Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
€
6 milliOn fOr the Auschwitz-
-BirkeNau FouNDatioN FroM austria
A
ustria has joined the countries declaring nancial support forthe Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, with a contribution of €6 million. The purpose of the Foundation, called into beinglast year by Professor Władysław Bartoszewski, is to set up a Perpet-ual Fund to generate income that will be assigned to the long-termconservation program at the Auschwitz Memorial.
“Six million euro is the sumthat Austria has pledged,”said Josef Proell, the deputyprime minister and nanceminister, after a cabinet meet-ing. He pointed out that thiswill be exactly one-tenth of the support committed to theFoundation by Germany, acountry with a population tentimes that of Austria. “The de-tails of the nancing remain to be worked out,” Proell said.“Working together is the onlyway we can create a systemto ensure the long-term con-servation of the remains of the Auschwitz camp,” saidMuseum Director Dr. PiotrM.A. Cywiński, who is alsothe president of the manage-ment board of the Ausch-witz-Birkenau Foundation.“We cannot deprive ourchildren and grandchildrenof the memory of this worstexperience of the 20th cen-tury,” he added. “They, too,will build the world of theirtimes, and they will thereforeneed a full awareness andunderstanding of the great-est dangers to civilization.”Last December, the Germanfederal government andthe federal states (Länder)announced that they were jointly allocating €60 mil-lion to the Auschwitz-Birk-enau Foundation. That ishalf the amount needed topreserve, maintain, and con-serve the authentic remainsof the Nazi German Ausch-witz concentration campand extermination center.“Soon it will be a year sincethe establishment of theFoundation, which has suc-ceeded in acquiring concretenancial declarations thatmake up over half of theplanned and much-neededFund. I am pleased thatAustria has joined in the ef-fort,” said Director Cywiński.The purpose of the Founda-tion is to raise €120 millionfor a Perpetual Fund yieldingannual interest on the orderof €4 to €5 million. This willmake it possible to plan andsystematically undertake es-sential conservation tasks. Bythe same token, and for therst time in its history, theAuschwitz-Birkenau Memo-rial will have a real chance tocarry out a stable, long-termconservation program allow-ing it to preserve the remainsof the camp for future genera-tions.
Paweł Sawicki
A
mong the prisoners liberated from Auschwitz on 27 January1945, there were around 500 children of various nationalitieswho were under 15 years of age. One of them was a four-year-old girl, who only remembered that her rst name is Shura.
The libertio of auschwit
Along with other camp pris-oners, she walked out of acamp barrack when Sovietsoldiers arrived at Ausch-witz II-Birkenau. When oneof them saw her, he took outa sugar cube from a metal box and gave it to her to lick.He carried her out of thecamp on his arms and puther into the army eld hos-pital. Together with the unit,she moved deep into Ger-many as a “child of the regi-ment”. A nurse from the eldhospital cared her for. Sheremembers how the soldiersfrom the regiment celebratedthe victory in May of 1945.That’s when they gave Szura
a Four-year-olD Girl
frOm Auschwtiz-birkenAu
the Auschwitz museum is impOrtAnt fOr the District
T
he possibilities of cooperation and opportunities associated with the existence of the Auschwitz Memorial Site,a museum known worldwide, were discussed at a meeting at the Museum by members of the Committee forEconomic Development and Promotion of the Oświęcim District.
“The work of the State Mu-seum is one of the importantand strategic activities linkedto the district” noted Coun-cilman Leszek Szuster. “Theability to learn about thework, along with the plansof the Museum seems to beinvaluable. Meeting the man-agement made it clear to all of us what an important institu-tion it is in the context of thedistrict’s development,” headded.Last year the budget of theMuseum was over 30 millionPLN. This is money that al-most in its entirety was spentin the Oświęcim District. “Ra-tional planning of develop-ment by the local governmentcannot disreguard the Memo-rial Site, not only because of the number of visitors, butalso for economic reasons,”emphasized Museum Direc-tor Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywiński.“There is a great chance to in-tegrate many efforts, and forthis to take place there must be the feeling of cooperation. Iam pleased that at the districtlevel this is very positive,”said Director Cywiński.During the discussion withthe Museum management,the members of the Develop-ment Committee were mostinterested in the investmentperspectives of the Museum,such as, the development of a modern visitor center at thecurrent PKSiS site and adap-tation of the, so-called, OldTheater, which will be theheadquarters of the Interna-tional Center for Educationabout Auschwitz and theHolocaust.“I believe that such meetingsare very much needed andthis is not only my opinion, but of all members of thiscommittee. We are, however,impressed with what we havelearned,” said Stanisław Zając,Chairman of the EconomicDevelopment and CountyPromotion.” The AuschwitzMuseum is a springboard andthe possibility of develop-ment of our county throughtourism and all the related fa-cilities associated with this.“I learned many interestingthings here. Personally, I amvery impressed by the activi-ties and development of theState Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oświęcim. Thepossibilities are great andI am surprised that coop-eration between the city andMuseum is not taking placeas it should. I am certain thatchances for development areenormous Waldemar Klisiaksaid summing up the meetingof the committee.
Bartosz Bartyzel
P h o t o : P w e ł S w i c k i
Former Auschwitz-Birkenau camp siteAleksandra Garbuzova, Eva Mozes Kor with Polish PresidentLech Kaczyński and Aleksandra’s grandson Andrzej
P h o t o : B r t o s z B r t y z e l
Development Committee meeting
P h o t o : a B S M
Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture mgie, o. 15, Mrch 2010
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