Oświęcim

German: Auschwitz Postal code: 32-600 Dialling code: +48 (0)33

Urban commune

Area: 30 km² Population: 43.586

World renown, the city's name is a symbol of the martyrdom of the millions. It is located about 65 kilometres west of Cracow. The Nazis established the Auschwitz concentration camp in April 1940. Enlarged in the subsequent years, it became a site of mass genocide. Some 1,5 million people of 28 nationalities died here.

In 1979 the Oswiecim-Brzezinka (Auschwitz-Birkenau) concentration camp was entered onto the UNESCO World Heritage List. The site was turned into a museum in 1947, and is known as the Memorial to the Martyrdom of the Polish and Other Nations.

Twenty-eight one-storey brick blocks are found in the barbed-wire encampment of the older part, which is entered through the gate with the inscription 'Arbeit macht Frei' (Work makes free). There is an exhibition which shows such horrifying objects as piles of artificial limbs, eye-glasses, shoes and suitcases once belonging to the victims.

The second part of the camp occupied the present district of Brzezinka (Birkenau). It is the largest cemetery in the world. Visitors can see some surviving barracks and the ruins of gas chambers and crematoria. The monumental Memorial to the Victims of Fascism was erected in order to pay homage to the millions of people murdered here.