News

Siblings from Cincinnati, moved by an appeal from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, organized a fundraiser at their school that brought in $1,200. The money will be added to the Foundation's Perpetual Fund, the interest from which is designated for the conservation of the grounds of the former German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp Auschwitz.

The International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust hosted a group of officers and cadets to Fort Leavenworth, participants of the Raphael Lemkin Seminar that is jointly organized with the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation.

The last meeting of the Council of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in its four-year term of office was held. Council members unanimously approved a report on the activities of the Museum in 2010 and plans for next year.

The Auschwitz Memorial has received a Caravelle T5 car from Volkswagen. This valuable support for the work of the Museum was made possible thanks to the help of the International Auschwitz Committee and the personal involvement of its deputy chairman, Christoph Heubner. It is also a continuation of many years of cooperation with Volkswagen AG.

The February issue of Oś is dominated by the events of January 27, the 66th anniversary of the liberation of the former Nazi German Concentration and Extermination Camp Auschwitz. In this issue you can read an account of the ceremony and the most important words that were uttered during the event—speeches by former prisoners as well as Presidents: of the Republic of Poland, Bronisław Komorowski, and the Federal Republic of Germany, Christian Wulff. We also write about the visit by the presidents to the International Youth Meeting Center.

Tomasz Tamborski, the starosta or head of the local administration in Kołobrzeg county has urged local governments across Poland to lend their financial support to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. The council of the Kołobrzeg county passed a motion today to contribute ten thousand zloty to the Foundation in the first event of its kind in Poland.