News

The new Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum website has gone online at www.auschwitz.org. Professor Władysław Bartoszewski performed the ceremonial opening during a meeting of the International Auschwitz Council at the Chancellery of the President of the Council of Ministers in Warsaw. More than a million people a year visit the Auschwitz Museum website. The prime benchmark of its popularity is the fact that it has appeared among the first two or three results, and often as the first result, of Google searches related to Auschwitz.

Piotr M.A. Cywiński, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, found himself among the nominees for this year’s Totus Awards in the category: Achievements in the field of Christian Culture. It is the most prestigious Catholic award in Poland and is often referred to as the “Catholic Nobel Prize.” This year’s Award Banquet was held on Saturday, the 11th of October, at the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

The Munich Transport Company (MVG) has donated a Mercedes city bus to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. It will carry visitors between the Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau sites, located 3 km. apart.

PKSiS Sells Transport Base to Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. The Oświęcim Motor Transport and Shipping Enterprise (PKSiS) and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum have signed an agreement for the purchase by the Museum of the PKSiS facility on ulica Więźniów Oświęcimia. PKSiS put the property up for sale, and special financial support from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage made the transaction possible.

A nationwide educational and research conference titled Auschwitz and the Holocaust: Dilemmas and Challenges for Polish Education, hosted jointly by the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust and the Jagiellonian University Center for Holocaust Research, was held at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

Additional Victims of the Nazis Identified. Staffers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Archives have finished converting 47 thousand documents from Buchenwald Concentration Camp into digital form. The Polish Red Cross holds the original documents. The Red Cross asked the Archives to carry out the work, and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage extended financial support.