Yiddish: Oyshvitzim, Oshpitzin, Oshvitzin
German: Auschwitz

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Tourist Attractions
The remodelled 13th-century castle on the River Sola; the remains of defence walls; the Gothic church of the Most Holy Virgin Mary the Succourer (first half of the 14th century, remodelled between 1899 and 1906). The Town Hall from the first half of the 19th century and several houses from the 18th century.

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Auschwitz is one of the 20th century's symbols of absolute evil. Avisit to this death camp is everyone's moral duty, even though the installations designed and erected here so that man could more effectively murder his fellow man are truly appalling. Everything here is awarning to posterity and to omit Auschwitz would mean to turn ablind eye to the tragic fate of Polish Jews whose epilogue was so mercilessly written by history.

The beginnings of Jewish settlement in Oswiecim go back to the Middle Ages. The town developed as adynamic centre of the salt trade. The influx of Jews must have been considerable, for as early as 1563 they were forbidden to build houses around the market square. A synagogue was erected in 1588 and acemetery established nearby. According to records from 1561, Jews were required to pay their taxes with pepper and saffron. As time passed, the town fell into along period of economic stagnation, interrupted in the middle of the 19th century by the construction of arailway station.
At the beginning of the 20th century Jews constituted 50% of the local population, and in 1939 as much as 58% (7,000). The Jewish quarter spread north of the market square and as far as the bank of the river. There were five sports clubs, an amateur theatre group and the Society of Hebrew Women.
Religious life was cultivated in the Jewish High School, eight chadarim and three yeshivot (in Belz, Bobowa and Radomsko). Oswiecim was also a place where alcoholic drinks such as Haberfeld’s famous Pesachowka (Pesach vodka) were produced.

No more than seventy Oswiecim Jews survived the war, and they all emigrated soon after. Services are held today in the synagogue of Chevrah Lomdei Mishnayot (The Society for the Study of the Mishna), but only on certain occasions.

The Synagogue of the Society for the Study of the Mishna and the Jewish Centre in Oswiecim.

Synagoga w Oświęcimiu

The synagogue of Chevrat Lomdei Mishnayot (Society for the Study of the Mishna), together with the adjacent buildings now housing the Jewish Centre, are the most important historical monument of Jewish Oswiecim from before the Second World War. The synagogue was once situated within the boundaries of the Jewish quarter. Its present building was erected in 1900. Its clearly defined taller northern section is quite eye-catching. Two original plaques remain; the first commemorating its foundation: "This synagogue was built by Minda Cwaijtel on the anniversary of the death of her husband Shlomo Zalman in the year 1900" (east wall), and the second commemorating officials linked to the synagogue, whose surnames were: Zinger, Goldsztajn and Nejberg (1928). The synagogue is looked after by the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation housed in the same building. The exhibition in the Center depicts the way of life of the former Jewish community in Oswiecim. It covers awide range of educational and cultural activities, focusing mainly on commemorating the victims of the Holocaust by studying Jewish life and culture. On request you can also watch a film and hire a guide (prior booking by telephone required).

The Jewish Center in Auschwitz, Plac ks. Skarbka 3, phone +33 8447002, info@ajcf.pl; open: Sun-Thu 8.30am-5pm, Fri (in summer) 8.30-5pm, (in winter) 8.30am-2pm. The Foundation also has an office in New York City: Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation, 36 West 44th Street, Suite 310, NY 10036 (phone +212 5751050, info@ajcf.org) and a web site in English: www.ajcf.org.

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It was the custom among Chasidic Jews to travel all year long from town to town as beggars and in this way to learn humility. They never stayed in any one place for less than a day, regardless of the humiliation to which they might be subjected. They never remained anywhere longer than two nights, even if they met with hospitality. Somewhere around the year 1760 the young rabbi Elimelech of Lezajsk and his brother Zusya of Annopol wandered throughout Poland, going from place to place. One afternoon the two brothers, hungry and worn out, arrived in a small town. Although they were starving, they were unable to eat. Even though they were exhausted, they could not sleep. They sensed something which they had never before experienced. They were gripped by a feeling of inexpressible fear. They were struck by unbelievable terror. In the middle of the night they left the town and never returned. In Yiddish the town was called Oshpitzin - Oswiecim. (Quoted from Byron L. Sherwin, The Spiritual Heritage of the Polish Jews).

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The Auschwitz Concentration Camp
The first prisoners, 728 Poles from Tarnów, were brought here on 14 April 1940. The camp soon became a place for the extermination of Jews and Gypsies. As time passed the camp was extended and 40 sub-camps were set up nearby, including the death camp of Brzezinka (Birkenau), the largest cemetery in the world.

In January 1942, the Nazis began the process of extermination, the main centre of which was the camp at Birkenau. The summer of 1944 was aperiod of intensive mass murder and twenty thousand people a day were killed here. The approach of the Soviet Army forced the Nazis to close the camp and its last 64,000 victims were marched into the depths of the Reich, this tragic evacuation being known as "the Death March". On 27 January 1945, the Russians arrived in Auschwitz, where they found seven thousand prisoners (including several hundred children) in astate of complete exhaustion but still alive. The exact number of people murdered in Auschwitz is unknown, but it is somewhere between 1,2 and 1,4 million people.

The entrance to the camp leads into amodern pavilion in which there is atourist information desk where you can also hire aguide. It is advisable to follow the set route that starts here. It will take you to all the most important places. On the left-hand side there are some administrative buildings and the SS guardhouse, which once contained the office of the camp commandant. Next to it there is one of the best known gates in the world, with thederisive inscription "Arbeit macht frei" (Work sets you free) over it, although Dante's "Abandon all hope" would be more appropriate. The route takes you past the first camp alley and turns right into the second one. There are several exhibitions in the subsequent buildings in this alley. The blocks located near the wall contain more general displays (block 4 - extermination, block 5 - material evidence of the crime, block 6 -life of a prisoner, block 7 - living and sanitary conditions). Among these particularly shocking places on the same side of the camp there is block 10, where sterilisation experiments took place, and block 11, known as the "death block", where victims suffered unspeakable cruelty. Here in the courtyard there is awall where thousands of innocent people were killed. It is known as the "death wall". In the blocks on the right-hand side there are memorial displays set up by the governments of European states in homage to their citizens (mostly Jewish) murdered in Auschwitz. In block 14, there is adisplay by the former republics of the Soviet Union; in block 15 - Poland; 16 - The Czech Republic and Slovakia; 17 - Austria and former Yugoslavia; 18 - Hungary; 20 - France and Belgium; 21 - Italy and Holland. After the Italian-Dutch pavilion the route turns back into the first alley. Here you will pass awall behind which there was astorehouse for the poisonous gas Zyklon Band property plundered from the prisoners. In the first alley there is block 27 containing the exhibition about the struggle and martyrology of Jews. This exposition (open to visitors 8.30am-6pm) devoted to the victims of the Holocaust, was opened in 1968. Further on in block 28 are the remains of the camp hospital. The route then leads straight on right across the camp and passes the large kitchen buildings. At the end there is a gas chamber and a crematorium, a stonishingly small in size. Equally shocking are the "technical improvements", such as special carts on rails, once used to remove bodies. There are also the gallows on which in 1947 the commandant of the camp Rudolf Hoess was hanged in public after being tried and sentenced to death.