Auschwitz-Birkenau's uncertain future

[IndianaGreen]

Auschwitz-Birkenau's uncertain future

By Matthew Collin at Auschwitz in Poland.

UPDATED ON:
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
17:26 Mecca time, 14:26 GMT

But the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, which oversees the site, has warned that the memorial is under threat from the ravages of time.

It is appealing to governments worldwide for money to underwrite the annual costs of preservation and maintenance, which amount to more than $5mn, and to set up a perpetual multi-million-dollar fund to secure the future of the site.

Because much of the camp was hastily constructed by prisoners during World War Two, and not built to last, many of the gas chambers, cremetoria and barracks are now seriously deteriorating and are already closed to visitors for safety reasons, while others have collapsed completely.

"These buildings were not built here to stand for 60, 70 years," explained Pawel Sawicki, a spokesman for the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum.

"They were built by prisoners who were not engineers, who used bad building materials and who were themselves exhausted, hungry, beaten.

"We can't just fence it all off and show a multi-media exhibit, because people come from very long distances to see the authentic evidence of genocide, so our challenge is to keep these buildings standing and open."

http://english.aljazeera.net/photo_galleries/europe/20108111212767930.html

[CurtEastPoint]

1. A dilemma. This must be preserved somehow. And why do we have to depend on AlJazeera to bring us

this story? What's wrong w/the US media?

[Chulanowa]

4. Because Al-Jazeera actually conducts journalism

While the US media would have you believe that a dancing baby from Brazil is worthy of inclusion in the hourly news cycle.

[starroute]

5. Why does it have to be preserved?

It was shoddily built, never intended to last, and I think the most respectful thing would be to let it collapse peacefully and molder back into the earth.

The idea of reinforcing it and propping it up, of creating a shrink-wrapped Disneyland-Auschwitz, is not only creepy but something of an insult. It turns the camp into a permanent tourist attraction for gawkers to wander throw, rather than a memorial to those who died there.

Let the dead be honored by death. It's the only fitting way.

[COLGATE4]

6. I couldn't disagree more

There is nothing about it that remotely resembles "Disneyland" - in fact, the comparison strikes me as being in extremely poor taste. There is also nothing of a 'tourist attraction' about it. Rather, it is preserved for those who wish to commemorate their relatives who perished there, and to serve as an undeniable fact to teach future generations what happened there. There is no "honor" in death, at least in the type of death that millions suffered there. We honor them by visiting the site where this unimaginable tragedy occurred.

[Wilms]

8. "We honor them by visiting the site"? I wonder if the dead think that.

Some people build mausoleums, some a tomb-stone, others choose spread ashes.

I can imagine different ways of honoring victims that don't involve spending millions preserving the murder-weapon. In fact, it strikes me as creepy and macabre when it doesn't smell like a self-serving agenda.

[COLGATE4]

9. Since we've now hit on the real objection to this

"I can imagine different ways of honoring victims that don't involve spending millions...", why should the money involved concern you? It obviously isn't going to be coming out of your pocket. And characterizing the preservation of this place that has such a special meaning to many of us as "creepy and macabre" isn't much of a cogent argument. But thanks for playing.

[Wilms]

10. "Thanks for playing"?

Does that mean that I'm disqualified from participating because you don't care for my opinion? Or what you've decided my opinion is? :cry:

That sure smells like a self-serving agenda.

[Jim Sagle]

12. More like a self-preservation agenda - developed over two millennia.

It's called history. Check into it.

[Wilms]

13. I would have thought, then, that Israel would be keen on recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

It's not. And this despite reports that Hitler used the example of forgotten Armenians as a reason to believe NAZI's would escape condemnation for the Holocaust.

Disappointing. And it's history, too.

[fedsron2us]

11. Most of the other extermination camps such as Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec etc

were erased from the face of the earth by the Nazis before they were captured. The Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp complex was simply too big to be destroyed before the Soviets overran it. It is therefore a standing monument to the evils of the Final Solution and a concrete testament that Holocaust deniers will always struggle to refute. There are other surviving sites that bear witness to the horrors of this period such as the Sachsenhausen concentration camp just outside Berlin but it was built for different purposes than pure extermination and most of its victims were not Jewish. This makes Auschwitz-Birkenau an almost unique survival. It needs to be preserved so that it can hold up an example to mankind of the terrible things it is capable of doing to its fellow human beings.

[IndianaGreen]

14. Why should the Sphinx in Giza or the Dead Sea Scrolls be preserved?

They are all part of human history. Evidence of events for which there is no living memory. Auschwitz-Birkenau is evidence of what happens to the human race when racism and bigotry are allowed to function unrestrained. The Holocaust did not begin with the Night of Broken Glass, it began the first day that violent speech and violent action against Jews became acceptable and tolerated.

[COLGATE4]

2. We're into the period of instant news gratification, 24 hour news cycle.

Auschwitz/Birkenau? Ancient history. Nothing to see here, move along, what's the latest Congressional scandal? Now, That's News. No one believes the old adage about those who know nothing about history are doomed to repeat it.

[emilyg]

3. I'll make a donation to

their fund instead of our politicians.

[Alcibiades]

7. At least they have a good plan, but it will be costly

55 million Euros through 2019.

A lot to you and me, or even Poland, but Germany, Austria and other states should pony up some money. Perhaps we could find some money in the budget for this--after all, we have spent $500 million on renovating Gitmo since 9/11.

[Behind the Aegis]

15. the numbers

Germany has pledged €60 million, Austria €6 million, The US $15 million, and others are in line to contribute though nothing has been set in stone.