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Christoph Heubner and Richard Prasquier Named to International Auschwitz Council

Christoph Heubner, Deputy Chairman of the International Auschwitz Committee in Berlin, and Richard Prasquier, chairman of the French Yad Vashem Committee, have been named by Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka to the International Auschwitz Council, the body that advises the Polish government on mater connected to the Auschwitz-Birkenau site, it was announced on Wednesday.

Council Chairman Władysław Bartoszewski, the former Polish foreign minister who was an Auschwitz prisoner in 1940-1941, presented Heubner and Prasquier with the letters of nomination.

The 25-person International Auschwitz council is an advisory body to the Polish cabinet on information, policy, and preservation relating to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp site. Current members were appointed to 6-year terms in 2000.

Most of the members are Jewish or Polish. They include Israel Gutman, Stefan Wilkanowicz, Michał Czajkowski, David Harris, Bohdan Rymaszewski, Kalman Sultanik, Józef Szajna and Marian Turski. Heubner joins Siegfried Vergin as one of two German members.