News

On Friday night unknown culprits have stolen the historic sign with the infamous phrase “Arbeit macht frei” which was hung over the gate of the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz I. For information which will help to find the stolen sign "Arbeit macht frei" the Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum with approval of Minister of Culture and National Heritage Bogdan Zdrojewski promises a reward of 100,000 zlotys (around $34,000). Anyone having any important information is asked to contact the Police in Poland immediately.

Germany has contributed €60 million to the Perpetual Fund of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. This is half of the total that, according to current estimates, the Foundation must amass in order to finance in its entirety the Master Conservation Plan for the Auschwitz former Nazi German concentration and death camp.

At the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum website, the online list of registered Auschwitz prisoners has grown by 281 thousand new entries, and now covers about 180 thousand individual prisoners. Compilation of this data about people imprisoned in the camp, based on extant original SS records, has been underway since 1991.

Two Presidents of the European Parliament, the incumbent Jerzy Buzek and his predecessor Hans-Gert Poettering, were in Oświęcim in September. Oś reports on their visit to the Auschwitz site and interviews Professor Buzek on the international significance of the Museum, which has already had more than a million visitors from all over the world this year. Even more significantly, we publish extensive excerpts from the exceptionally interesting debate held at the International Youth Meeting Center on “Europe Lost, Europe Reborn,” where Buzek and Poettering were joined by Christoph Heubner and Marian Turski.

The love story of two Auschwitz prisoners, Mala Zimetbaum, a Jew, and Edward Galiński, a Pole, along with their bold escape, makes up one of the most moving chapters in the history of the camp—and also one of the most tragic. It seemed as if love would win out and their effort to break free of the world of Auschwitz would succeed. Things turned out differently. They were caught and forced to return to the camp. They were executed 65 years ago, on August 22, 1944. Oś is publishing accounts by former prisoners who remember Mala and Edek, as well as their escape attempt.

The 18th session of the International Auschwitz Council, reporting to the Prime Minister of the Polish Republic, has concluded at the Chancellery of the President of the Council of Ministers in Warsaw. Professor Władysław Bartoszewski chaired the meeting.