News

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.

Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and Mrs. Ciampi visited the Museum on March 15, 2000.