KRAKOW BREAK - Vicinity - OŚWIĘCIM (AUSCHWITZ)

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Auschwitz-Birkenau
Unfothomably shocking and any words can describe the horror of death camp. Read More

Salt Mines
A unique phenomenon of mediewal salt mine remarkable as the Pyramids. Read More

Jurassic Trials
A grade expedition into the limestone gorge with unique microclimate and an astonishing rich variety of wildlife. Read More

Kalwaria Zebrzydowska
The centres of pilgrimage offers a simple insight into the inner workings of Polish Catholicism.
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Oswiecim (Auschwitz)

Jews and Jewish heritage loom large in the history of Poland. Prior to the outbreak of World War II Jews comprised roughly 10 percent (three million) of the country's population, the largest Jewish community in Europe and the second largest in the world at this time. Most of them were killed in the Nazis concentration camps. The grave of estimated 1,5 million people is Oświęcim (the name was changed to Auschwitz by the Nazis), seventy kilometres west of Kraków. Much have been written about this place and many have tried to explain its existence. It is for each visitor to try to understand why this happened. Do not be deterred. It is practically a duty to visit Auschwitz but be prepared. The Auschwitz concentration camp is a symbol of horror, a memorial to Man's inhumanity to Man, of organised slaughter on the scale never conceived before and of the Holocaust, the planned and systematic destruction of a race of people.
The camp was constructed by the German Nazis in 1940 and at the beginning only Polish citizens were sent there to be exterminated in the camp. They were soon followed by some 12.000 soviet prisoners of War. From 1942 Auschwitz became the most important camp for the mass extermination of European Jews. This was the Nazi goal to wipe out all the Jews in the world. Many of them during the transport over there believed the Nazi propaganda that they are on the way to a new life of work in German factories. It is the main reason why they brought so many personal valuable with them.