News

January 3, Oświęcim (PAP-Polish Press Agency) – The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum has acquired a collection of 87 unique black-and-white photographs, taken after liberation in the fall of 1945 and at the beginning of 1946, from Warsaw resident and former prisoner Zbigniew Klawender, Museum Archives head Piotr Setkiewicz told PAP.

The deadline has passed for the submission of entries to the Withered Rose Competition, organized by the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust. The young entrants submitted 26 works. The results will be announced on January 12, 2007.

The artist, who was born in Oświęcim and now lives in Jerusalem, has denoted one of her paintings to the Museum. It is an untitled depiction of a single gray flower in a glass vase. In tones of gray and black, the composition, measuring 100 x 70 cm., was made on paper using mixed techniques.

The Polish embassy in Rome is demanding an apology and correction from the host of the Matrix TV program, who accused the residents of Oświęcim of participation in the Holocaust. Broadcast on Mediaset TV, owned by Silvio Berlusconi, the program was viewed yesterday by an audience of 1,398,000. The subject was Holocaust denial and the Tehran conference.

Today is the 64th anniversary of the arrival in Auschwitz of the first transport of prisoners from the Zamość region.

During a session in Warsaw on December 5, 2006, the International Auschwitz Council approved plans submitted by the new director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Piotr M. A. Cywiński. The Council unanimously passed a resolution expressing its satisfaction at the idea of creating a new main exhibition at the Museum, in the last row of buildings at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp site, while also maintaining and preserving the original camp relics. Details of the changes will be discussed with both the Council and other groups and institutions in Poland and abroad.