Articles

Visitors to the Auschwitz Site

Auschwitz is the most recognizable symbol and place of genocide in the world. 

More than 44 million people from all over the world have visited Auschwitz since 1945. 

  Visitors to Auschwitz in 1945-1957

The Nazi German Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by the Red Army troops on 27 January 1945. The camp grounds could be visited already in 1945, although visits were relatively limited at that time. After the beginning of organizational work to establish the Museum, the visits became more popular and in 1946 the number of visitors reached 100 thousand. The following year, in 1947, the number reached 170 thousand. During the first ten years of its existence, the Memorial was visited by two million people. 

  The highest number of visitors

For several decades the former camp was visited annually by approximately 500-600 thousand people; from the beginning of the 21st century that number began to grow. More than a million people from all over the world visit the Museum annually since 2007. 

The highest number of visitors was registered in 2014, when more than 1.5 million people visited Auschwitz. 

In 2014 most visitors came from:  Poland (398 thousand), Great Britain (199), USA (92), Italy (84), Germany (75), Israel (62), Spain (55), France (54), the Czech Republic (52), and South Korea (41). 

  Guides to the Memorial

Almost 300 licensed guides-educators, specially trained for this purpose by the International Centre for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust, and speaking a total of 19 languages, help visitors to get to know the history of Auschwitz. No other museum in the world offers this kind of service.

  Who visits Auschwitz Site?

Most of the visitors are young people, many of them come within various educational programmes. It is evident that over the last decade Auschwitz has become the fundamental Memorial Site for the entire continent of Europe. This fact reflects the actual significance of the history of the Holocaust and the trauma of concentration camp prisoners for the understanding of the history of Europe and its present face. 

The growing educational dimension of the site indirectly reveals the challenges the contemporary world still faces. Therefore, many politicians and state leaders come to pay tribute to the victims of the Nazis in Auschwitz. They deem it to be their moral responsibility to visit this place – one of the greatest warnings for humanity.

 Virtual contact with Auschwitz

Although personal visits to the Memorial Site and direct contact with its history and authenticity cannot be substituted, many people benefit from the Museum’s presence online. In 2014, the number of unique visits to the official Museum website at www.auschwitz.org was 12 million. Additionally, each day, thanks to social media – FacebookTwitterYouTubeInstagram i Pinterest – the Auschwitz Memorial reaches almost 200 thousand people on every continent. The Memorial can be also visited virtually at: panorama.auschwitz.org.