• at a meeting of the Peoples' National Council, former prisoner Alfred Fiderkiewicz submits a proposal for a law on the establishment of a Museum on the grounds of the former concentration camp.  

February 1946

• The Presidium of the Council of State orders the Ministry of Culture and Arts to secure and organize permanent custodianship over the grounds of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

1947

• the Polish parliament passes a law establishing the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.  

June 1947

• the opening of a permanent exhibition on the grounds of the former Auschwitz I-Main Camp marks the opening of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum.  

1947-1955

• a debate goes on throughout Poland on the size of the Museum grounds and the way the Museum is being organized.

1948

• The Cracow branch of the Okregowa Komisja Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich w Polsce (District Commission for the Investigation of Nazi War Crimes in Poland) establishes a Documentation Department.

1950

• the Museum statutes are approved;
• the general exhibition is expanded.

1952

• notes by an anonymous Sonderkommando member are discovered on the grounds of the former Birkenau concentration camp.  

1955

• a new permanent exhibition is opened on the Auschwitz I site.
• a monument-urn is unveiled on the grounds of the former Birkenau concentration camp.

1957

• parliament passes a law fixing the boundaries of the Museum;
• the Documentation Department of the Cracow District Commission for the Investigation of Nazi War Crimes in Poland is transferred to the Museum, where it becomes the Archive Department;
• the first issues of Zeszytów Oswiecimskich and Hefte von Auschwitz (The Auschwitz Journal) are published.  

1959

• the jury selects a winner in an international competition for a monument on the Birkenau grounds; the project is never realized because it violates the July 2, 1947 law on the inadmissibility of changes to the camp grounds.

1960

• the first national exhibitions are opened: Czechoslovakia and Hungary.  

1961

• the International Auschwitz Committee decides to prepare a new plan for the construction of a Birkenau monument;
• the Soviet and DDR (East German) national exhibitions open.

1962

• inaugural session of the Polish National Committee for the Construction of an International Auschwitz Monument;
• the notes of Sonderkommando prisoner Zalmen Lewental are found buried near Birkenau Crematorium II.  

1963

• the Hiroshima-Auschwitz Peace March;
• the maintenance and preservation program for the former Birkenau camp goes into effect; the ruins of Crematorium II and its gas chambers are secured; buildings, roads, and fences are preserved, the grounds are drained, and plant growth is brought under control.

1964

• Rada Ochrony Pomników Walki i Męczeństwa (The Council for the Protection of Monuments to Struggle and Martyrdom) decides to aid the International Auschwitz Committee by seeing to the construction of the monument, which is erected according to a design approved by the Board of the International Auschwitz Committee and the Minister of Culture and Art;
• the Frankfurt am Main Court Jury investigates the Auschwitz crime scene.  

1965

• opening of the Belgian national exhibition.

1966

• unveiling of the monument in Monowice to the victims of Auschwitz III; the monument was paid for by donations from the residents of Oswiecim and the vicinity.

1966-1968

• sociological research on the young people visiting the Auschwitz site;
• initiation of cooperation with the Sign of Penance movement from Germany. Groups of German young people come to the Museum to work at grounds keeping.

1966

• international mass demonstration at the Birkenau site.

1967

• unveiling of the International Monument to the Victims of Fascism in Birkenau, with approximately 200,000 people in attendance. Polish state officials, prisoners' organizations from many countries, the Israeli welfare minister, the East German and Italian foreign ministers, and numerous ambassadors and journalists are present.
• the Museum Visitor Services Center is opened.

1968

• examination of the crime scenes at Birkenau, Monowitz, and the Lederfabrik by the Frankfurt-am-Main Court;
• opening of the "Struggle and Martyrdom of the Jews" exhibition in block No. 27;
• opening of the Danish national exhibition;
• victims' hair is cleaned in the preservation workshops, with special apparatus used to remove approximately 100 kg. of dust, restoring the natural color of the hair.

1969

• intensive restoration work on the ruins of Crematoria II and III and their gas chambers, the barracks in Sector BIa, the roofs of the barracks in the quarantine camp and of the guard towers; preservation work on 35,000 brushes, 642 suitcases, 119 striped camp uniforms, and 500 various other objects. Preservation work is also done on the railroad platform (ramp) in Birkenau where trains full of deportees to Auschwitz were unloaded and where the SS carried out selections of the newly arrived Jewish transports.

