The Tailor-Made Guide to Concentration Camps of the Holocaust
- 2 days ago
- 18 min read
Author: Barry Pickard
Hi, I'm Barry, the owner of Tailor-Made Itineraries and I have been designing bespoke self-guided tours for adventurous and curious travellers since 2015. I am a history graduate with a passion for travel.
I created this blog to show, through my own adventures, how you can have an incredible travel experience as an independent traveller, giving you the information to navigate the world with confidence.
Contents
What are the concentration camps of the Holocaust, and how do you actually visit them?
Stand at the gatehouse of Birkenau on a cold autumn morning and you’ll feel it before you understand it. The damp smell of wet earth and rotting timber. The creak of barracks boards underfoot. The flatness of the landscape stretching away from you in silence — row after row of brick chimneys marking where barracks once stood, like a terrible census of the dead. There are no crowds this early. Just the sound of your own footsteps on the gravel path, and the weight of knowing exactly what happened here.
I’m Barry Pickard, a history graduate and independent traveller who has been visiting and writing about Holocaust memorial sites since 2015. Over the years, I’ve walked the grounds of more than a dozen former concentration and extermination camps across Poland and Germany — from Auschwitz–Birkenau to the haunting silence of Treblinka, from the intact gas chambers of Majdanek to the barely-there traces of Hersbruck. I’ve made the mistakes so you don’t have to: showing up without a pre-booked ticket, arriving too late in the day, and badly underestimating the emotional toll of visiting multiple sites in quick succession. I created Tailor-Made Itineraries specifically to help independent travellers plan extraordinary trips, and this series on the concentration camps of the Holocaust is among the work I’m most proud of.
If you’ve been searching for a practical, honest, and deeply informed guide to visiting these sites — you’ve found it.
This post is the guide to my full series on these sites — the place to start if you’re planning a trip and want to understand the landscape you’re about to enter, historically, practically, and emotionally. To answer that opening question properly: the concentration camps of the Holocaust comprised a vast network of Nazi concentration camps, extermination camps, and forced-labour sites that spanned occupied Europe, and were used to imprison, exploit, and murder millions. Understanding them — and visiting them with the care they deserve — is exactly what this series is designed to help you do.
Here’s what you’ll find in this guide: a brief history of how the camp system developed; practical tips for planning your visit; a look at how different memorials approach the act of remembrance; and individual sections on each of the eleven sites I’ve personally visited — with links to my deeper, dedicated posts for each one. Whether you’re a first-time visitor or you’ve already been to the likes of Dachau and want to go further, this is the guide for you.
Don’t forget that Tailor-Made Itineraries delights in creating bespoke self-guided tours. So, if visiting any of these concentration camps of the Holocaust interests you, reach out to me by email. I would be more than happy to design a self-guided tour around your requirements incorporating these camps, or indeed, a general tour of Holocaust sites.
Concentration Camps of the Holocaust
History of the Camps
The system of Nazi camps developed in phases, shaped by shifting wartime goals and ideological priorities. Early camps began as instruments of political repression, designed to imprison opponents of the regime. As Germany expanded its territory and the persecution of Jews escalated, this network evolved into a complex system that included concentration camps, forced‑labour sites, and dedicated Nazi extermination camps. Among the most infamous were the Operation Reinhard camps—Bełżec, Sobibór, and Treblinka—purpose‑built for the rapid, systematic murder of Jews using gas chambers powered by carbon‑monoxide engines. These killing centres operated with extraordinary speed and efficiency, with Bełżec alone murdering more than 430,000 people within a single year of operation.
By contrast, larger camps such as Auschwitz and Majdanek combined forced labour with mass extermination. Their functions expanded over time, reflecting Germany's growing reliance on prisoner labour as well as its ongoing commitment to genocide. Majdanek, situated on the outskirts of Lublin, was among the camps captured largely intact, leaving behind gas chambers, crematoria, and hundreds of structures that today offer rare physical insight into camp operations and the scale of Nazi crimes. Meanwhile, the Nazis attempted to erase evidence at sites like Treblinka by dismantling buildings and destroying mass‑grave areas as the war turned against them. The result is a memorial landscape where silence and absence convey the enormity of what occurred. Across all camps, the system’s evolution—from repression to industrialised murder—reveals the extent to which the Nazis adapted infrastructure, technology, and administrative organisation to implement genocide on an unprecedented scale.
