Thursday, December 17, 2009

Germany Donates £50m to Auschwitz

THE TELEGRAPH: Germany has donated more than £50 million to a global fund that aims to preserve the site of the Nazi German Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland.

Auschwitz: Photograph: The Telegraph

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum said that the 60 million euros pledged by the German government represented half the total it needs to ensure the future of the Second World War site as a permanent memorial to the Nazis' victims.

"This is a great day! The plan for the long-term preservation of this memorial is becoming a reality," said Piotr Cywinski, director of the state-run museum and head of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation which was launched earlier this year.

An Auschwitz survivor, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski - a former Polish foreign minister who is considered a moral authority in his country and set up the foundation - hailed Germany's sense of "responsibility with regard to history". >>> | Thursday, December 17, 2009