News
The 2006 Annual Report of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
The Auschwitz Museum has released its Annual Report. The color booklet, over 60 pages long, features information about the most important events of 2006. This is the first time that the Report has appeared in such an attractive form, and that it is aimed at such a broad audience.
Piotr Cywiński, who has headed the Museum since September 2006, writes in the introduction about his deep conviction that human remembrance is what gives sense to the existence of this place, and to the work, day in and day out, of the many people associated with it. “Auschwitz is an unceasing ache in the conscience of the world . . . I am counting on your help in preserving the message of this symbol for our children and grandchildren—so that they, too, can understand what every human generation is capable of.”
The first part of the Annual Report discusses the most important events of 2006, the visit by Pope Benedict XVI, and statistics on visitors. The Report then goes on to present information about the work of the most important departments at the Museum, including the Preservation Department, the Collections, and the Archives.
The Report also covers the results of exhibition and research work. It recounts the activities of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust, which was founded two years ago. Its successes over the past year unquestionably include the creation of a system for supervising volunteers, and the introduction of internships for recent graduates and work-study experience at the Museum for students. At present, almost 100 volunteers and several hundred educators and teachers from five continents are in cooperation with the Center.
The Report concludes with a financial overview and a list of the benefactors who supported the Museum. As the authors of the Report note, an urgent problem at the moment is obtaining funding from outside, including European Union funding. Appropriations from the Polish government currently cover only 50% of the Museum budget, leaving the Museum to raise the other 50% from its own operations. These sums barely suffice to ensure the smooth and efficient operation of the Auschwitz Memorial—an endeavor about which no one should need convincing.
The bilingual Polish-English report is available for download from the Museum website as a PDF file of approximately 4 MB, with a download time varying from several seconds up to several minutes, depending on connection speed.
Highlights from the 2006 Auschwitz Memorial Annual Report
From 5 continents
From the almost 1 million visitors to Auschwitz in 2006, the largest share came from Europe (817 thousand) and North America (103 thousand). 53 thousand people from Asia visited the site, as did 11 thousand from Australia and 4 thousand from South America—but only 600 from Africa.
Maintaining the site of the Auschwitz camp
Research and conservation work continued on the ruins of gas chambers and crematoria nos. II and III. One of the most important projects developed and completed in 2006 was the preservation of original camp objects at the site of sector BIb in the former Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. Additionally, 377 moveable objects underwent conservation, including the Arbeit macht frei inscription above the main gate at the Auschwitz I site, the notebooks containing scores for the camp orchestra, and a dozen or so works of art produced during the war years.
Objects from Auschwitz
More than 180 new exhibits enriched the Museum collections. The most valuable included inlet covers for the gas chamber ventilation system, a showerhead, and an absorbent gas mask tip, all found during preservation work at the ruins of the gas chambers. The figures of two miners, made on SS orders by one of the prisoners at the Jawiszowice sub-camp, were also transferred to the Museum.
Historical documents
Work continued on collecting, analyzing, and cataloguing archival material possessed by the Museum. Hundreds of original camp documents, dozens of memoirs by former Auschwitz prisoners, and studies and surveys on the fate of prisoners were added to the camp archives. Tens of thousands of items about former prisoners were incorporated into the digital databases.
The visualization of the crime
A new permanent exhibition titled Belgium 1940-1944: Occupation and Deportation to Auschwitz, dedicated to the memory of 25,000 Jews deported by the Nazis to the death camps, opened at the Auschwitz site. Several temporary exhibitions made it possible better to understand the history of the war years. One of them was the exhibition titled A Trace of Them Remains Behind, illustrating the fate of the people imprisoned in the so-called Death Block, who left inscriptions and drawings on the walls, doors, and ceiling beams there. In many cases, these represented a final farewell to the world.
Writing history
A team of Museum historians continued working on the in-depth history of Auschwitz. Their wide-ranging research is part of a project to restore the identity of the Nazis’ victims. It includes drawing up a list of the names of the thousands of Poles whom the Germans deported to Auschwitz from the Kielce region. Research also continues on the extermination in Auschwitz of Jews from the so-called Cracow District, and the fate of the children liberated from the camp.
Books as an instrument of commemoration
The Museum opened an online bookstore to make its publications more readily available to the continually widening circle of readers. A dramatic rise in sales indicated the correctness of the decision. Orders for books were placed online from addresses as far-flung as Japan, Australia, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, New Zealand, and Hong Kong. One of the notable titles among those published in 2006 was the pioneering study From the History of the IG Farben Werk Auschwitz Camps in 1941-1945, by Museum historian Piotr Setkiewicz, who concludes that the operations of the German IG Farben company contributed to the transformation of Auschwitz concentration camp into the center of the destruction of the European Jews.
Education for a Better World
Only recently opened, the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust worked intensely on a wide range of educational projects aimed at enhancing historical awareness and shaping civic responsibility. One initiative that enjoyed great interest was the Teaching the Holocaust summer school for Polish teachers, attended by 120 intermediate- and secondary-school teachers and representatives of non-governmental organizations that deal with Holocaust themes.
Financial support
The Polish government and the Museum itself bear almost the entire financial burden of maintaining the Auschwitz Memorial. These funds barely suffice, which means that every bit of financial support from the individuals and institutions that help to maintain this gigantic, tragic cemetery is priceless. The Annual Report names and thanks the benefactors who have helped to share in the labor of maintaining, preserving, and providing access to these most eloquent and authentic signs of the Holocaust and genocide.