Planning Your Visit: Practical Tips
Visiting these sites often means preparing for long walks, outdoor exposure, and emotionally heavy subject matter. Camps such as Auschwitz–Birkenau involve several hours on foot, often on uneven ground, with strict visitor regulations and limited shelter. Many locations—especially those outside major cities—require planning for transport timetables, last‑mile taxis, or rural walking routes.
Where possible, I recommend arriving early in the day, wearing comfortable shoes, carrying water, and checking seasonal changes in opening hours. Some sites, like Majdanek and Treblinka, can be quiet and sparsely attended, which heightens both the reflective atmosphere and the practical need to be self‑sufficient during your visit.
But wait — there's more to this than logistics.
Understanding Memorial Culture
Each camp memorial reflects deliberate choices about remembrance. Treblinka and Bełżec emphasise symbolism, with landscapes of stone and earth replacing physical structures that were intentionally destroyed by the Nazis. By contrast, Majdanek’s intact infrastructure—including barracks and gas chambers—confronts visitors with direct material evidence of genocide.
These differing approaches are central to understanding how each nation and local community has chosen to remember the wartime past. Some spaces aim to evoke silence, others to preserve physical proof, and many to provide educational context for future generations.
Here's the thing:
Emotional & Ethical Considerations
These sites are not tourist attractions but places of trauma, death, and memory. Visitors should approach with stillness, humility, and respect—photograph selectively, speak quietly, and avoid treating any area as a backdrop. The emotional weight varies: some camps feel overwhelming because of their intactness (Majdanek), while others evoke a chilling emptiness because so little remains (Treblinka, Bełżec).
Whatever your reactions, allow time afterwards to decompress, reflect, or journal your experience. Many travellers underestimate the emotional toll, especially when visiting multiple sites in a short period.
Still with me? Good — because this is where it gets important.
Auschwitz–Birkenau
Walking through Auschwitz–Birkenau is unlike visiting any other historical site I have encountered. The scale of the complex, combined with its preserved barracks, watchtowers, and exhibitions, makes the history visceral. Over a million people were murdered here, and the camp’s two major sections—Auschwitz I and Birkenau—together illustrate both the administrative machinery of the Holocaust and the immense physical infrastructure used to carry it out. I found the visit physically demanding and emotionally intense, requiring several hours of walking through areas such as the “Arbeit Macht Frei” gate, prisoner blocks, and the ruins of the crematoria at Birkenau.
Birkenau’s vastness left the deepest impression on me. The sheer distance between the gatehouse and the crematoria demonstrates the industrial scale of genocide more powerfully than any photograph can. Visiting both sections in one day gave me a fuller understanding of the camp’s dual role as a place of forced labour and extermination. Guided routes take in major blocks, the punitive Block 11, and the selection ramp used after these sad soul’s journey to Auschwitz by train. But even outside these structured spaces, the quiet fields and long sightlines speak volumes.
Tailor-Made Top Tip:
Book early and go early – Entry slots fill quickly, and early morning visits are quieter and more reflective. Note that tickets can only be purchased online for the Auschwitz Birkenau museum and site.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Regardless of this, please be advised that all opinions expressed in this blog post are genuine and authentically my own.
Where to Stay:
The Auschwitz death camp location is in the small town of Oświęcim. Most visitors to Auschwitz Birkenau choose to stay in the city of Krakow, which is a one-hour drive away by car, or around one and a half hours by bus. Having stayed in Krakow a number of times, I can recommend the Hotel Saski Krakow Curio Collection by Hilton, which is almost on the stunning town square, or the Hotel Ibis Krakow Centrum, which is a stone's throw away from the castle.
If you are looking to stay in Oświęcim there are a handful of hotels to choose from, such as the Hotel Imperiale and the Hotel Galicja Wellness & SPA.
