News

The main phase of the project for comprehensive conservation of two brick prisoner barracks, which are in a very bad state has commenced on the site of the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp.

The Polish Prime Minister Ms. Ewa Kopacz visited the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum on August 17. She laid a wreath at the Death Wall in the courtyard of block 11, paying homage to victims of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp.

Over a million people visited the Auschwitz Memorial in the first seven months of the year 2015. Never before in the history of the Museum has the attendance been so high within this period.

In Poland, 2nd of August is celebrated as the Roma and Sinti Holocaust Remembrance Day. 71 years ago, in the night from 2 to 3 August 1944 the Germans eliminated in the Auschwitz II-Birkenau, the so-called family camp for Gypsies (Zigeunerfamilienlager). Nearly 3000 children, women and men, the last of the Roma prisoners were murdered in gas chambers. Several hundred people attended the ceremony, which took place at the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz II-Birkenau. At the monument commemorating the extermination of the Roma and Sinti on the premises of the former Zigeunerfamilienlager in Birkenau, wreaths were laid and tribute paid to the victims.

On the 71st anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, the director of the Museum Dr Piotr M.A. Cywiński paid a tribute to its heroes and victims - including thousands of residents of the capital deported by the Germans to Auschwitz. At exactly 17:00, the commencement of fighting buy the insurgents at the “W” hour, he laid a wreath at the Death Wall in the yard of Block 11.

17 educators from Israel participated in the seminar entitled “Auschwitz in the collective consciousness in Poland and around the world. The role and significance of the memory of Auschwitz-Birkenau for Jews and Poles,” organized by the International Centre for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust. Among the participants there were the Yad Vashem Institute guides, employees of the Yad Vashem Archive as well as the employees of Beit Ha-Edut and Lochamei Hagetaot.