Posted by admin | Posted in Guest travel writers | Posted on 24-10-2011
The city of Krakow is among the first settlements in Poland and also the second biggest city in the country today. It is located on the Vistula River and is set just at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains. The city was founded during the 7thcentury and has been an important academic and cultural centre. It is also a main centre for art, trade, business and tourism. The city of Krakow has very interesting architecture and plenty of landmarks that are waiting to be seen. Among the sites that provoke real interest is the Auschwitz memorial.
Gate of Auschwitz
The Auschwitz site is of great historical importance to Krakow and Poland and is definitely among the tourist places that need to be visited when you stay in your Krakow apartment. Travellers should remember that when they are visiting during peak hours, they are best off joining a tour group with a guide. This makes the entry process easier to organise. So, if you are an individual but want to see the place, do not worry as the staff will set you up in a tour group with other people. Outside the peak hours or before 10 o’clock in the morning and 3 o’clock in the afternoon, people can enter the memorial on their own.
There are guides available in six languages, namely French and English, German and Spanish, Italian and Polish. However, groups can be also organised in Russian and Japanese, Serbian and Croatian, Hungarian and Swedish. The Auschwitz memorial is open until 7 o’clock in June, July and August and until 6 o’clock in May and September. In October it is open only until 5 o’clock.You can travel there on a day trip from your apartment in Warsaw
Tourists should know that just two or three kilometres outside the Auschwitz site, there is a second concentration camp, which is also open to visitors. That camp is Birkenau. Actually, the ticket that a tourist buys covers the sightseeing in both Birkenau and Auschwitz. Travellers should know that if they come from the city of Krakow with a bus, after they have seen Auschwitz, they can take the same bus and go to Birkenau and then back to the first site – Auschwitz. From then on they can return to Krakow and continue the rest of their stay there.
Tracks leading to Birkenan
Fence and Guard Tower
The Auschwitz site and memorial is very important for various reasons. It is a symbol of the Holocaust and genocide, but is also a symbol of human heroism and resistance. Here, during the Second World War many innocent people were murdered. The concentration camp was established in 1940 and was later extended. The mass murder organised there by the Nazi came to an end five years later when the soldiers of the Soviet Army entered the camp. But it was already too late for hundreds of thousands of people. Since this humiliating part of history should never be forgotten, the grounds and structures of the camp were protected and are now a museum and also a site of the UNESCO World Heritage List.
