Finances

Fulfilling the Memorial’s mission, preserving its authenticity and educating people about the history of Auschwitz necessitate financial resources that exceed the Museum’s capacity. Therefore, the funds received from multiple sources, including in-house revenues, grants from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (MKiDN), the Auschwitz‑Birkenau Foundation, and the European Union, hold great significance.

In 2023, earmarked funds from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage amounting to € 4.4 million were allocated to the following projects: € 3.7 million for the construction of the Visitor Services Center; € 0.5 million for a project related to the organisation of the New Polish Exhibition; € 32,000 for a monographic publication on the deportation and extermination of Sinti and Roma at KL Auschwitz.

Funds transferred from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation to the tune of € 6.3 million, which is the largest annual support of the Foundation to date, were allocated for the preservation tasks carried out at the site of the Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp (including the ruins of the gas chambers and crematoria and the prisoner barracks) and the ongoing conservation of the Museum Collections and archival materials. The European Union, through the European Regional Development Fund and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, are co-financing a project to create a new Visitor Services Center under the title “Increasing access to cultural resources by expanding the tour routes of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum to include the post-camp space of the Schlachthaus and Molkerei buildings and the conversion of the cinema hall”. The implementation of the project in 2023 was financed to the tune of € 0.9 million from EU funds and € 0.2 million from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Ronald S. Lauder and Joel and Ulirka Citron also provided financial support for
this undertaking.

In 2023, the Museum and the International Tracing Service Bad Arolsen continued their joint project “Reconstructing the identities of KL Auschwitz deportees and prisoners based on archival data from the A-BSM in Oświęcim and ITS in Bad Arolsen”. The project aims to reconstruct as much data as possible on deportees and prisoners at KL Auschwitz based on the archival resources of both institutions. The project was supported by Volkswagen AG & Internationales Auschwitz Komitee.