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Following the defeat from the September Campaign of 1939, when Polish soldiers had attemptedto repel the German invasion, the town of Oswiecim along with the surrounding areas were incorporated inside the Third Reich. Simultaneously its name was changed to Auschwitz. By the end of 1939, with the SS and Police Headquarters in Wroclaw (Braslau), the thought of generating a concentration camp had also been proposed. The state justification with this plan scaled like the overcrowding from the existing prisons in Silesia, and also on the need of conducting further waves of mass arrest one of the Polish inhabitants each Silesia and the rest of German-occupied Poland.

Several special committees were convened, whose task it had been to think about probably the most favorable place for a real camp. The ultimate choice fell upon the deserted pre-war Polish barracks in Oswiecim. Situated a ways out of the developed portion of the town, they can quite easily be expanded and isolated externally world. Another factor not without significance was the convenient position of Oswiecim – an import and railway junction – from the existing communications network.

An order to proceed with plans to found a camp was handed in April 1940, and Rudolf Hoss was appointed its first commandant. On June 14, 1940, the Gestapo dispatched the 1st political prisoners to KL Auschwitz – 728 Poles from Tarnow. Initially the camping ground comprised 20 buildings – 14 at ground level and 6 with an upper floor. Throughout the period from 1941 to 1942 an extra story was put into all ground-floor buildings and 8 new blocks were constructed, with all the prisoners because workforce. Altogether the camping ground now contained 28 one-story buildings ( excluding kitchens, storehouses etc. ) The normal quantity of prisoners fluctuated between 13-16.000, reaching at one stage ( during 1942 ) a record total of 20.000 people. These were accommodated from the blocks, where perhaps the cellares and lofts had been for this specific purpose.

Because the quantity of inmates increased, the region covered by the camp also, grew, until it absolutely was transformed into a huge and horrific factory of death. The monstrosity in Oswiecim – KL Auschwitz I – became the parent or "Stammlager" to some whole generation of new camps. In 1941 the making of an extra camp, later called Auschwitz II-Birkenau, was commenced inside the village of Brzezinka 3 kilometers away and in 1942 the camping ground in Monowice near Oswiecim-KL Auschwitz III-was established about the territory from the German chemical plant IG-Farbenindustrie. Furthermore, throughout the years 1942-1944, about 40 smaller branches in the Auschwitz complex came into being these fell under the jurisdiction of KL Auschwitz III and were situated mainly around steelworks, mines and factories, where prisoners were exploited as cheap labour.

The camping ground in Oswiecim ( KL Auschwitz I) plus Brzezinka (KL Auschwitz II – Birkenau) are now maintained as museums open to the population. The key constructions and objects in Birkenau would be the remnants of 4 crematoria, gas chambers and cremation pits and pyres, the special unloading platform were the deportees were selected and also a pond with human ashes. In Auschwitz this type of construction will be the "Death block."

Furthermore both in camps are well preserved blocks plus a section of prisoners barracks, the primary entrance gates for the camps, sentry watch towers along with barbed wire fences. A few of the constructions destroyed by the Nazis were rebuilt from the original elements – for example the ovens from the crematorium I. Some objects were completely destroyed through the SS obliterating the traces with their crimes. Inside the installments of special importance the constructions were reproduced through the museum and placed in precisely the same area while they were throughout the presence of the Auschwitz camp. Above all these are the basic "Death wall" along with the collective gallows on the role-call ground.

The prison blocks inside the camp at Auschwitz contain exhibitions portraying a brief history of Auschwitz or hearing aid technology torments of the numerous nations whose everyone was murdered here. Higher than the main gate at Auschwitz – by which the prisoners passed on a daily basis enroute to work (returning 12 hours or even more later) there exists a cynical inscription: "Arbeit macht frei" (Work brings freedom). and also on the tiny square from the kitchen the camping ground orchestra would play marsches, mustering the thousands of prisoners so they really may be counted more efficiently by the SS.

This is a short information regarding a camp and what you’ll expect when you are there.

Salt Mine in Wieliczka is a second part tours a single day.

Wieliczka Salt Mine near Krakow remembers the days with the Middle Ages. It one of the world’s oldest salt mine on earth. This can be the only mining facility on the globe functioning continuously since Middle Ages to the present, allowing the evolution of mining technology in numerous historical periods. Wieliczka Salt Mine is approximately 300 km of excavation on 9 levels, the initial that – the degree of Bono – goes to a depth of 64 meters, even though the latter lies 327 meters underneath the surface. Total period of sidewalks, connecting about 3000 excavation (sidewalks, ramps, service chambers, lakes, wells, shafts), exceeds 300 km. The tourist route is 3 km, includes 20 chambers located at depths from 64 to 135 meters.

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Auschwitz & Salt Mine tour you can check our new net page.