Following the defeat with the September Campaign of 1939, when Polish soldiers had attemptedto repel the German invasion, town of Oswiecim and the surrounding areas were incorporated from the Third Reich. Concurrently its name was changed to Auschwitz. After 1939, at the SS and Police Headquarters in Wroclaw (Braslau), thinking about starting a concentration camp had been recently proposed. The official justification with this plan took it's origin from the overcrowding with the existing prisons in Silesia, and also on require conducting further waves of mass arrest one of the Polish inhabitants each Silesia and also the rest of German-occupied Poland.

Several special committees were convened, whose task it was to take into consideration the most favorable position for this type of camp. The supreme choice fell upon the deserted pre-war Polish barracks in Oswiecim. Situated a ways from the built up part of the town, they can with ease be expanded and isolated from the outside world. Take into consideration not without significance was the convenient position of Oswiecim - an import and railway junction - inside existing communications network.

The order to proceed with plans to found a camp was presented in April 1940, and Rudolf Hoss was appointed its first commandant. On June 14, 1940, the Gestapo dispatched the very first political prisoners to KL Auschwitz - 728 Poles from Tarnow. Initially the camping ground comprised 20 buildings - 14 at walk-out and 6 with an upper floor. Through the period from 1941 to 1942 an additional story was put into all ground-floor buildings and eight new blocks were constructed, while using the prisoners because employees. Altogether the camp now contained 28 one-story buildings ( excluding kitchens, storehouses etc. ) The average number of prisoners fluctuated between 13-16.000, reaching at one stage ( during 1942 ) a record total of 20.000 people. These were accommodated inside the blocks, where perhaps the cellares and lofts had been for this purpose.



As the number of inmates increased, the location covered by the camp also, grew, until it turned out changed into a huge and horrific factory of death. The monstrosity in Oswiecim - KL Auschwitz I - became the parent or "Stammlager" into a whole generation of recent camps. In 1941 the construction of an extra camp, later called Auschwitz II-Birkenau, was commenced inside the village of Brzezinka 3 kilometers away as well as in 1942 the camping ground in Monowice near Oswiecim-KL Auschwitz III-was established for the territory with the German chemical plant IG-Farbenindustrie. Furthermore, in the years 1942-1944, about 40 smaller branches with the Auschwitz complex occurred these fell underneath the jurisdiction of KL Auschwitz III and were situated mainly around steelworks, mines and factories, where prisoners were exploited as cheap labour.

The camp in Oswiecim ( KL Auschwitz I) along with Brzezinka (KL Auschwitz II - Birkenau) are maintained as museums available to people. The most important constructions and objects in Birkenau are the remnants of four 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 such a construction is the "Death block."

Furthermore in the camps are well preserved blocks and a section of prisoners barracks, the principle entrance gates to the camps, sentry watch towers as well as barbed wire fences. Many 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 with the SS obliterating the traces with their crimes. Inside the cases of special importance the constructions were reproduced through the museum and used in the identical area while they were through the existence of the Auschwitz camp. Most importantly fundamental essentials "Death wall" and the collective gallows at the role-call ground.

The prison blocks from the camp at Auschwitz contain exhibitions portraying a brief history of Auschwitz or hearing aid technology torments of the numerous nations whose individuals were murdered here. Across the main gate at Auschwitz - through which the prisoners passed on a daily basis on their way to be effective (returning 12 hours or maybe more later) you will find there's cynical inscription: "Arbeit macht frei" (Work brings freedom). and so on the small square from the kitchen the camp ground orchestra would play marsches, mustering the 1000s of prisoners so they could be counted better by the SS.

This is a short information about a camp and what you'll expect when you are there.

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

Wieliczka Salt Mine near Krakow remembers the days with the Middle Ages. It one of many world's oldest salt mine on the globe. This is the only mining facility on earth functioning continuously since Ancient for this, allowing the evolution of mining technology in various historical periods. Wieliczka Salt Mine is all about 300 km of excavation on 9 levels, the first that - the degree of Bono - goes to a depth of 64 meters, while the latter lies 327 meters under the surface. Total length of sidewalks, connecting about 3000 excavation (sidewalks, ramps, service chambers, lakes, wells, shafts), exceeds 300 km. The tourist route is 3 km, consists of 20 chambers found at depths from 64 to 135 meters.

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