News

“Role of justice in fighting hatred and discrimination” — this is the title of the panel discussion which took place on 4th November in the so-called “Sauna” building in the former German Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp.

Thanks to the support granted by the USC Shoah Foundation and the World Jewish Congress, a group of a hundred former Auschwitz prisoners from all over the world will take part in the commemoration event of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German concentration and extermination camp on January 27, 2015.

The initiators of the „Canadians Remember” campaign want to encourage Canadians to support financially the preservation of the authentic remains of the Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz. The initiative aims at collecting at least 2.5 million Canadian dollars, and a contribution of just 1 dollar is enough to participate.

A new e-lesson “The Roma in Auschwitz” which tells the history of the Roma extermination in Auschwitz concentration camp between 1941 and 1944 has been published by the Center of Education on www.auschwitz.org. Its author is Teresa Wontor-Cichy, the historian of the Research Centre of the Auschwitz Museum.

“One of the Girls in the Band” is the title of the memoirs of Helena Dunicz Niwińska, a former prisoner of Auschwitz who spent two years playing in the women’s orchestra in the German Nazi camp of Auschwitz II-Birkenau. This latest book published by the Auschwitz Museum is the first Polish publication devoted to the women’s orchestra. The book is also available in English.

On October 7, the 70th anniversary of Sonderkommando prisoners revolt was commemorated next to the ruins of the gas chamber and crematory IV on the site of the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp. Sonderkommando was a work group consisting mainly of Jewish prisoners, who were forced by the Germans to work in gas chambers, burning pits and crematories.