News

Record number of visitors at Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum

Over 370 thousand persons visited in groups the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Antoni Stanczyk from the Museum tourists section said Wednesday, stressing that such big number of visitors has not been recorded since the 1970s.

"This is a record number compared with the last year when the museum was toured by 240 thousand persons in the first half of 2004. A similarly big number of visitors was noted only in 1979 when the former Nazi extermination camp was visited by the late Pope John Paul II," Stanczyk observed.

Poles were the most numerous among national groups, chiefly owing to many school youth groups visiting the museum in May and June. Many groups came from the USA (over 31 thousand persons), Israel – 27 thousand and Germany – 22 thousand. There were also many tourists from South Korea - over 10 thousand.

May was a record month according to the museum data which speaks about 120 thousand. "As summer holidays have just started we can note the number of visitors growing," Stanczyk said.

The growing number of visitors is attributed to the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, marked in January, which was reported on by media all over the world. Of no lesser significance is educational work of teachers in various countries. Thanks to this about 8 thousand young people from Norway learned about the Auschwitz history.

Poland's EU entry and development of air transport are other important factors, Stanczyk says.