More than two million people walked through the gates of Auschwitz in 2016 to learn about the history of the Nazi death camp.
Last year some 2,053,000 people from all over the world visited the site of the camp which operated in German-occupied Poland, where more than one million men, women and children died, the Auschwitz museum said.
This was a "record number" in the history of the memorial, which will mark the 70th anniversary of its opening this year.
Dr Piotr MA Cywinski, director of the museum and memorial, said it was important to acknowledge the "not-so-distant past of which the painful effects are still felt by witnesses living among us, their families and the next generations".
He said: "In today's world - torn by conflicts, increased feeling of insecurity and strengthening of populistic tones in public discourse - it is necessary to re-listen to the darkest warnings from the past.
"In an era of such rapid changes in culture and civilisation, we must again recognise the limits beyond which the madness of organised hatred and blindness may again escape out of any control."
Almost three-quarters of 2016's visitors (nearly 1.5 million) visited the memorial with one of its 280-plus official guides. The guides explain the history of Auschwitz in almost 20 languages, the most common of which is English.
Britain has long been one of the countries providing the highest number of visitors. Last year, it retained its spot as the country providing the second highest volume of visitors globally, with 271,000 coming to the site.
Around 50,000 more visitors from the UK came last year than in 2015, the museum said.
The UK's Holocaust Educational Trust (HET) takes thousands of school children on trips to Auschwitz each year, and was previously praised by the museum as a "role model of responsible education" for other countries to follow.
For 12 days in July and August, the memorial was accessible only to young people taking part in World Youth Day, during which 155,000 visitors came to the site.
The highest attendance was recorded on July 26, with nearly 21,000 young people walking through the former camp's gates - the museum's highest daily record ever.
Three days later the museum was closed entirely for the visit of Pope Francis.
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