Auschwitz-Birkenau is the most well known cemetery in the world and place of genocide. Started in 1940 as a concentration camp for Polish political prisoners in 1942, it became the center for extermination of European Jews. In the years 1940-45 the Nazis killed about 1.5 million people there, mainly Jews as well as Poles, Gypsies, Russian POW's and members of other nationalities.Your tour begins with a 15 minute documentary film about the liberation of the camp, then a museum guide will show you the exhibitions in some of the surviving prison blocks, the gas chamber and the crematorium. After a short break, the tour continues to Birkenau, where you go up to the watchtower above the entrance gate to see the view of the biggest Nazi Concentration Camp. A Martyrdom Museum was set up here in 1947 and in 1979, UNESCO included Auschwitz-Birkenau in its list of World Heritage sites.

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