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Auschwitz Museum and Memorial appeals for emergency funding

A sign reading "Stop!" in German and Polish is seen at the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz - KACPER PEMPEL/REUTERS
A sign reading "Stop!" in German and Polish is seen at the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz - KACPER PEMPEL/REUTERS

The Auschwitz Museum and Memorial in Poland has launched an emergency appeal for funding, saying it faces an "unprecedented situation" owing to the effects of the pandemic lockdown.

The museum cares for, and runs educational programmes on, Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi camp that claimed the lives of over a million people during its time as the epicentre of the Holocaust.

But it has seen visitor numbers reduced to close to zero after it shut its doors on March 12 as much of Poland locked down to control the pandemic, depriving it of its primary source of funding. Last year 2,320,000 people visited the camp.

“Over the last few months, we have found ourselves in an unprecedented situation,” the museum said in a statement. “The budget planned for 2020 has collapsed. Nearly all substantive operations of the Museum have been limited. We have also reduced all investments to the necessary minimum.

The entrance to Auschwitz with the inscription "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Sets You Free) - Czarek Sokolowski/AP
The entrance to Auschwitz with the inscription "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Sets You Free) - Czarek Sokolowski/AP

The museum stressed that it still receives funding from the Polish state, and external funds from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation pays for maintenance work, but without visitors it now faces an "exceptionally difficult" situation.

“Therefore, we wish to ask everyone for whom the preservation of memory is important for financial support to allow us to continue with numerous educational, research, exhibition and publishing projects,” the statement added.

The museum plans to open again at the begging of July but it fears the “collapse in attendance will be of a long-term nature.” On May 30-31 it held a trial reopening, but attracted just 400 people, less than 3 per cent of the number of people who visited the camp on the same days last year.

“For years and decades, we have tried to help,” said Piotr Cywinski, the museum’s director. “Today we need actual help ourselves.”