The grounds of the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau were transformed into a Museum just two years after liberation. In 1947, following a long and extremely turbulent debate about the future of this site, an unprecedented decision was made to preserve the remains of the camp and open them to visitors wishing to pay tribute to the victims. It was a decision unique in both Europe and the world. There had been no existing model for protecting a site that was simultaneously a relic of mass crime, a place of remembrance, and a vast cemetery containing the ashes of hundreds of thousands of people.
Auschwitz permanently redefined the concept of human civilization and the moral boundaries of humanity. In the postwar years, there were no legal or conservation mechanisms capable of providing the necessary protection for such a place—therefore a museum was created here, and it was given a special status. Its statute explicitly defines it not only as a museum institution but also as a cemetery. From the very beginning, it was clear that historic Auschwitz could not be contained within any known museological framework: the authenticity of the space, its silent message, and its tragic history constitute the essence of this site of memory.
The current main exhibition, opened in 1956, still exerts a strong emotional and educational impact on visitors despite nearly seven decades having passed. Although minor updates have been introduced over time, its original concept has remained largely unchanged. Its simple form—based on facts, documents, photographs, and the authenticity of the site—has long been in harmony with the character of the Memorial, allowing visitors to focus primarily on the history itself. The authenticity of the Auschwitz-Birkenau grounds remains the highest value and the key medium of memory about the tragedy that unfolded in the camp.
Discussions about creating a new main exhibition continued for many decades, and conceptual work began more than twenty years ago. The overriding goal was to develop an exhibition that would better reflect the contemporary state of research on the camp’s history, while at the same time preserving the fundamental character of the site. This required extensive conservation work, the structural reinforcement of the blocks, and the introduction of new exhibition solutions that respect the unique nature of Auschwitz.
On 12 December 2025, after years of preparation, the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum will inaugurate the first part of the new main exhibition in former prisoner blocks 8 and 9. This will be an essential step toward creating a complete, three-part historical narrative that will ultimately include additional blocks. The final concept envisions three complementary exhibitions presenting the history of the camp from three interconnected perspectives: the perpetrator, the victim, and the prisoner.
The final layout of the new main exhibition will include:
- Auschwitz as an Institution – exhibition in Blocks 4 and 5.
It will present the structure and functioning of the SS apparatus, the development of the camp complex, mechanisms of terror, and the administrative logic of the concentration and extermination camp. - The Extermination of the Jews in KL Auschwitz – exhibition in Blocks 6 and 7.
This part will portray Auschwitz as a central element of the Nazi plan to annihilate the Jews of Europe. The narrative will focus on deportations, selections, the extermination process, and the individual stories of the victims. - Prisoners’ Camp Experience – exhibition in Blocks 8 and 9.
This is the first of the new sections to open to the public, presenting the prisoners’ daily life, suffering, struggle for survival, and the systemic dehumanization imposed by the Nazis.
The aim of the new main exhibition is to introduce visitors to the authentic space of the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz. The exhibition weaves together two narrative strands: on the one hand, it presents the historical development of the camp—from its establishment in 1940 to its tragic end in January 1945; on the other, it depicts the individual fates of people whose lives were destroyed or irreversibly marked by the camp. Against the backdrop of events that shaped one of the darkest chapters of the 20th century, concrete individuals are presented: their faces, names, testimonies, and personal belongings. In this way, the history of mass murder is anchored in the dimension of personal experience, and the suffering of millions becomes perceptible on a human scale.
A key element of the exhibition is the presentation of the changing functions of Auschwitz. Initially established as a concentration camp intended to terrorize Poles, it was later transformed into one of the main centers of the extermination of European Jews. As the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex expanded, the camp became the site of mass deportations, selections, and systematic killing, carried out primarily in the gas chambers of Birkenau. It is this dual function—as a concentration camp and an extermination center—that makes Auschwitz the symbol of Nazi genocide.
