4. Krakow: Auschwitz-Birkenau & Frames of Memory Morning Tour
Travel from Krakow and visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum alongside an official guide. See the remaining structures, view touching exhibits commemorating the camp’s victims and survivors, and end with a special guided walk through "The Labyrinths" art installation.
Start with an early-moring pickup in Krakow to avoid the busiest time at the memorial. Ride in an air-conditioned bus while your tour leader reviews the day’s itinerary. During the journey, get an introduction to the history of Auschwitz-Birkenau and its role during the Holocaust.
After a 1-hour and 40-minute drive and a brief security check, meet the official licensed museum guide who will accompany your group around the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex. Receive a headset to enhance your hearing as you learn about the largest concentration camp complex from World War II.
The first portion of the complex tour will lead you around Auschwitz, now a designated national museum, where the barracks are still intact. Hear somber tales of what life was like in the camp as you view the various exhibitions displaying original items that belonged to the camp prisoners.
Next, take a short drive to the Birkenau Memorial. Here, witness the gas chambers and the railway, which transported prisoners to the camps, and the unloading platform. Commemorate the camp’s victims as you walk around the memorial site.
After the guided Birkenau tour, meet up with your tour leader and board the bus towards your last tour stop before returning back to Krakow. Head to a nearby village of Harmęże, where agricultural forced labor was done by Auschwitz prisoners, and enter the village’s monastery.
See the “Frames of memory. Labyrinths” art exhibition, created by Marian Kołodziej, camp prisoner no. 432 and a survivor of Auschwitz. This one-of-a-kind exhibit recreates the reality of the camp through his art.
Reflect on the moving artworks and step inside emotional installations, which aim to inspire visitors so that the atrocities of the Holocaust will never be repeated again.