IAC Meetings
Meeting XIII: 5 December 2006
During a session in Warsaw on December 5, 2006, the International Auschwitz Council approved plans submitted by the new director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Piotr M. A. Cywiński. The Council unanimously passed a resolution expressing its satisfaction at the idea of creating a new main exhibition at the Museum, in the last row of buildings at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp site, while also maintaining and preserving the original camp relics. Details of the changes will be discussed with both the Council and other groups and institutions in Poland and abroad.
The Council passed a resolution to "condemn any attempts at denying the Holocaust, the plans by the Nazi Germans to murder all the European Jews. This has been, and must continue to be a warning to all people. In this context, the Council, whose members include former Auschwitz-Birkenau prisoners, Christians and Jews, expresses its profound unease at statements by the president of Iran."
The Council also considered the proposal by the authorities of the City of Oświęcim to locate the Mound of Remembrance and Reconciliation on ulica Leszczyńska, directly adjacent to the Auschwitz I Stammlager site. After reviewing a detailed report and discussing the matter, the Council decided to express a negative opinion on this location, while noting at the same time that it continues to support the idea of the Mound of Remembrance and Reconciliation.
The final item on the agenda was the continuation of essential work to secure the ruins of gas chambers and crematoria II and III in Birkenau. The Council approved the preservation option suggested by the Museum, which will stop ground subsidence and isolate the ruin from the ground water without reconstructing any of the elements of the gas chambers and crematoria.