I’m off to Poland on Monday for a delivery not too far from this horrible place. Has anybody ever been, and what’s the story with admission and stuff? It’s one of those items on my bucket list, so unfortunately…I gotta do it. 
Hi
From April to October it’s guided tours only and you have to book 2 weeks in advance, you might be lucky and get a cancellation but best to try before you go. Well worth a visit, but take tissues!
Take a look here http://en.auschwitz.org.pl/z/
Cheers mate…After posting, I looked at that website. Think I’ll give it a miss as won’t have the time… I think!
There are two parts to this museum - Auschwitz 1 and 2, the latter is known as Birkenau. Between 10am and 3pm you can only join a guided tour at Auschwitz 1,and you have to pay for the guide; before 10am and after 3pm you can go in without a guide and there is no charge. At Birkenau you can go in at any time up to about 7pm and it is free. The two sites are about three km apart and there is a bus between the two. We visited in the summer and parked at Birkenau and took the bus to site 1.( there is a carpark at A 2, I believe you have to pay, but there is also land as you approach where it is possible to park FOC). There is parking at A 1 too. You do have to book for A1 if you wish to go between 10 and 3, but 2 weeks in advance?? probably more like 2 hours - at least it was when we were there. We actually arrived at 9.55 and got in free without booking. We have visited Dachau and Ravensbruck ( the women’s camp) but this one was by far and away the most emotive. If you only have time for one site I personally think Birkenau is the better option, it is well worth a visit but you do need plenty of time. If you do go I advise avoiding the Cottbus route out of Germany, we have named it the ‘never-to-be-used again’ road - it really would find any weak points on your vehicle as well as your back!. All the best, have a safe journey.
I’ve been to Poland loads of times, though never to this area. So I will try and make it. I’m there for a few days so fingers crossed.
Its a bit over an hour away for us, been a few times with folk visiting us. The 2 sites are 10 minutes apart. Its not a couple of hours visit, it needs 6 hours to take it all in. The original camp is an old Polish army barracks taken over by the Germans and in good order, Camp 2 was mostly destroyed and a lot of it has been re-built to how it was. We have never had a guide with us, its seems best to go at your own speed and pause when you want, the place speaks for itself.
I think its important place to visit, but you have to find the time and best done during winter, a chilling Polish winters day gives a truer feeling for the place.
I went a few years ago and I’d remmend it to everyone. The whole place as an aura of death and despear but also of hope that we’ve been to hell and survived to be better as a people.
You should should go and take in what ultimately happens when people get de-humanised by racism or all the other reasons we have to hate and mistrust people that are different from the us.
My brother went on a school trip there a few years ago and commented that he didn’t feel it would be right to take photo’s. If its enough to move a teenage boy it must be a pretty poignant place.
Don’t forget to send us a postcard.If you’ve ever delivered to Salvessens or dentressangles as they now are up in Grimsby you should be well prepared for the Auschwitz experience…abandon hope etc. 
Don’t go by train 
Now I’ve got that out of my system, I hope you do get the chance to visit, all that stuff should never be forgotten, I know it’s a little macabre, but I would love to go.
newmercman:
Don’t go by trainNow I’ve got that out of my system, I hope you do get the chance to visit, all that stuff should never be forgotten, I know it’s a little macabre, but I would love to go.
Meet me at Dover and you’re in! 
I never been there, but I was in few smaller ones… Germans left us a lot of such places, you know.
If one is interested in this period of history, another fascinating place to view in Poland is so called “MiÄ™dzyrzecki Rejon Umocniony”, or rather should I say Ostwall, it’s north from Åšwiebodzin, near MiÄ™dzyrzecz on national road 3.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mi%C4%99dz … ied_Region
I used to hike in there (here, exactly: petla-boryszynska.com/index.html ) when I was younger and where it was not secured, AFAIK you can still enter it if you know where - it’s miles and miles of undergroung corridors. It’s a second biggest after Maginot line in France.
If you get a chance to visit Auschwitz then you should , i have i think many years ago waited to load at MAN factory next to Dachau so i walked around , so quiet no birds nothing was something i wont forget. but then again i think i think the people of Palestine wont forget the end of the War
Not been, I have been to Belsen a few times though and that is very moving also.