News

An international conference, exhibitions, and a new book to mark the occasion will commemorate the 60th anniversary, in July, of the founding of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

Igor Bartosik, head of the Collections Department, said that the only original sculptures from the camp have been brought to the Museum. During the war, they stood at the entrance gate of the Auschwitz sub-camp in Jawiszowice, where prisoners worked as slave laborers in the coal mine.

An exhibition of photographs by Simon Watson of Ireland will open on July 2 to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Museum, and will run until August 2.

The ceremonial signing of a contract with representatives of the German Federal Land of North Rhine-Westphalia will take place on July 1, 2007 at the Museum Preservation Workshop. It covers the conservation of the documents of the SS Hygiene Institute at Auschwiotz, held in the Museum Archives. The records cover the period from April 10, 1943 to January 12, 1945.

During its 31st session, in New Zealand on June 27, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee approved a change in the entry for the remains of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The Museum has published a second, expanded edition of the guide titled Auschwitz-Birkenau: History and the Present. In fewer than 100 pages, it conveys the essential information about the history of the Nazi German concentration camp, and describes the founding and ongoing work of the Museum.