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Treblinka
Treblinka is a place defined not by what remains, but by what was deliberately erased. Standing in the clearing where the camp once operated, I was surrounded by more than 17,000 stone markers—each representing a lost community. The Nazis destroyed the camp in 1943 to hide the evidence of murder, and today the memorial landscape forces visitors to confront absence itself. When I walked across the open ground, with only wind and birdsong breaking the silence, the sense of desolation felt overwhelming.
Getting to the Treblinka death camp memorial required more planning than some other sites, but the effort made the visit even more meaningful. Located northeast of Warsaw, it sits far from major towns, adding to the isolation I experienced on arrival. This is not a site of preserved buildings or museum-style exhibitions; instead, it is a symbolic space that compels imagination and remembrance. The stillness here speaks for the hundreds of thousands who perished, and the emotional weight of the site stayed with me long after I left.
Tailor-Made Top Tip:
Bring water and snacks – The site is remote with few facilities nearby.
Where to Stay:
The nearest town to Treblinka is Ostrów, and there are some accommodation options there with the likes of Dworek Nad Stawem & Łaźnia Piwna but most visitors will base themselves in Warsaw, either hiring a car or booking a day trip to the camp. As for myself, I stayed in Warsaw, at the Ibis Warszawa Stare Miasto, which I found was handily situated to explore Warsaw's Old Town.
Majdanek
Majdanek is one of the most haunting camps I have visited, largely because so much of it remains intact. The preserved gas chambers, barracks, crematorium, and monumental dome containing victims’ ashes make the site one of the most comprehensive memorials to Nazi crimes. As I walked between wooden structures and concrete pathways, I felt the oppressive closeness of the buildings, still marked by soot and age. The camp’s proximity to modern Lublin—visible just beyond the fences—was particularly jarring, creating a stark contrast between past and present.
Inside the barracks, exhibitions filled with personal belongings, including the infamous barrack of shoes, brought individual stories into sharp focus. The site’s accessibility—located directly on a city bus route—means it is easy to visit independently, but emotionally it is one of the most difficult to process. For me, Majdanek offered some of the clearest physical evidence of the Holocaust, preserved not by design but because the SS fled before they could destroy the camp.
Tailor-Made Top Tip:
Use the main visitor entrance – The site is large, and starting at the designated museum building helps orient your visit.
Where to Stay:
I would advise staying in Lublin, with the camp being in the south-eastern suburbs of the city. Lublin is a major city, so plenty to options, but I can highly recommend the Hotel Luxor and its restaurant is amazing too!
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Bełżec
Visiting Bełżec was a profoundly different experience from the larger, preserved camps. Almost nothing survived after the war, as the camp was dismantled by the Nazis in 1943. Today, the memorial is a stark, sculpted landscape where stone, earth, and concrete convey the horror of a camp that murdered between 434,500 and 600,000 Jews in less than a year. Walking through the memorial’s sunken paths, I felt a sense of suffocation and disorientation intentionally built into its design.
The museum provides crucial historical context, including the development of the camp’s gas chambers and the near-total lack of survivors—only a handful lived to tell what happened here, among them Rudolf Reder. My visit to Bełżec left me with a powerful sense of finality; this was a site built solely for murder, and the memorial's minimalist design successfully conveys the totality of its purpose.
Tailor-Made Top Tip:
Visit the museum on site first – With no original structures remaining, background knowledge enhances the memorial’s meaning.
Where to Stay:
I visited Bełżec when travelling between Lublin and Przemyśl. Both these cities have many of their own attractions and you can easily spend two or three days in each city. It takes around 1 hour and 45-minutes to drive from either city to Bełżec. While in Lublin, I stayed at the Luxor Hotel, which is an excellent contemporary accommodation, with an amazing restaurant. And in Przemyśl, I stayed in a renovated castle at the Zamek w Krasiczynie.
Płaszów
Płaszów, on the outskirts of Kraków, is a landscape shaped by memory rather than preserved structures. Almost no original buildings remain. What I encountered instead were open fields, scattered monuments, and the earthworks of mass graves. This absence made my walk through the site feel eerily quiet, especially given Płaszów’s significance in history and popular culture, including its depiction in Schindler’s List.
