News

Peter King, chairman of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, made a two-day visit to the Museum. He was accompanied by members of ICOMOS (the International Council of Monuments and Sites - the international non-governmental organization responsible for setting standards in the heritage conservation community) and representatives of the international commission of experts who will advise on solving problems connected with the Museum buffer zone and with establishing a pedestrian connection between the Auschwitz and Birkenau sites.

The exhibition I Still Have So Much to Do - Jerzy Adam Brandhuber, Oct. 23 1897-June 19, 1981 is on view in the Museum's temporary exhibition room in Block no. 12 on the site of the former Auschwitz I-Main Camp from June 1 through the end of October 2001.

It is not yet known who broke into the "Theatre" building adjacent to the site of the camp and the gravel pit. The thieves stole iron radiators, central heating system valves, and part of the electrical installation. They also left behind evidence of a drinking bout during which a door and a picture of Jesus Christ were struck with an axe, and derogatory remarks about the police, the Polish government, and Jews were scrawled on the walls.

Ceremonies marking the 61st anniversary of the first transport of 728 Polish prisoners from the Tarnów prison to Auschwitz Concentration Camp were held at the site of the camp. Because they fell on the same day as Corpus Christi (a public holiday in Poland), the commemorations took a more modest form. A documentary film about the first transport of Poles to Auschwitz was shown.

The first stage in the preservation work associated with the renovation of the fence posts and concrete fence panels at the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp has come to an end, and research is underway to assess the effectiveness of the technology used.

The United States House of Representatives has accepted a resolution calling on Poland to surrender seven watercolors painted by former Auschwitz Concentration Camp prisoner Dina Gottliebova-Babbitt. The authors of the resolution also appeal to President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell to undertake "all efforts" to aid Mrs. Gottliebova-Babbitt, a longtime US resident, in recovering the paintings....