Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum - The Museum

The Museum

Further information: Auschwitz concentration camp, Monowitz concentration camp, and List of subcamps of Auschwitz

On July 2, 1947, the museum was founded by resolution of the Polish parliament. The area covers 191 hectares, twenty of them in camp Auschwitz I and 171 in camp Auschwitz II. Since 1979 the former concentration camp has belonged to the World Cultural Heritage and more than 25 million people have visited the museum. From 1955 to 1990 the museum was directed by one of its founders and former inmates, Kazimierz Smoleń.

The areas of remembrance are Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, the train ramp between Auschwitz and Birkenau, which was used as a "debarkation-stop" between 1942–1944. The three kilometres between Auschwitz and Birkenau are within walking distance. The museum is situated in several original buildings.

The number of visitors has been increasing year by year. In 2006 more than one million people from 94 countries visited: from Poland (341,000), U.S. (96,000), UK (57,200), Italy (51,000), Germany (50,200), France (39,100), Israel (37,200), South Korea (35,400), Norway (30,600), and Spain (23,300). There were 1.3 million visitors in 2009 and 1.38 million in 2010. In 2011 more than 1.4 million people from 111 countries visited: from Poland (610,000), United Kingdom (82,000), Italy (78,000), Israel (62,000), Germany (58,000), France (56,000), United States (52,000), Spain (46,000), South Korea and Czech Republic (43,000 each).

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