OśWIęCIM .- Two million one hundred thousand people from all over the world visited the site of the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz and Auschwitz II-Birkenau, which are both protected by the Museum, in 2017. It’s over 50 thousand more than in 2016, when for the first time the attendance at the Memorial was over 2 million visitors.

The top ten countries from which our visitors come are: Poland (498,000), the United Kingdom (339,000), the United States (183,000), Italy (115,000), Spain (101,000), Germany (85,000), Israel (83,000), France (74,000), Czechia (53,000) and Sweden (44,000).

In 2017, the number of visitors from several countries increased significantly in comparison with the previous year: Ukraine (48 per cent), Canada (36 per cent) and Greece (32 per cent.

The most valuable form of learning the history of the camp is by exploring it with one of over 300 educators of the Museum who speak nearly 20 languages. Their competence is evidenced by the fact that 81 percent of visitors last year, that is almost 1,7 million people, opted for this form of tour.

For individual visitors, we recommend tours with a guide in specially organised groups in one of 9 languages. Last year, the number of visitors who opted for this proposal increased by over 10 percent and amounted to 343,000 persons. For those interested in an in-depth understanding of the subject may choose from the various versions of extended guided tours available.

The new terms and conditions for visiting and booking at the Auschwitz Memorial are effective as from 2 January 2018. One of the most important changes is the introduction of personal Entry Passes for individual tours.

‘The introduction of personal Entry Passes is aimed at improving safety on the site of the authentic and protected historical site. But above all, we want to increase the accessibility of the Memorial to individual visitors,’ said Andrzej Kacorzyk, the director of the International Centre for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust.

‘Due to the great interest in visiting the Memorial, we have unfortunately noted cases of reservation and purchase of Entry Passes for speculative purposes, which makes it difficult for individual visitors to explore the Museum. Personal Entry Passes should effectively prevent such incidents,’ Kacorzyk added.

Booking of Entry Passes for individual visitors - for a tour with an educator or without an educator (free) may be made at the website of the Museum: visit.auschwitz.org three months in advance.

Group reservation can be made six months in advance by completing a special form on visit.auschwitz.org. Due to the stability of the booking system, each user will be able to make a maximum of 100 entries in one day. The entire terms and conditions are available here.

Besides guiding huge numbers of visitors at the authentic Memorial, an important part of the educational activities of the Museum are specialised educational projects. Over 17,000 people from all around the world participated in seminars, conferences or other activities of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust in 2017. The Centre also coordinated the activities of over 400 volunteers, trainees and interns from all over the world who by assisting in the daily work of the Museum, get to know more about the Memorial and its history.

Social media portals are also an important part of direct messaging, thanks to which historical information, photographs, and descriptions of the most important events at the Memorial, e.g. an anniversary commemoration, appear in the virtual space every day. Nearly 250,000 people use the Museum’s profile on Facebook; more than 58,000 follow the Museum’s account on Twitter, and over 30,0000 on Instagram. In 2017, over 33 million visits to the www.auschwitz.org website were recorded.