while not null: Europe Trip 2025

Oświęcim (pop. 34k) is a town with documented 800 years of history. It is one of the oldest Piast dynasty towns. It is actually a place where Piasts ruled until 1513, long after they stopped being kings of Poland (1370). Oświęcim was not part of Poland for 146 years. In 1916, the German and Austro-Hungarian emperors promised the creation of the Kingdom of Poland, which would include Oświęcim.

In 1939, when Germans annexed it, 60% of residents were Jewish. In 1940 Germans used the existing army barracks and the temporary migrant infrastructure, built during the last years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to create a concentration camp, despoiling Oświęcim forever. On this trip I went to see Oświęcim the town, not the KL Auschwitz, but it's impossible to fully separate the two.

Castle

Most of the photos come from the Castle Museum - opened in 2010. Apart from the exhibits, you can go up to the tower with good views of the area, and to the WW1 and WW2 tunnels under the castle, to take part in a guided quest - not all stations work there, but still it's fun.

The most visible side of the castle.

Entrance and the tower.

The view east - towards the town square and a 14th century church.

The view south. The roof of the castle, Hampton by Hilton hotel, and another 14th century church in the background with a 1975-1984 addition with a copper roof.

Looking west - active travel bridge on the right.

Looking north - path along the river Soła.

Tunnels

One of the game/quest stations.

Leaving the tunnels I saw this mural:

"Be the change you want to see in the world." Life festival was organised every year from 2010 to 2018.

Emigration

In the 19th century there was a lot of seasonal work migration and permanent emigration from Galicia. Oświęcim, being a railway hub on the border of Galicia and the German Empire, was an important stop on these journeys. I learned a bit about how poor Galicia was when I visited the Emigration Museum in Gdynia. The visit to Oświęcim added detail to that story.

Location of Galicia (Galicja) as the province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

A postcard with Zofja Biesiadecka travel agency ad.

Oświęcim was a junction of 3 rail lines: Kraków to Vienna opened in 1856, Wrocław to Mysłowice - 1864, Oświęcim to Kraków Podgórze - 1884.

Emigration continued to be supported by the independent Poland. These booklets with tips and Spanish language lessons for emigrants to Argentina and Uruguay were published by the Emigration Office in Warsaw in 1930.

The "hut" settlement (Polish "barak" looks and sounds like English "barrack", but means a simple, temporary building) was a 1916 Austrian government initiative for a temporary housing of migrants. By the end of 1917 there were 22 brick buildings and 90 timber huts that could house 12 thousand people. The settlement also known as "new town" and "Oświęcim III" had a railway siding, streets, footpaths, water and sewer systems, baths, hospital, post office, civil and military police stations, theatre, and admin offices including an employment agency. In the interwar period, the settlement was housing Polish refugees from Cieszyn Silesia and from Silesian uprisings, and also a battalion of the Polish Army. In 1940 German occupiers converted it to a concentration camp.

Independence

Józef Piłsudski visited Oświęcim in 1915.

1916 celebration of the proclamation of Kingdom of Poland.

Polish-Czech company Oświęcim-Praga assembled cars in Oświęcim from 1929. Here, the model 'Baby'.

This op-ed written in 1930 is a scathing critique of political partisanship, still relevant today.

Jews in Oświęcim

Jakub Haberfeld (original spelling: Jakób Haberfeld or Jakob Haberfeld) – one of the oldest Polish alcohol factories, founded in 1804. The company was reactivated in June 2019.

WW2

Germans in Oświęcim.

Something I didn't realise: the name of the town was also 'Oświęcim', not 'Auschwitz', in the German speaking Austro-Hungarian Empire:

I think the top photo shows the deportation of Jews.

Architecture

Oświęcim had a 1960s communist-era blemish in its historic market square: a modernist shop, built on foundations of a German WW2 bunker, similar to what Poznań got in its old town square in 1962. While Poznań kept theirs and renovated them in 2024, Oświęcim did not - demolished in 2009.