A Catholic guide to Auschwitz

The first time I went to Auschwitz on a bitter February day, I felt nervous. Like anyone who’d seen Schindler’s List or read Night or taken a history class, I knew that untold horror and suffering had spilled across that frozen ground. I knew Auschwitz marked the place where husbands and wives had lost sight of each other forever, where mothers and fathers had watched their children turned into ashes. As I walked under the iron gates that I’d seen depicted in movies and textbooks, I feared what I might encounter. 

Slowly, the camp unfolded through icy fog. Outside: Rows of tidy brick buildings. Thick concrete posts strung with jagged barbed wire. Warning signs stenciled with skulls, plunged into the space between the camp and the fence. Towers outfitted with gun mounts. Inside: Enormous heaps of shoes, high heels and boots and tiny baby moccasins. Eyeglasses. Pots and pans. Suitcases bearing names of those who never went home to the addresses painted on the leather. 

As I walked through one block, thin light hit the wall at just the right angle so that I could see, faintly, an image scratched into the thick concrete: Jesus touching His Sacred Heart. How? Why? Who? 

The image had been roughly sketched; I would learn that the prisoner who created it—Stefan Jasienski, a Polish military officer—had only his own fingernails as instruments. No one even knew the image was there until years after he had died and the camp was liberated. Along with the Sacred Heart, Jasienski also scratched an image of Jesus crucified into his cell. I’ve thought of this cell and Stefan’s etching hundreds, maybe thousands, of times since I first saw it. Somehow, even in the agony of bottomless suffering, he offered me an encounter of profound and sacred beauty. 

While Auschwitz and other concentration camps are, first and always, Jewish memorials, they also contain sites of deep significance for Catholic pilgrims. This week, in honor of St Maximilian Kolbe’s feast on August 14, here is a Catholic guide to Auschwitz. 

Why Catholics should go to Auschwitz

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum consists of two former Nazi concentration camps about an hour outside Krakow. Catholics visit Auschwitz to remember, understand, grieve, pray, and encounter the places where love and mercy triumphed over roaring destruction. Here, dozens of saints and blesseds—priests, religious, lay people—gave bright witness to Christ amid the bleak despair. Faithful pilgrimage also demands a reckoning with the reality of other Catholics whose apathy, cowardice, and sometimes direct participation contributed to the horrors.

• Related: The thoughts you think in Auschwitz on your birthday

Saints in Auschwitz 

Thousands of unknown men and women suffered heroically in Auschwitz, although many of their stories have been lost. The camp also became the site of martyrdom and holiness for several saints.

St Maximilian Kolbe

Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan friar, was sent to Auschwitz after he persisted in publishing anti-Nazi material and sheltering Jewish people. Two months after Kolbe’s imprisonment, someone escaped the camp. In retaliation, the S.S. commander chose ten prisoners at random to die in the starvation bunker. Kolbe was not one of them. But he volunteered to take the place of a husband and father who was. Kolbe turned Block 11, a bunker of starvation and agony, into a chapel of prayer and hymns sung to the Immaculata. He ultimately died by lethal injection on August 14, 1941.

• Related: God in the ashes: Maximilian Kolbe

St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (St Edith Stein) 

Born into a Jewish family, Edith Stein became an atheist as a teen. She worked as a brilliant academic and philosopher before encountering Jesus through the biography of St Teresa of Avila. In 1922, Stein was baptized into the Church and later became a Carmelite nun alongside her sister, Rosa. Eventually the danger to Jewish converts became too grave, so the sisters moved to a convent in the Netherlands. But in 1942 when the Dutch bishops publicly condemned Nazi persecution of Jews, the Nazis retaliated by ordering the arrest of all Catholics of Jewish descent in the country. Edith and her sister were arrested and sent to Auschwitz that week. On August 9, 1942, they went immediately from the train to the gas chambers.

• Related: What is a woman? Ask this saint

The “Salesian Nine”

At Auschwitz, the Nazis arrested, tortured, and martyred a group of Salesian priests who served the parish attended by a college-age Karol Wojtyla (the future St John Paul II). The group included Jan Swierc, Karol Golda, Ignacy Antonowicz, Ignacy Dobiasz, Franciszek Harazim, Ludwik Mroczek, Wlodzimierz Szembek, and Kazimierz Wojciechowski (their ninth member, Franciszek Miska, was executed at Dachau). After the loss of these priests, layman and tailor Jan Tyranowski started the men’s rosary group that would be a crucial formation for Wojtyla’s vocation. Pope Leo XIV beatified these nine priests in June.

What to look for and how to pray in Auschwitz

Stream of names

As you enter the museum complex, listen closely to the speakers softly proclaiming names of those imprisoned at Auschwitz. I like to catch one name from the thousands and pray for this person’s soul and family as I move through the camp.

Entrance gate

The infamous arched entrance gate declares in iron, Arbeit Macht Frei (“Work makes you free”). Reflect on the destructive end of utilitarianism. These words contrast the promise of Jesus: “The truth will set you free.” 

Executions wall

Situated between Block 10 and 11, this wall marks where thousands of human persons were shot and discarded. It’s a good place to pray a Divine Mercy chaplet or Psalm 22. 

Block 11, Cell 18

This tiny, dark starvation cell is where St Maximilian Kolbe led nine other men in heroic joy as they died. You’ll see a small marker, candles, and sometimes flowers, but the cell can be easy to miss as the tour passes—keep alert and pay attention to the cell numbers. 