The new exhibition has been enriched with artifacts obtained through many years of historical research, as well as with testimonies collected by the Museum since the late 1950s. Thanks to this, it became possible to address subjects previously absent or mentioned only briefly: for example, the prisoners’ daily experiences, their physical and psychological degradation, and the mechanisms of camp terror. Modern technological and exhibition techniques have also made it possible to present a larger number of original objects found within the camp and its surroundings—some of which are being displayed publicly for the first time.
At the heart of this narrative is the experience of a person registered in the camp. The exhibition illustrates the Nazi policy of dehumanization: stripping individuals of their identity, dignity, and in many cases, even the hope of survival. The fate of the individual—each prisoner, each inmate—becomes the central point of reference, allowing visitors to understand how the massive system of oppression operated on a single human life.
Block 8 presents the successive stages of the “encampment ritual,” the process experienced by every person deported to Auschwitz: arrival by transport, brutal registration, loss of former identity, overcrowded barracks, the system of punishments and rewards, and the organization of daily life subordinated to forced labor. This part of the exhibition also shows the development of camp infrastructure and the role of forced labor in the German war economy, particularly within enterprises cooperating with the SS.
Block 9 complements this narrative with the physical and psychological experiences of prisoners: chronic exhaustion, hunger, cold, fear, disease, nakedness and humiliation, and finally apathy and hopelessness. These factors led to the progressive destruction of the body, which often resulted in death. This section includes numerous personal testimonies of survivors, prisoner photographs taken by camp identification services, as well as post-camp objects and original drawings depicting the realities of daily life in the camp.
A special place is occupied by the so-called Memory Archive, located in the first room of Block 9. It consists of over a thousand testimonies of former prisoners—written in various languages, often shortly after liberation—as well as the earliest postwar editions of personal documents such as diaries, memoirs, and interrogation records. These sources, sometimes the first attempts to describe the tragedy of the camp, form the foundation of contemporary knowledge about Auschwitz and allow us to come closer to experiences that cannot be fully conveyed by any artifacts.
The new main exhibition has been designed with a consciously minimalist approach—both in form and narrative. Its structure relies primarily on authentic objects, documents, photographs, and witness accounts. It is these elements—rather than elaborate multimedia—that guide visitors through the experience of a person imprisoned in Auschwitz. The minimalist approach is a meaningful choice: it allows the visitor to concentrate on the real traces of history and highlights how few tangible remnants remain of the hundreds of thousands of people who passed through the camp.
The exhibition focuses on the prisoners’ daily struggle to preserve life and dignity in the face of a system that can be described as a technocratic, bureaucratic machine—a corporation of death that Auschwitz-Birkenau became. The camp functioned as a ruthless apparatus aimed at maximizing the exploitation of prisoner labor through systematic starvation, exhaustion, and violence, and— in the case of selected groups—through immediate or gradual extermination. The logic of Auschwitz was entirely subordinated to the racial ideology of National Socialism, in which human beings were judged through the lens of alleged “biological value.” This pseudo-scientific, distorted worldview legitimized mass murder, presenting it as part of a “rationally” organized state project.
The exhibition traces the collision of these two perspectives: the dehumanizing, administrative system on the one hand, and the fate of the individual— reduced to a number yet still capable of resistance, solidarity, and moments of humanity—on the other. Authentic testimonies and objects—seemingly ordinary items such as a spoon, a shoe, or a scrap of paper—become material traces of the struggle for dignity in a world built upon its denial.
The first visitors will see this new part of the exhibition today. Entering this space, where history speaks primarily through the voices of survivors and the belongings of victims, offers an opportunity for deep reflection. I hope that confronting this narrative will prompt visitors to consider the fragility of human life, the ease with which systems can impose mechanisms of exclusion and violence, and at the same time the extraordinary capacity of human beings for adaptation, determination, and the preservation of dignity even in the most inhuman conditions.
