The world-class European Hansemuseum is worth visiting and an easy way to learn more about the Hanseatic League which played a big part in Lübeck’s past.

Lübeck is famous for its marzipan so a sugary treat at Cafe Niederegger is the perfect way to end a day of sightseeing. When you have finished exploring Lübeck, consider a trip to Travemünde on the Baltic Sea. Just 20 minutes from Lübeck, it’s the perfect place to have some beach time. It also has a pretty Old Town.

We stayed at Hotel Die Reederin . It’s a gorgeous boutique hotel in Lübeck’s Old Town. It offers a spacious family room option.

My final place to visit in Germany with kids is a special one if you are visiting in late November or December. I recommend you visit as many Christmas markets as you can if you visit at this time of year.

German Christmas Markets are incredibly magical and special. From the traditional food and drinks to the Christmas music and lights, they set the scene for a perfect Christmas.

Many Christmas markets and destinations in Germany have special events perfect for families at this time of year. For example, Quedlinburg has the “largest Advent calendar in Germany”. At 4:30pm every day in the lead up to Christmas, families meet up and search together for one of 24 houses with special Christmas decorations that are open to the public. Inside, there are surprises.

Nuremberg Christmas Market has a special section for kids with old-fashioned rides, crafts and activities. For novelty, head to Cologne for a floating Christmas market on a ship. Munich has a Kinderland section at one of its Christmas markets with special activities and a Christmas Post Office. In Hamburg, you can watch Santa fly overhead in his sleigh!

Christmas is a truly special time in Germany for the whole family so make sure you include plenty of Christmas markets in your itinerary at this time.

Final Thoughts

Germany is a fantastic place to visit for families. There is so much to enjoy here from the great outdoors to the interesting history that surrounds you.

There are plenty of kid-focused attractions, but it’s also easy to visit interesting historical and cultural attractions in a way that is interesting for kids too.

I hope this list helps you have one of your best family vacations in Germany.

Bio: Sharon Gourlay is a full-time blogger and mum of three who loves sharing her love of travel with kids with others, especially when it comes to sharing one of her favorite destinations, Germany! You can find more information to plan your ultimate adventure in Germany at Germany Footsteps .