News

The International Auschwitz Council convened on January 24 at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland. The Council approved a report on the year 2007 by Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywiński, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, who also informed the body about the evolution of plans and the schedule for overhauling the main exhibition, the progress of conservation, research, and educational work, and modifications to the Museum structure....

The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum will commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz at a ceremony on September 27, 2008. This year, the Museum is dedicating the observances to the tragedies of the families of many faiths and ethnic backgrounds that suffered and perished in the camp. The President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, and the First Lady, Maria Kaczyńska, are the honorary patrons of the event.

More than a million people visit the Auschwitz Museum each year. Many of them search for information about family members who lost their lives in the camp. It is highly unusual, however, for a son to recognize his father in one of the photographs—when the father is wearing an SS uniform.

The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum has acquired two new exhibits: paper sacks for cement from one of the sub-camps, and a portable warming kettle for soup.

The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim has lost an endowment worth almost 2 million zloty. The Grand Circle Foundation of Boston has withdrawn from plans to help underwrite the future headquarters of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust (ICEAH). The lost funding had been earmarked for the adaptation of the so-called “Old Theatre” building, located directly adjacent to the site of the Auschwitz I-Main Camp.

The world premiere of a film designed to counter misconceptions about the existence of „Polish death camps” took place on the country’s national day, November 11. The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent the film Upside Down to all the country’s embassies and consulates. The title refers to the total reversal of roles—the roles of perpetrator and victim—in this case.