1970

• opening of the new DDR (East German) exhibition titled "The Anti-Fascist Movement in Germany, 1933-1945";
• opening of the new Hungarian national exhibition;
• discovery of the notes of Sonderkommando member Lejb on the Birkenau grounds.

1971

• for its activities, the Museum receives the International Peace Council's Frederic Joliot-Curie Gold Medal. The medal is presented by International Peace Council chairwoman Isabelle Blume during a demonstration at Birkenau on September 1, the date of the outbreak of the war;
• 30,000 people take part in a high mass at the Death Wall to mark the beatification of Father Maksymiliana Kolbe;
• preservation work on Crematorium II and its gas chambers in Birkenau.

1972

• opening of the "Auschwitz Concentration Camp" exhibition in Japan;
• first International Conference of Martyrdom Museums.

1973

• opening of an exhibition of camp art in Budapest;
• opening of the "Auschwitz Warns" exhibition in Prague.

October 1973 - December 1974

• sessions of a Commission of Experts convened to solve the overall problems of the utilization of the areas around the Museum and to examine long-term plans for the development of the Museum. Plans for connecting the two parts of the Museum, and adding needed road and parking facilities at Birkenau, are examined. Museum staff members present proposals for shifting the focus to Birkenau by relocating the main visitor reception and routing area in the vicinity of the Birkenau site.

1974

• sociological research on young visitors to the Auschwitz site.

1976

• Second International Conference of Martyrdom Museums.

1977

• opening of the Bulgarian national exhibition.

1978

• opening of the Austrian national exhibition;
• opening of the new "Struggle and Martyrdom of the Jews" exhibition on the 35th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising;
• opening of the "Memory of Human tragedy" exhibition in Czechoslovakia.

1979

• Pope John Paul II says high mass at the Birkenau site for the intention of the victims of Auschwitz concentration camp. Approximately 1,000,000 people attend.
• opening of the French national exhibition.
• the Polish proposal to include the Museum on the UNESCO World Heritage List is accepted.
• sociological research on young visitors to the former camp.

1980

• opening of the Italian national exhibition.
• opening of the Hungarian national exhibition.
• opening of the Dutch national exhibition;
• opening of the "Auschwitz Concentration Camp" exhibition in London;
• opening of the "Art by Auschwitz Prisoners" exhibition in Nuremberg and subsequently in six other West German cities;
• opening of the "Children during the Occupation Period" exhibition at Sachsenhausen.

1981

• discovery at the Birkenau site of the notes of Greek Sonderkommando member Marcel Nadjari.

1982

• opening in Holland and Sweden of the "Testimony of Suffering and Hope" exhibition.

1983

• the mayor of the City of Oswiecim and the director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum issue a joint "Program for Work Connected with the Utilization of the Areas Adjacent to the Museum," which is accepted by the city council and implemented over the following years.
• report by an Auschwitz Preservation Society commission of technical experts on
• "Problems in Meeting the Preservation and Functional Needs of the Grounds and Buildings of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum," proposing that the Museum grounds be expanded and surrounded by a 10-meter green belt.
• opening in Japan of the "Tragedy of Auschwitz Concentration Camp" travelling exhibition.
• opening in Japan of the "Defenders of Peace Talk about War" exhibition.

1984-1987

• work by the Silesian Polytechnic on a report on "The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Buffer Zone," commissioned by the Oswiecim municipal government.

1985

• more than 500 entries arrive from around the world in the "Auschwitz Warns and Remembers" poster design competition.
• opening of the new Soviet national exhibition.
• opening of the Polish national exhibition.
• opening of the "Auschwitz: A Crime Against Humanity" exhibition at UN Headquarters in New York; this exhibition is shown twice at the UN as well as in many cities in the USA and in Europe.

1987

• conference on the preservation and maintenance of Birkenau.

1989

• first meeting of the working group on the future of the Museum.

