Exhibitions
Exhibitions designed by the Museum are a very valuable form of education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust. Traveling exhibitions that can be loaned by the Museum and presented in your town or institution provide an opportunity to reach those who do not have the possibility of visiting the Memorial in person.
Several hundreds exhibitions have been held, which were shown in such countries as: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, The Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the USA.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum makes its exhibitions available free of charge. The lender covers only the costs of transport, assembly/disassembly of the exhibition, possible presentation costs and customs fees. Insurance of the exhibition during transport and presentation is not obligatory.
German Nazi Death Camp Konzentrationslager Auschwitz
Indoor
The exhibition presents the most important history of the camp, and the genesis of the Nazi movement as well as the specific nature of German occupation on Polish lands. The main emphases were placed on the reasons for founding the camp and the political background of its operation; the process of extermination of the Jews; various forms of extermination, the conditions of living and employment of prisoners; the forms of resistance and aid provided to the prisoners from outside. Separate display-boards present detailed groups of victims such as women, the Roma, children or Soviet prisoners of war.
The exhibition has been prepared based on source and iconographic materials of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
Scenario and choice of materials: Mirosław Obstarczyk
Project and graphic design: Piotr Kutryba
The Museum has exhibitions in the following language versions: Chinese-English, English, German, Greek-English, Italian, Korean-English, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish.
It is also possible to translate the exhibition into other languages.
Enquiries should be provided by email to:
The Auschwitz experience in the art of prisoners
Indoor
The exhibition presents the fate of the victims of the largest German Nazi concentration and extermination camp KL Auschwitz, presented through the works of those who survived. Terrible living conditions, worrisome starvation and continuous tiredness due to exhausting long-lasting work were the inherent element of the camp existence, accompanied by beating and constant humiliation. In their works, the former prisoners – artists – decided to make an attempt at presentation of this hell on earth prepared by the German Nazis.
Scenario and choice of materials: Agnieszka Sieradzka
Project and graphic design: Elżbieta Pietruczuk, Jerzy Pietruczuk
The Museum has exhibitions in the following language versions: English, German, Italian, Polish.
It is also possible to translate the exhibition into other languages.
Enquiries should be provided by email to:
The Resistance Movement in KL Auschwitz
Indoor
The exhibition presents the genesis, structure and the most important figures of the resistance movement in KL Auschwitz, inspired by permanent exhibition, presented from June 2018 on the ground floor of Block 11 in the former Auschwitz I camp. There is also an extended version of the exhibition available with additional 6 boards describing the role of the resistance movement in the vicinity of the camp. It presents the heroic attitudes of inhabitants of German-occupied Oświęcim (Auschwitz) and nearby towns who risked their lives in providing aid to the prisoners of Auschwitz.
Scenario and choice of materials: Anna Ren
Graphic design: Ana-Maria Calistru, Cristian Calistru
English version: Ana-Maria Calistru, Cristian Calistru
German version: Ana-Maria Calistru, Cristian Calistru
Italian version: Monika Wartalska-Łowiec
Polish version: Aleksandra Mausolf
Russian version: Ana-Maria Calistru, Cristian Calistru
The Museum has exhibitions in the following language versions: English, German, Italian, Polish, Russian
It is also possible to translate the exhibition into other languages.
Enquiries should be provided by email to:
Sport and sportspeople in KL Auschwitz
Indoor
Sportspeople of all disciplines, representatives of various nationalities including the most prominent ones were among the people deported to KL Auschwitz. By presenting the profiles of chosen athletes, the exhibition explores the reasons for their deportation and their fate in Auschwitz.
In KL Auschwitz, only a few prisoners had the chance to practice sports, which were not common or generally accessible. The exhibition presents the sports disciplines that were practiced in the camp, descriptions of competitions, boxing fights, wrestling, and soccer matches, drawn from postwar testimonies. They are supplemented by images of extant artifacts, such as boxing glove, chess pieces and risers, drawings, sculptures, letters, and secret messages - both those made by prisoners during camp existence as well as post war ones.
The role of sport in the camp and its influence on the prisoner community is the subject of the next block of topics presented at the exhibition.
The exhibition also raises the subject of the existence of the so-called pseudo-sports in the camp, that is, the many hours of gymnastic exercises combined with drill, which were bodies exhausting torture for prisoners.
The exhibition has been prepared based primarily on archival materials and collections of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, memoirs of former prisoners and materials made available by their families and sports clubs.
Scenario and choice of materials: Renata Koszyk
Project and graphic design: Aleksandra Mausolf
English version: Aleksandra Mausolf
Consultations: dr Wanda Witek-Malicka
The Museum has exhibitions in the following language versions: English, Polish
It is also possible to translate the exhibition into other languages.