The area includes remnants such as the Grey House and quarry pits where prisoners once worked, and I found the interpretive signs helpful in reconstructing what once stood there. While the site lacks the tangible structures found at Auschwitz or Majdanek, its openness adds an emotional dimension—a reminder of how thoroughly the Nazis erased evidence of their crimes.
Tailor-Made Top Tips:
Use Google Maps – The site is wide, open, and has few remaining structures, making navigation less obvious.
Pair your visit with Schindler’s Factory Museum – It provides valuable context for understanding Płaszów’s history.
Expect minimal facilities – There are no on‑site services, so bring what you need.
Where to Stay:
The Płaszów camp location is to the south of Krakow's city centre. Having stayed in Krakow a number of times, I can recommend the Hotel Saski Krakow Curio Collection by Hilton, which is almost on the stunning town square, or the Hotel Ibis Krakow Centrum, which is a stone's throw away from the castle.
Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto was not a concentration camp, but a walled‑in district forcibly imposed by the Nazis to confine the Jewish population of Warsaw. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were imprisoned here in appalling conditions before mass deportations to extermination camps such as Treblinka. Walking through the modern streets, I was struck by how thoroughly the city has been rebuilt—yet fragments of the ghetto survive, including sections of the original wall and memorial markers that outline its former boundaries.
My visit took me to significant sites such as the Umschlagplatz monument, where deportations to Treblinka began, and the Mila 18 memorial, marking the bunker used by Jewish resistance fighters during the 1943 uprising. Knowing that today’s Muranów district stands atop the ruins of the ghetto made the experience even more powerful. Although much of the area has changed, walking these streets allows you to trace the physical and emotional landscape of one of the most tragic chapters in Warsaw’s history.
Tailor-Made Top Tip:
Visit POLIN Museum on the same day – It adds essential depth to the ghetto’s history and the Jewish experience in Poland.
Where to Stay:
When visiting these sites in the former ghetto, I stayed at the Ibis Warszawa Stare Miasto, which was just a couple of minutes’ walk from the Umschlagplatz memorial and handily positioned to walk to the other sites detailed in this post.
Buchenwald
Buchenwald, near Weimar, is one of the largest former concentration camps on German soil. Visiting the site, I found a mix of preserved structures—such as the crematorium, gatehouse, and portions of the barbed‑wire perimeter—and reconstructed or interpretive areas that help convey the camp’s size and complexity. It served primarily as a forced‑labour camp where brutality, starvation, and medical experiments claimed countless lives.
The memorial includes a powerful museum and sculpture park, and there is a sense of gravity throughout the grounds, especially in the wooded periphery where prisoners were executed. Buses from Weimar make visiting straightforward, and the combination of physical remains and historical exhibits helped me understand Buchenwald’s role within the broader camp system.
Tailor-Made Top Tip:
Start at the visitor centre – The museum exhibitions give strong context for exploring the grounds.
Where to Stay:
Both Weimar and Erfurt make convenient bases for visiting Buchenwald. In Weimar, you’ll find budget hostels, comfortable mid‑range hotels, and a few boutique luxury options close to the historic centre. Erfurt offers a similar spread, with affordable guesthouses, reliable mid‑range chains, and upmarket city‑centre hotels. Suggested accommodations include Leonardo Hotel Weimar, Dorint Am Goethepark Weimar, or Boutique-Hotel Amalienhof. Either city provides easy access to the memorial while giving you a pleasant place to rest after your visit.
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Mittelbau‑Dora
Mittelbau‑Dora, located near Nordhausen, provided one of the most unsettling experiences of my travels due to its vast underground tunnel system. This was the centre of the V‑2 rocket programme, and prisoners were forced to work in horrific conditions deep beneath the mountain. Touring the tunnels, I was struck by the stifling air and the oppressive darkness that prisoners endured daily.
Above ground, the museum and memorial areas help explain how the camp evolved from a subcamp of Buchenwald into a major forced‑labour site. The combination of technological history and human suffering makes Mittelbau‑Dora uniquely memorable.
