News

Ceremonies were held on the grounds of the former camp to mark the anniversary of the deportation to Auschwitz Concentration Camp from the Tarnów prison of the first transport of 728 Poles. They obtained serial numbers 31 to 758 (the first 30 numbers were reserved for German capos). Approximately 240 of these prisoners survived the camp, and 79 of them are still alive. Some 45 of these survivors attended the ceremony. One of them was prisoner number 31, Stanislaw Ryniak.

A new exhibition opened on June 12 in the reception center for visitors to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. The exhibition is devoted to the first transport of prisoners sent to Auschwitz Concentration Camp by the German occupying forces.

On June 7, 2000, a ceremony was held in the Hall of Columns of the Prime Minister's Chancellery, during which Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek presented nominations to newly appointed members of the International Auschwitz Council.

Some 5 000 Jewish youth, elderly Holocaust survivors, and a few hundred Poles took part in the annual, 9 March of the Living. Together with president of Israel Ezer Weizman and Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski they went along the path from the former Auschwitz camp to the ruins of the gas chambers in Birkenau.

The disciplinary commission of Opole University has dismissed Dr. Dariusz Ratajczak from his position and forbidden him to return to teaching for three years. The commission found him guilty of "conduct unbecoming of an academic teacher and detrimental to the good name of the university and the academic community."

President Valdas Adamkus of Lithuania visited the Museum on April 6, 2000.