Enquiries should be provided by email to:
Women at KL Auschwitz
Indoor
The situation of women imprisoned and murdered in the camp was particularly tragic for various reasons. The exhibition dedicated to their memory illustrates the tragedy of fate, suffering and heroism of the prisoners in the struggle for survival and preservation of dignity in the German Nazi concentration camp, as well as the martyrdom of the Jewish women murdered in the gas chambers. It presents the most important history of the female camp, i.e. its genesis, the extermination of Jewish women in the gas chambers, the organization of the camp and its crew; the structure of the prisoners’ nationalities with particular emphasis on the Jewish, Polish, and Roma women; hunger, living conditions, diseases, employment, terror, punishment and medical experiments, motherhood, resistance and escapes, as well as the role of women from the neighbouring areas in the conspiratorial action to provide aid to the prisoners. The exhibition has been prepared based on source and iconographic materials of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
Scenario and choice of materials: Mirosław Obstarczyk
Project and graphic design: Elżbieta Pietruczuk
The Museum has exhibitions in the following language versions:
Polish-English, Polish-Russian
It is also possible to translate the exhibition into other languages.
Enquiries should be provided by email to:
So I am here, kneeling down upon this Golgotha of modern times...
Indoor
The exhibition presents unique photographs of Henryk Makarewicz and Stanisław Mucha, taken in the first days and weeks after the liberation of the camp. The photographs are shocking in their horror and authenticity. They are complemented by entries to the Museum’s commemorative book written by outstanding personalities during visits to the sites of the former camp. The exhibition has been prepared based on the resources of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum’s Archive.
Scenario and choice of materials: Robert Płaczek, Teresa Zbrzeska
Project and graphic design: Damian Daszkiewicz
The Museum has exhibitions in the following language versions: Polish-English
It is also possible to translate the exhibition into other languages.
Enquiries should be provided by email to:
The Liberation of KL Auschwitz
Outdoor
Outdoor exhibition that consists of 28 large-format photographs from the Archives of the Auschwitz Museum, documenting the first days and weeks after the liberation of the camp. They mainly present survivors and the medical staff of the Red Army and the Polish Red Cross, as well as the inhabitants of the neighbouring areas bringing aid to the prisoners.
Scenario and choice of materials: Mirosław Obstarczyk, Teresa Zbrzeska
Project and graphic design: Elżbieta Pietruczuk
The Museum has the exhibition in the following language versions: Polish-English
It is also possible to translate the exhibition into other languages.
Enquiries should be provided by email to:
Residents of Insurrectionary Warsaw at KL Auschwitz
Outdoor
Outdoor exhibition that presents on the example of selected families, the fate of the 13 thousand Warsaw inhabitants – men, women and children deported to the German Nazi Auschwitz camp during the Warsaw Uprising. We can see from their fate, a connection with two of the biggest tragedies of the Polish nation, which occurred during the World War II. The exhibition has been prepared based on the resources of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum’s Archive and private collections.
Scenario of the exhibition and the choice of materials: Helena Kubica, Teresa Zbrzeska
Project and graphic design: Elżbieta Pietruczuk
The Museum has the exhibition in the following language versions: Polish-English
It is also possible to translate the exhibition into other languages.
Enquiries should be provided by email to:
People of Good Will
Outdoor
Outdoor exhibition that is a tribute to the Poles, inhabitants of German-occupied Oświęcim (Auschwitz) and nearby towns who risked their lives in providing aid to the prisoners of the German Nazi Auschwitz camp; saved them during the evacuation marches or cared for the survivors after the liberation of the camp. Many of them were murdered or imprisoned in the camp for these activities. The exhibition describes various forms of aid giving to prisoners as well as biographies of persons particularly involved in the relief effort. The exhibition has been prepared based on source and iconographic materials of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
Scenario of the exhibition and the choice of materials: Mirosław Obstarczyk, Teresa Zbrzeska
Project and graphic design: Elżbieta Pietruczuk
The Museum has the exhibition in the following language versions: Polish-English
It is also possible to translate the exhibition into other languages.
Enquiries should be provided by email to:
14 June 1940
Outdoor
Historical outdoor exhibition that presents the profiles and fates of 728 Poles, registered on that day as the first political prisoners in the German Nazi Auschwitz camp. The date of arrival of the transport from Tarnów prison is acknowledged as the start date of the camp. The exhibition contains a list of names and camp photographs or civilian prisoners, as well as short biographies of selected persons.
Scenario of the exhibition and the choice of materials: Mirosław Obstarczyk, Teresa Zbrzeska
Project and graphic design: Elżbieta Pietruczuk
The Museum has the exhibition in the following language versions: Polish-English
It is also possible to translate the exhibition into other languages.
Enquiries should be provided by email to: