The Auschwitz memorial museum has defended itself against complaints of insensitivity after setting up mist sprinklers intended to cool visitors as they queued for tickets.

Some visitors complained the sprinklers outside the building in Poland resembled showers. The Nazis murdered a million Jews at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in gas chambers disguised as shower rooms.

Photographs published in the media showed young people cooling off underneath the suspended hosepipe.

The museum said it installed the sprinklers outside the entrance because of last month's heatwave in Poland.

Temperatures exceeded 30 degrees Celsius, and some people fainted after queuing for tickets for long periods of time in the blazing sun.

The wellbeing of visitors was the museum's priority, a statement posted on the Auschwitz Memorial Facebook page said.

"Something had to be done, as we have noticed cases of faints among people and other dangerous situations," the statement said.

They said the hosepipe did not resemble the gas chamber showers.

"The mist sprinklers do not look like showers and the fake showers installed by Germans inside some of the gas chambers were not used to deliver gas into them," the statement said.

"Zyklon B was dropped inside the gas chambers in a completely different way — through holes in the ceiling or airtight drops in walls."

Nazis murdered a million Jews at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in gas chambers disguised as showers. ( peuplier: www.flickr.com )

BBC