1990

• visit by representatives of the Ronald Lauder Foundation, which leads to the development of a project for maintaining and preserving the Auschwitz buildings. The project is later presented to the governments of the countries from which transports were sent to Auschwitz, and becomes the basis for raising governmental preservation funding outside Poland.
• first meeting of the International Council of the Museum; Wladyslaw Bartoszewski is unanimously elected as its chairman.
• establishment of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp Victims Memorial Foundation, which raises funds for the maintenance and preservation of the grounds, buildings, museum collections and archives at the site of the camp, for research, publications, and exhibits, for documenting and promoting knowledge about the crimes against humanity committed there, for promoting knowledge about the Nazi crime of genocide, and for honoring the memory of the victims of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
• Third International conference of Martyrdom Museums.

1991

• recovery from the State Archives in Moscow of four volumes of the Books of the Dead, containing death certificates issued in Auschwitz concentration camp;
• communiqué from the International council of the museum on the urgent need to draw up documentation about the buffer zone.

1992

• recovery of 42 more volumes of the Death Books. The Museum has obtained a total of 69,000 death certificates;
• the railroad spur and unloading platform known as the "Judenrampe," where deportees arrived in Auschwitz and where the SS carried out selections, are added to the register of landmarks in Bielsko province;
• International Conference on "Teaching after Auschwitz" organized jointly with the Bergen-Belsen Memorial Site.

1993

• first seminar for Museum staff members and guides at the Yad Vashem Memorial Institute in Jerusalem. Seminars are subsequently held annually and offered to staff members from other memorial museums in Poland, and to teachers;
• "The Future of Auschwitz," an international conference on the upkeep and preservation of the grounds and buildings of the former camp;
• preparation by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum of a "program for the integration of the sites of the Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II camps, and new means of presenting history and commemorating the victims."
• Second international "Teaching after Auschwitz" conference.
• development of plans for commemorating the so-called "Judenrampe."

1994 - 1995

• introduction of a new system for explicating and memorializing the most important places on the site of the Birkenau camp.

1995

• international ceremonies to mark the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp by the Red Army.
• grounds of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum added to the Bielsko province register of landmarks.

1996

• approval by the Polish government of the Oswiecim Strategic Plan.

1997

• ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
• announcement of an invitation-only competition for the adaptation of the so-called "Sauna" building at the Birkenau site.

1998

• opening at the Auschwitz Museum of year-long postgraduate courses for Polish school teachers on "Totalitarianism, Fascism, and the Holocaust," organized in cooperation with the Higher School of Pedagogy in Cracow.
• conclusion of the competition for the adaptation of the so-called "Sauna" building at the Birkenau site, and announcement of the verdict of the jurors.

1999

• international conference on the preservation of the concrete fence posts of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
• Eleventh March of the Living with almost two thousand participants, including several hundred Poles, the first March with such a large number of non-Jewish youth;
• law on the protection of memorial sites comes into force. The buffer zone around the Museum is defined;
• Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial World Wide Web site becomes available to users of the Internet
• Sociological research on young visitors, the teachers who accompany them, and the guides

2000

• Publication of Memorial Book: Transports of Poles from Warsaw to Auschwitz, 1940-1945. Publication of Memorial Books on transports of Poles to Auschwitz from other regions continues in coming years.
• Exhibition at the Frankfurt International Book Fair.
• First prize in the Museum Event of the Year awards for the German version of the five-volume study Auschwitz 1940-1945. Studien zur Geschichte des Konzentrazions und Vernichtungslager Auschwitz, and third prize for the educational program You Are Here to Bear Witness.
• Transfer to the Museum of wall paintings done in 1944 by an unknown prisoner at the Auschwitz sub-camp at the cement factory in Goleszów.
• Contest for art-school students for a poster on the theme Remembrance of Auschwitz. Some entries exhibited after award ceremony.

2001

• Opening of the permanent exhibition on The Destruction of the European Roma.
• Conference on Children in Auschwitz for teachers of Polish and history.
• Museum open house for Oświęcim residents.
• Opening of the permanent exhibition The History and Functions of the Central Camp Sauna. Before They Departed—Photographs Found at Auschwitz.
• Preparation of the exhibition A Historical and Commemorative Description of the Former Grounds of Auschwitz I Concentration Camp completed. 

2002

• Second Prize in the Museum Event of the Year awards for the exhibition at the Central Camp Sauna, and honorable mention for the Digital Archive of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim project.
• Opening of the permanent exhibitions Prisoners from the Czech Lands in Auschwitz and The Tragedy of the Slovakian Jews.
• Completion of work on the digital file catalogue based on the archival records of the hospital at the Auschwitz I camp.

