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Today, on April 10, 2010, Polish president Lech Kaczyński died in a plane crash near Smolensk. He headed almost a hundred person delegation to pay homage to Polish officers murdered 70 years ago in Katyn. All members of the delegation died in the catastrophe: The Spouse of the President, the highest officials of the Polish State, Members of Parliament, bishops and chaplains, generals and officers of the Polish Army, veterans, representatives of Katyń Families and other organizations, officials of the Government Protection Bureau and the crew of the aircraft.

Most of this issue of Oś is dedicated to the commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Inside, you will find reports of the commemorations, as well as the words of former prisoners and politicians that were said during the ceremony at the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp.

The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the Pauza Foundation for the Development and Promotion of Contemporary Art have published Mikołaj Grynberg’s album Auschwitz: What Am I Doing Here?

The heads of the two institutions have signed a cooperation agreement between the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the Mauthausen Memorial. It covers the sharing of more than 300 thousand digital records related to documents held by the archives in the two memorial sites.

The second seminar organized by the Raphael Lemkin Center for Genocide Prevention and the International Center for Education About Auschwitz and the Holocaust at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum has come to an end.

Austria has joined the countries declaring financial support for the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, with a contribution of €6 million. The purpose of the Foundation, called into being last year by Professor Władysław Bartoszewski, is to set up a Perpetual Fund to generate income that will be assigned to the long-term conservation program at the Auschwitz Memorial.