Tailor-Made Top Tip:
Book a tunnel tour – The underground areas are the most striking but can require timed entry.
Where to Stay:
For visiting Mittelbau‑Dora, Nordhausen is the most convenient and practical base. I recommend staying at Hotel Nordhausen, a comfortable and well‑located option that makes it easy to reach both the memorial and the town centre. It’s a straightforward, reliable choice for a restful stay after exploring this powerful historical site.
Dachau
Dachau, just outside Munich, was the first Nazi concentration camp, serving as the prototype for all that followed. During my visit I was able to explore reconstructed barracks, the roll‑call yard, religious memorials, and the original crematorium complex. The museum’s chronological exhibitions helped me understand how the SS developed and refined the camp system beginning here in 1933.
Because Dachau is so accessible, it receives many visitors, yet the atmosphere remains solemn. The camp’s long history—spanning political prisoners, clergy, resistance fighters, and Jewish detainees—makes it one of the most educational sites for understanding the evolution of Nazi persecution.
Tailor-Made Top Tip:
Expect crowds – Arriving early helps avoid the busiest periods.
Where to Stay:
I found that the Amedia Hotel & Suites in Dachau was perfect for visiting the concentration camp there, with the hotel offering great service and stylish, compact rooms.
Flossenbürg
Flossenbürg, set in the Bavarian hills, combines remnants of the camp with extensive postwar memorial development. When I walked through the site, I encountered the crematorium, guard tower remains, and the granite quarries where prisoners were forced to labour. Exhibitions also recount the stories of notable prisoners, including Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed here in 1945.
The setting is deceptively peaceful today, which contrasts sharply with its brutal history. Interpretive materials and walking paths helped me reconstruct the camp’s original layout, making this one of the more contemplative visits on my journey.
Tailor-Made Top Tip:
Check opening times – The museum can have seasonal hours.
Where to Stay:
For my trip to Flossenbürg and Hersbruck, I based myself in the suburb of Fürth, just outside Nuremburg, staying at the Acora Fürth Living the City. I had the use of a hire car, and it took me just over one and a half hours to get to Flossenbürg. Staying near the centre of Nuremburg had the added advantage of being able to visit the Palace of Justice, where the Nuremburg trials were conducted, and the Hall of Honour, where the Nazi’s held their infamous rallies.
Hersbruck
Hersbruck, a subcamp within the Flossenbürg system, leaves far fewer visible traces than the main site. When I visited, I found only modest memorial markers acknowledging the forced labour carried out there. Unlike larger camps with museums or preserved buildings, Hersbruck is a place where memory must be pieced together through plaques, local histories, and landscape. Its quietness reinforces the idea that not all suffering left large architectural footprints, yet each site, no matter how small, played its part in the machinery of persecution.
Tailor-Made Top Tip:
Combine with a visit to Flossenbürg – It provides historical context that Hersbruck alone cannot offer.
Other Holocaust Sites You Can Still Visit
While the camps described above represent many of the major locations I have personally visited, there are several other Holocaust sites across Europe that travellers can visit today to gain a fuller understanding of the Nazi camp system. Some of these sites, particularly those associated with Operation Reinhard, were almost completely destroyed by the Nazis in an attempt to erase evidence, yet powerful memorials now stand where the original structures once existed.
Sobibór, another of the three Operation Reinhard extermination camps alongside Bełżec and Treblinka, was built specifically for the mass killing of Jews using gas chambers supplied by carbon‑monoxide engines. The camp was dismantled by the Nazis after a prisoner uprising, leaving no original buildings. However, a modern memorial and museum now mark the site, commemorating the hundreds of thousands murdered here.
Chełmno (Kulmhof) was the first extermination camp established by the Nazis and used mobile gas vans to murder victims. Although not discussed in the earlier sections, Chełmno was closely tied to the same genocidal programme that later produced the stationary gas chambers of Bełżec, Sobibór, and Treblinka. The site today includes the remains of the manor grounds where deportees arrived, along with a memorial landscape in the nearby forest where mass graves were located. Like other killing centres, it played a central role in the Nazis’ policy of looting and plundering victims’ possessions during the extermination process.