2003

• Children of the Holocaust Speak—an educational session for post-intermediate students and teachers.
• Internet version of the Auschwitz Death Book goes online.
• Seminar for teachers on Auschwitz: History and Symbolism.
• Protecting for the Future, an international conservation conference under the aegis as the Ministry of Culture.
• Opening of one of the most modern conservation studios in Poland.
• Conservation of several thousand pairs of shoes from the Museum collections, by students specializing in monument preservation at an Oświęcim secondary school, supervised by Museum conservation specialists.
• Unveiling of plaque in the Judeo-Hispanic language at the Monument to the Victims of Auschwitz.
• General academic conference on The Fate of the Sinti and Roma in Auschwitz to mark the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Gypsy family camp.  

2004

• Amidst a Nightmare of Crime, a commemorative educational session for teachers and educators to mark the 60th anniversary of the Sonderkommando mutiny.
• Start of a multi-stage project to preserve the ruins of the gas chambers at the Auschwitz II site.
• First prize at the Museum Event of the Year awards for the album We Should Never Forget Them—The Youngest Victims of Auschwitz.
• Opening of the permanent exhibition The Citizen Betrayed: A Remembrance of Holocaust Victims from Hungary.
• Gravel Pit site and the adjacent “Old Theater” building transferred to Museum ownership as the future site of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust.

2005

• Educational sessions on People of Good Will on aid to Auschwitz prisoners by Oświęcim area civilians and Soviet POWs in Auschwitz.
• 25th anniversary of cooperation between the Museum and the Forestry and Ecological School Complex at Brynek, whose students work on landscaping at the Museum each year.
• Metal stretcher used to load victims’ corpses into crematorium furnaces unearthed near the ruins of crematorium and gas chamber V.
• International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust officially founded at the Museum.
• Opening of the permanent exhibitions Deportation from France to Auschwitz March 27, 1942-January 27, 1945 and The Persecution and Deportation of Jews from Holland to Auschwitz in the Years 1940-1945.
• Commemorative-informational tablet erected at the site of the first provisional gas chamber.
• Commemoration of the “Judenrampe” where deportees to Auschwitz arrived from 1942-1944 and selection of Jews took place.
• President of Poland awards orders and decorations to former prisoners and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum staff.         

2006

• Second European seminar for teachers organized jointly with the Pedagogical Academy in Cracow.
• Historical contest for young people from the Land of Oświęcim, entries exhibited after award ceremony.
• Visit by Benedict XVI, head of the Roman Catholic Church.
• First prize at Museum Event of the Year awards for the founding of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust and honorable mention for the conservation of children‘s shoes.
• Opening of the permanent exhibition Belgium 1940-1944: The Occupation and Deportation to Auschwitz.
• Objects discovered during the preservation work on the ruins of gas chamber and crematorium II at the Birkenau site include covers for the gas chamber ventilation openings, a shower head, and an absorbent gas mask tip.
• Names of Poles deported to Auschwitz go online at the Museum website. This information is in addition to the already available names of Jewish and non-Jewish prisoners from the Death Book and the names from the so-called Gypsy Book.
• Educational conference on The Expulsion of Polish Civilians as a Consequence of the Creation of the Camp Interest Zone.

2007

• Museum acquires 87 unique black-and-white photographs of the Auschwitz camp taken after liberation by an ex-prisoner in the fall of 1945 and early 1946.
• First plans for the new main exhibition presented at a session of the International Auschwitz Council.
• Auschwitz: Remembering for the Future, a set of educational dossiers prepared by the Polish Institute for National Remembrance in close cooperation with the Museum, reach secondary schools.
• Educational project Withered Roses wins honorable mention in the Educational Programs and Promotion category at the Sybilla 2006 Museum Event of the Year awards.
• Contract signed with officials from the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia for the financing of the conservation of documents from the Auschwitz SS Hygiene Institute.
• International conference Remembrance-Awareness-Responsibility marks the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
• Museum information technology specialists install a local optical fiber network for the entire Museum.
• European seminar on Auschwitz: History, Remembrance, and Education—Teaching the Holocaust at an Authentic Memorial Site.