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Preserving Original Camp Relics: Philosophy, Theory, and Practice
Are there fields of human ashes at the site of the camp? Who maintains the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial? Are the things you see there original? Are there fields of human ashes at the site of the camp? You can find answers to these and other questions in a new module (in Polish for the time being), devoted to preservation issues at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp site, on the Museum website.
Discussions about the future of the site
The preservation of original camp buildings and relics has long evoked controversy and questions, many of which reflect certain misunderstandings about the reality of the camp and the condition it was in at the moment of liberation in January 1945, or a failure to take into account the limitations and obstacles that the Museum constantly faces in preservation work.
As soon as Red Army soldiers liberated the camp in the 1940s, controversies broke out in Poland over the future of the place. Some people said that the camp buildings should be razed and a forest planted to cover the entire site. Alternate proposals included a gigantic cemetery with as many crosses as there were victims, or a hallowed field, or a sculptural park where every country would erect whatever monument it felt best paid homage to the memory of the victims. Still others wanted to set up a training center in the camp premises where young people, including the children and orphans of camp victims, could learn trades.
The founding of the memorial
A July 2, 1947 law passed by the sejm, or parliament, of the Polish Republic “On the Commemoration of the Martyrdom of the Polish People and Other Peoples in Auschwitz” established the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim at the sites of the Auschwitz and Auschwitz II-Birkenau Nazi concentration camps. This put an end to most of the controversies.
Since its foundation, the Museum has been financed by the Polish government. From the beginning, the Museum has not only worked to overcome technical and financial questions about what should be preserved and how, but has also had to take collective and individual memory into account along with contemporary perceptions of the place and the accompanying reflections and emotions.
What should be done with the human hair?
The most striking example is the human hair shorn from the victims of Auschwitz concentration Camp. Some devoutly religious Jews feel that it should not be displayed publicly. They feel that the hair should be buried. However, many former prisoners, some of whom are Jewish, take the diametrically opposite view that the hair should be maintained as long as possible, since it is among the most eloquent evidence of the Holocaust; few other things left behind by the victims are more shocking or unusually suggestive.
International support
Only in the early 1990s did international support begin arriving. Over $20 million funded preservation work from 1993 to 2003. The second-largest donor is the Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp Victims Memorial Foundation, established in Poland in 1990 and occupied above all in raising funds to supplement those appropriated by the Polish government. From 1990 to 2003, the Foundation gave a total of 12 million zloty to the Museum.
Website content
The site is organized thematically for easy navigation: the Museum, Museum financing; Completed preservation projects; Preservation FAQ; and Communiqués and conferences. It also includes 30 documentary and contemporary photographs illustrating the subjects covered in the texts.
Help in setting up the website
The French Judeo-Hispanic Auschwitz Foundation, which placed a memorial plaque in Birkenau last March commemorating the Greek Jews whom the Nazis deported to Auschwitz Concentration Camp, has extended financial support to the new website. An English version is in preparation.
More about preservation
The international conference titled Protecting for the Future, held in Oświęcim on June 23-25, 2003 to mark the opening of the new preservation workshops and studio at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, was dedicated to the preservation of the site of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. The conference was accompanied by a bilingual catalogue and a volume of conference material published in late 2003.
