Oświęcim, Poland 🇵🇱 2022

Date: 16-17th August 2022

Travelled: 250 kms from Wrocław to Oświęcim in Poland  

Visited:  Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum   

Stayed: Oświęcim CDIM Stellplatz, €28, N50.02360, E19.19880  

Budget: 84 days @ €108 per day

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We roll out of Wrocław wishing we had another day here. The old city was just amazing and a campsite with plenty of shade is just what you want on a 29° afternoon. We do another quick Lidl shop on our way to the E45. It’s a toll road unfortunately.

Once on the tollway it’s a beautiful piece of EU engineering, the traffic is light eastbound but westbound is very heavy, never seen so many trucks. A tail ender pictured between two truck has the traffic at a standstill for more than 20 kms.

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We turn for Oświęcim just past Katowice. The local roads here are poor, so the last 30 kms is very slow. It suddenly starts to rain heavily which is good to cool everything down, but the potholes are now full of water, so impossible to avoid.

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Oświęcim, województwo małopolskie, Poland

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There are three parking places in Oświęcim for campers, but two are little more than a large carpark with a security guard. As we plan on being here for two nights we opt for the CDIM, it’s a hotel and conference centre with expansive grassed surrounds. There’s plenty of parking for campers with shade with all the usual facilities. So we book in and get to chatting with our mostly Dutch neighbours.

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The rest of the day is resting, reading and relaxing. We have tickets for the museum tomorrow at midday so we just veg.

Next morning is much of the same as yesterday afternoon other than we start planning our return to the UK. At 11.30 we walk up to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum show our tickets and join the queue.

Visiting somewhere like Auschwitz-Birkenau is not for everyone, it’s not a visit your likely to come away thinking I really enjoyed that or wasn’t it fun. It’s challenging to imagine how a group of individuals let alone a nation of people could go along with facilitating murder on an industrial scale.

The following are some images I captured at Auschwitz #1.

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Just to expand a little as it helps explain the history and geography. Auschwitz is the German name for the Polish town of Oświęcim. There was a large Polish Army Camp here before the war and the majority of buildings here were originally part of that army barracks. Those barracks became Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

Birkenau is the German name of second camp, 2 kms west of Auschwitz. It was open farmland. The German SS or lets say the National Socialist (Nazi) regime purpose built an extermination camp here. This was extermination at an industrial level, 80% of those who arrived by train from all over Europe where murdered within a day of arriving. The remainder would die within a few weeks or months, from malnutrition, disease or brutal treatment. .

Our tour includes a short bus ride to Birkenau…and the following images were captured there.

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So that’s Auschwitz-Birkenau done. Where tired, hungry, dehydrated, a little sunburnt and slightly emotional. A cool shower a glass of cold beer and wine seem to be a cure all. Lucky we have some leftovers in the fridge…

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Michael+Pam