Visiting Auschwitz is free if you do it on your own. If you want a guided tour to explain each place you see, the price differs for group and individual trips.
The visit takes place in an atmosphere of deep respect. The first poster we read accounts for the people sent to Auschwitz, namely, Jews, Gypsies, Soviet prisoners, and other ethnicities.
The main gate has an ironic message: “Arbeit Macht Frei,” which means “Work sets you free.” Their initial objective was not extermination but exploiting the prisoners as slaves and labor force.
In one of the blocks, you will see hundreds of photos of prisoners hanging, with their age, date of entry, and date of death. Most of the women I saw lasted between three and four months, and the men about 10 months.
There is only one gas chamber left standing. You can enter, although out of respect for the thousands and thousands of lives lost there, you can’t talk. I was allowed to take a picture.
It is a much larger camp than the previous one. The railroad tracks ran directly into the camp. The trains, loaded with Jews, were stopped for sorting, and all their belongings and luggage were taken away.