Block 11, Cell 21

Look for Stefan Jasienski’s Sacred Heart and Jesus crucified images. The regular tour moves very quickly through the building, so be sure to keep an eye out as you approach and peek into Cell 21 as you pass.

Hoss gallows 

As the longest-serving commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Hoss was responsible for the industrial-scale execution of more than a million people. For his notorious crimes, Hoss was hanged at these gallows in 1947. Days before his execution, Hoss—who had abandoned his Catholic faith as a teen—asked for a priest. The priest who came was Polish Jesuit Fr Wladyslaw Lohn, the sole survivor of his community that had been murdered under Hoss at Auschwitz. Fr Lohn heard Hoss’s confession and gave him Holy Communion. Hoss’ final act was to write a statement of deep remorse, acknowledging his horrific crimes and asking the Polish people for forgiveness. The gallows stand adjacent to the crematorium, a memorial to mercy and redemption that passes understanding. 

Auschwitz II-Birkenau

Auschwitz consists of two main camps: Auschwitz I (the brick barracks main camp) and Auschwitz II-Birkenau, the vast extermination site two miles away. A free shuttle bus connects the two sites every 10 to 15 minutes. At Birkenau, you’ll see the sheer scope of the Holocaust in endless rows of chimneys, railway tracks, and ruined gas chambers. These gas chambers are where St Edith Stein and her sister, Rosa, died. 

Two places here to contemplate: the women’s bunker, where fragments of light break through the dark, suffocating wood, and the reed garden, where wild reeds burst with life from the former ash pits. Both are heartbreaking, beautiful signs of resurrection.  

The Carmelite cloister

In 1984, a small community of Carmelites moved into the building used to store Zyklon B canisters. The nuns came to pray, offering penance for the sins committed there and interceding for souls of both victims and executioners. In the '90s, Pope John Paul II asked the sisters to relocate after Jewish leaders expressed discomfort with the presence of a Christian monastery. Near Block 11, you can still see the brick building that briefly housed the cloister along with a large wooden cross in the adjacent field (erected for Pope John Paul II’s historic 1979 Mass at Birkenau). 

How to visit Auschwitz 

Here are pilgrim FAQs about visiting the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum.

How do you get from Krakow to Auschwitz?

Take the train directly from Krakow Glowny station to Oswiecim. Trains run frequently throughout the day, with trips lasting between 40 to 90 minutes depending on the route. When you arrive at the Oswiecim station, the Memorial is located about a mile away—you can walk along a designated path or take a short local bus or taxi ride.

How do you get tickets to Auschwitz?

Every visitor—whether on a guided tour or self-guided—must reserve entry cards in advance online. There are no on-site ticket sales. Entry cards are issued by name and must match your ID, so be precise when you book. One entry card admits you to both Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Book as early as you can, especially in peak season (May through September). Security screening can be airport-level, so allow 15 to 30 minutes for security before your scheduled entry time. The self-guided entry cards are free, but I strongly recommend a guided tour in your language to make the most of the experience (about $30-40 per person depending upon currency exchange rates).

How long do you need to visit Auschwitz?

Auschwitz should be toured slowly, intentionally, and prayerfully. Guided tours run about three to four hours, and a prayerful self-guided tour will take a similar amount of time.

How do you get toAuschwitz II-Birkenau?

Once you've toured Auschwitz I, a free museum shuttle runs to Birkenau every 10 to 15 minutes; the ride takes about 10 to 15 minutes.

Is there a gift shop at Auschwitz?

In the museum shop near the Auschwitz I entrance, you’ll find a rich treasury of memoirs, biographies, historical documentation, and prayerful reflection guides. I cherish a book of poems composed by Auschwitz survivors that I bought there. Your purchases directly support the preservation of the museum.

Can you eat and drink at Auschwitz?

If you need a snack or drink, there’s a modest cafeteria and row of vending machines near the Auschwitz I entrance. It’s a good space to rest and process together as a group after your visit. Food isn't permitted on the grounds or during the tour itself. Some pilgrims also fast during their tour as a small act of solidarity and penance.

Can you take photos at Auschwitz?

Capturing images at a site of mass murder requires deep sensitivity. Some considerations:

• Use discretion: Take photos to help you contemplate, learn, teach, remember, and pray—not to sensationalize tragedy. Photography is strictly forbidden in certain sensitive spaces, such as rooms housing prayer shawls and displaying human hair.

• Stay present to humanity: Don’t let a screen become more captivating than the reality before your eyes. Avoid photos during moments of prayer or while listening to your guide.

• No selfies: Treating the camp grounds as a backdrop diminishes its sacred solemnity. Let your presence there be an act of quiet, unselfish witness.

Prayers for pilgrimage to Auschwitz 

St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (St Edith Stein) composed this reflection for the daily examen:  “And when night comes, and you look back over the day and see how fragmentary everything has been, and how much you planned that has gone undone, and all the reasons you have to be embarrassed and ashamed: just take everything exactly as it is, put it in God’s hands and leave it with Him.”

Also written by St Teresa Benedicta: “O my God, fill my soul with holy joy, courage and strength to serve You. Enkindle Your love in me and then walk with me along the next stretch of road before me. I do not see very far ahead, but when I have arrived where the horizon now closes down, a new prospect will open before me and I shall meet it with peace.”

St Maximilian Kolbe composed this prayer as a daily consecration to Mary: “Immaculata, Queen and Mother of the Church, I renew my consecration to you for this day and for always, so that you might use me for the coming of the Kingdom of Jesus in the whole world. To this end I offer you all my prayers, actions and sacrifices of this day.”

Along with Psalm 22, also Psalm 23: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and staff comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

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