Oświęcim in Poland

Tuesday, 25 February 2014 - 01:00 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General, Museums, Exhibitions, UNESCO World Heritage
Reading Time:  3 minutes

Oświęcim Castle © Beemwej/cc-by-sa-3.0-pl

Oświęcim Castle © Beemwej/cc-by-sa-3.0-pl

Oświęcim (german: Auschwitz) is a town in the Lesser Poland province of southern Poland, situated 50 kilometres (31 mi) west of Kraków, near the confluence of the rivers Vistula (Wisła) and Soła. The town is best known as being the location of the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II.

Oświęcim lies on the intersection of National Road nr. 44 with local road nr. 933, and is at the northern extremity of local road nr. 948. Oświęcim’s old town is located east of the Soła, with the Main Market Square (Rynek Główny) at its centre. The railway station is across the river, in the north west of the town, with the main museum in the west of the town. The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum is in the village of Brzezinka, to the west of the railway station. The chemical works are located east of the town.

Oświęcim Castle © Beemwej/cc-by-sa-3.0-pl Old Market Square © Puncsos Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp © Dirgela/cc-by-sa-3.0 Main gate Auschwitz-Birkenau © Michel Zacharz/cc-by-sa-2.5 Chewra Lomdei Misznajot Synagogue © Slav/cc-by-sa-2.5 District Court © Olerys/cc-by-sa-3.0
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Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp © Dirgela/cc-by-sa-3.0
After the territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II, new housing complexes in the town were developed with large buildings of rectangular and concrete constructions. The chemical industry became the main employer of the town and in later years, service industry and trade were added. Tourism to the concentration camp sites is an important source of revenue for the town’s businesses. In the mid-1990s following Communism’s end, employment at the chemical works (former IG Farben, renamed Dwory S.A.) was reduced from 10,000 in the Communist era to only 1,500 people.

In 1952, the County of Oświęcim was re-created, and the town until 1975 belonged to Kraków Voivodeship. In 1975 – 1999, it was part of Bielsko-Biala Voivodeship.

Read more on City of Oświęcim, International Auschwitz Committee, Auschwitz Jewish Center, History of the Jews in Poland and Wikipedia Oświęcim. Learn more about the use of photos. To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organizations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.






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