In addition to these two key extermination sites, travellers may also visit other concentration, labour, and transit camps across Europe. Many countries have preserved former camp locations or established memorials where only fragments remain. A number of these sites are widely recognised, including Bergen‑Belsen, Sachsenhausen, Ravensbrück, and Mauthausen, each offering its own perspective through a combination of memorial architecture, museum interpretation, and preserved or reconstructed features. Together, these memorials help visitors understand the wider network of Nazi persecution and provide additional opportunities for reflection, education, and remembrance.
Quick Questions Answered
What is the difference between a concentration camp, a labour camp, and an extermination camp? Nazi camps served different purposes within a single system of persecution and genocide. Concentration camps imprisoned people the regime labelled as “enemies,” subjecting them to starvation, violence, and inhumane conditions. Labour camps focused on exploiting prisoners for forced work in factories, quarries, and construction projects, often under conditions designed to be lethal. Extermination camps, by contrast, were created solely for mass murder, with victims sent directly to gas chambers on arrival.
Is it appropriate to take photographs at Holocaust memorial sites? Photography rules vary by location, but the guiding principle is always respect for the victims and the purpose of the site. Many memorials allow photos outdoors but restrict them inside exhibitions or near sensitive artefacts, and flash is often prohibited. Even where photography is permitted, visitors are encouraged to avoid posing, smiling, or treating the site as a backdrop, and to focus instead on images that support remembrance and understanding.
Are guided tours recommended, or can you visit these sites independently? Both guided and independent visits are possible, and each offers a different way to engage with the history. Guided tours provide expert context, survivor testimony, and interpretation that can deepen understanding, especially at large or complex sites. Independent visits allow for quiet reflection and the freedom to move at your own pace, which can be particularly meaningful at memorial landscapes where little remains.
How many people were murdered at the camps during the Holocaust? While exact numbers can never be known with complete certainty, historians have established widely accepted estimates showing the immense scale of loss across the Nazi camp system. Auschwitz‑Birkenau saw the murder of around 1.1 million people, Treblinka around 870,000, Bełżec roughly 500,000, and other extermination camps such as Sobibór and Chełmno each claimed well over 150,000 lives. Major concentration and labour camps, including Buchenwald, Dachau, Majdanek, Flossenbürg, Mauthausen, and Ravensbrück, accounted for tens of thousands more deaths through starvation, forced labour, disease, and executions.
Conclusion
Visiting the concentration camps of the Holocaust is one of the most demanding things you can do as an independent traveller — demanding on your feet, your time, and above all your emotional reserves. But it’s also some of the most important travel you’ll ever do. Each site in this series offers something different: the overwhelming scale of Auschwitz–Birkenau, the desolate silence of the Treblinka death camp memorial, the uncomfortable intactness of Majdanek, the symbolic minimalism of Bełżec. Together, they form a portrait of a crime that must never be forgotten, and a reminder that bearing witness — in person, with respect — is itself an act of remembrance. I hope this guide, and the individual posts that accompany it, gives you the confidence and the context to make that journey for yourself.
Related Blog Posts
If you would like more information on how to visit these locations, please view the Tailor-Made Itineraries posts below:
Have you visited any of the concentration camps of the Holocaust? Which site left the biggest impression on you — and do you have any practical tips to share with fellow travellers? Leave a comment below and join the conversation.
Don’t forget that Tailor-Made Itineraries delights in creating bespoke self-guided tours. So, if visiting any of these concentration camps of the Holocaust interests you, reach out to me by email. I would be more than happy to design a self-guided tour around your requirements incorporating these camps, or indeed, a general tour of Holocaust sites.
Tailor-Made Itineraries posts every two weeks, and you can subscribe to the latest blog and newsletter here. Until then, happy reading and safe travels.
Barry
Contact Me: tailoritineraries@gmail.com
Tailor-Made Itineraries creates one-of-a-kind bespoke self-guided travel itineraries for adventurous and curious travellers.
These self-guided tours deliver a personalised and exciting holiday experience that takes the effort out of trip planning.
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