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New Parking Lot Planned at Auschwitz II-Birkenau Site

A new parking lot is to be opened near the Auschwitz-II Birkenau site. Oświęcim commune wójt Andrzej Bibrzycki said on Wednesday that the zoning laws require that it be built a certain distance from the site. The present parking lot, immediately adjacent to the historical Birkenau main gate, will be removed.

“Intensive conceptual work is underway by a group set up by the commune of Oświęcim and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and fundraising is underway. The plan calls for removal of traffic from the Birkenau museum. A bypass will be built to handle vehicular traffic from the streets that run next to the camp perimeter fence,” said Bibrzycki.

He also stated that the first proposals called for a parking lot that would accommodate 140 passenger cars and 16 busses. “However,” he said, “everything indicates that there will be more parking spaces for busses and fewer for cars.”

The local government estimates that the construction of the bypass and the parking lot will amount to between 3 and 4 million złoty.