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MEMORIAL AND MUSEUM AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU FORMER GERMAN NAZI
CONCENTRATION AND EXTERMINATION CAMP

News

Dina Gottliebova - Further Developments

18-08-1999

Members of the United States Congress began an energetic campaign calling on Poland to return the paintings by the former Auschwitz prisoner. Nevada Representative Shelley Berkley (D) read an appeal in the House for Poland and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum to return seven works left behind in the camp to 76-year-old Dina Gottliebova-Babbitt, who painted them.

In a letter to Museum Director Jerzy Wroblewski, Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum International Council member Stefan Wilkanowicz wrote: "I regard it ... as highly dangerous to replace the originals with copies. We are aware of how widespread the neo-Nazi propaganda is today. It attempts to convince as many people as possible (through means including the skilful manipulation of the Internet) that there were never gas chambers at Auschwitz, and that the Shoah did not take place ... We are also aware that young people have less and less knowledge of history, and that it is therefore possible to deceive them with lies that are transparent to the older generation. Nor can we turn our backs on the aggression and hatred of others that are spreading among the young people in many countries. We must therefore take great pains to ensure the authenticity of everything on the Museum grounds."