AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU

21 September 2012, in the presence of the Polish and Ukrainian presidents, the official unveiling of the fourth cemetery of Katyn took place in the forests of Kiev-Bykivnia. Included in the Polish delegation, along with representatives of the highest government authorities and bodies of the Republic, the Polish Primate and clergy from many denominations, representatives of the Katyn Families, the command of the Polish forces and representatives of many Polish state institutions, was Dr Piotr M. A. Cywiński, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. A mass was celebrated at the monument of Polish victims by Fr. Primate Józef Kowalczyk.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk presented the nominations of the members of the International Auschwitz Council in Warsaw. The inaugural meeting of the third term of the IAC took place on 10 September in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister. The meeting was chaired by Prof. Władysław Bartoszewski. The new vice presidents of the IAC are: Dr Barbara Engelking and Avner Shalev. Marek Zając was reappointed as a secretary of the Council.

At the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, a meeting of the Council for Museums was held. It is a prestigious opinion-forming and advisory body acting under the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

The highly popular and interesting temporary exhibition “Forbidden Art,” which previously could only be viewed by the visitors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, has arrived in the USA. Here you can see 20 works of art from the collections of the Museum created illegally by the prisoners who risked their lives in the Nazi German concentration camps.

Several hundred people attended a mass at the site of the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz to celebrate the 71st anniversary of the death of the Franciscan friar Maximilian Maria Kolbe.

Approximately 300 worshipers attended the 70th celebration anniversary of the death of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross — Edith Stein - which took place in the former German Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz.