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International Auschwitz Council on Flooding at Auschwitz Grounds
The International Auschwitz Council debated the flood, the fund for maintaining the authenticity of the Memorial, and the new main exhibition while familiarizing itself with the most important aspects of the functioning of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. Professor Władysław Bartoszewski chaired the meet.
Reporting to the Council, Museum Director Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński spoke about the urgent need to protect the site of the Auschwitz Nazi German concentration camp and extermination center against flooding. “The Auschwitz II-Birkenau site was most at risk of flooding in May, but the joint efforts of fire fighters, local residents, and Museum staff succeeded at last in securing the last barrier protecting the original remains of the camp. The breaking of the barrier would have reduced the extant barracks to ruins. A gigantic effort succeeded in securing the barrier, but we came very close to a tragedy. We have no means of properly protecting the grounds if the barriers are not reinforced,” said Cywiński.
Deputy Minister of Culture and National Heritage Piotr Żuchowski, a guest at the meeting, said after viewing the Birkenau grounds that “there is a clear need for holding discussions with those who made the decision not to raise the barrier to the normal height in this place. The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage will call upon the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration and the Voivode of Małopolska to normalize this situation. I have not the slightest doubt that flood protection is of overriding importance. The Memorial was saved this time, for which I would like to heartily thank all of those who joined in the effort.”
Agreeing with this view was Jacek Novakowski of the Holocaust Museum in Washington. “In the first place, we must learn a lesson from what happened. Barriers and other forms of protection should be created to make this place truly secure,” he said.
Former Auschwitz prisoner Kazimierz Albin stated emphatically that such a situation should not recur. “This is the only object of its kind in the world,” he said. “This is proved by the enormous attendance, with 1,300,000 people coming here from over 100 countries, which is something we should appreciate.”
Members of the Council unanimously urged the Prime Minister of the Polish Republic to raise, consolidate, and extend the barriers along the Soła, the Vistula, and the Pławianka, a tributary of the Vistula. “Elementary sensitivity ordains the indisputable primacy of a property that, regardless of any elements of flora and fauna encountered in the vicinity, represents a unique legacy of humanity’s most tragic times,” reads the message to the Prime Minister.
Director Cywiński went on to discuss the very high rate of attendance at the Memorial and the associated challenges, conservation and research work, new publications, and the national exhibitions. The detailed scenario for the new main exhibition will be completed this year, which will make it possible to begin work on the exhibition itself. The Museum plans to announce a large international competition for a visual concept for the new exhibition.
There was also discussion of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, established last year. Its task is to raise money for a Perpetual Fund that will provide income to be used for the conservation of the grounds. “The Germans have pledged €60 million to the Fund. That is half the needed money. Austria has pledged €6 million, and advanced discussions are underway with France, Belgium, the United States, Great Britain, and other countries. A year after its establishment, the new Foundation is in a very positive situation. The first conservation work financed from Fund income, above all at the brick barracks in the former Birkenau camp, will begin in 2012,” said Director Cywiński.
During the session, the Council also discussed the future of the Arbeit macht frei inscription. It was badly damaged and is currently undergoing conservation, which will last for at least several more months. Only when the damaged inscription is put back together will it be possible to answer the basic question of whether the original can be returned to its place.
The Council also familiarized itself with a report by IAC secretary Marek Zając on the conservation situation at the sites of the Nazi camps at Majdanek and in Bełżec.
The Council observed a moment of silence in memory of two regular participants in its sessions. Tomasz Merta, the Deputy Minister of Culture and National Heritage, and Andrzej Przewoźnik, Secretary of the Council for the Protection of the Remembrance of Combat and Martyrdom, died in the air crash near Smolensk in April.
Message concerning floods from the International Auschwitz Council to the Prime Minister of the Polish Republic
In May 2010 the waters of the Vistula and the Soła seriously endangered the largest memorial site in Europe. The original remains of the Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi German concentration camp and extermination center remain where the perpetrators left them, on the flood plain of these two rivers. Unprecedented international efforts are underway today to ensure the best possible preservation of the powerful authenticity of this site. Meanwhile, objections raised by ecologists led several years ago to the halt of work on the system of flood barriers along these rivers in the immediate vicinity of the sites of the camps.
We urge that priority be given to the resumption of this work as soon as possible, that the barriers on the Vistula and Soła be raised and consolidated, and that, in the light of this year’s experience, the barriers at the confluence of the Vistula and the Pławianka be extended. Elementary sensitivity ordains the indisputable primacy of a property that, regardless of any elements of flora and fauna encountered in the vicinity, represents a unique legacy of humanity’s most tragic times
The Council expresses its gratitude to everyone who, through enormous personal commitment in the days of the flood, protected this Memorial from irreversible damage.
