Overview

On Sunday, 23rd October 2022 I visited Auschwitz-Birkenau. I have studied World War II since my school days and in particular the Holocaust. I would class myself as very knowledgeable about this subject, but no amount of knowledge, reading, studying or watching documentaries can prepare you for the feeling of actually being there in person. From the moment I arrived at Auschwitz, before the car had even parked up, I felt a wave of emotion come over me and a very heavy feeling inside. Auschwitz is split into two camps (there was actually 3 but you can only visit the two) Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II Birkenau which are about 1.5 miles apart. There were several points of the tour where I found myself wiping tears from eyes. It really hit me so hard when the guide was talking about not only what the Nazis done to men and women but children as well. The guide also spoke quite a bit about Josef Mengele, who was known in Auschwitz as the Angel of Death, an SS officer and physician who conducted inhumane and sick experiments on prisoners, including children. There are also certain rooms where there is very strict no photography or video allowed at all. One of these rooms is where they have 2 tonnes of human hair. You know how light hair is, just imagine what 2 tonnes of it looks like. Heartbreaking. I actually didn't take many photographs at all. I was too concentrated on listening to our tour guide, deep thinking and just trying to comprehend the horrors that happened on the ground I was stood on to even think about taking photographs. There is also a room that is full of mobility aids and prosthetic limbs that were confiscated from disabled prisoners who arrived at Auschwitz. Disabled people were immediately sent to the gas chambers to be executed upon arrival at Auschwitz as the Nazis deemed them all unfit for work. It is an important place in history and its important that we never forget the 1.1million people who were murdered here, that is why I would encourage you to visit if you do get the chance to go.

Transport & Parking

I booked a guided tour and part of the package was that I got picked up from my hotel in Krakow driven to Auschwitz which is about a 1 hour 20 minute drive, driven between the two camps and then dropped back off at my hotel. The driver arrived and picked me up at my hotel at 7:30am and dropped me back off again around 2:00pm. When I booked I let them know I was visually impaired and they were very accommodating. There are also accessible parking bays in the car park for both Auschwitz and Birkenau camps.

Access

I give this a 3 star rating, but not because it was bad but because I want to make people aware that for historical purposes they have, for understandable reasons, wanted to maintain as much originality as possible so the ground and buildings are largely untouched and exactly how they were in the 1940s. This means that for most of it visually impaired people should be aware that the ground is very uneven, the steps leading up to the blocks in Auschwitz I are also uneven in places and in places some steps are different heights. When you go to the Birkenau camp you also walk over the railway track. This also makes a few areas of the camps not accessible to wheelchair users. The tour guide I had done a fantastic job of describing photographs he was talking about and describing the surroundings and places we paused at to talk about events that had happened. It should also be noted that there is a lot of walking when you take the guided tour. This is due to just the sheer scale of Auschwitz, in particular Birkenau. When the tour was over and we got back in the car to drive back to Krakow about 12:45pm I checked my step count and I had already walked 11,000 steps!

Toilets

There is an accessible toilet on site near the car park to Auschwitz I camp

Staff

The tour guide was very good and as I mentioned earlier done a fantastic job of describing photographs and surroundings. The driver who picked me up and took me back to Krakow afterwards was also extremely helpful

Photos