greektzon
08-07-2008, 08:46 PM
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=a3nkJvz8PIH0&refer=muse
The museum on the site of the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz in Poland has appealed to the international community for funding, saying it can't afford to carry out urgent repair work.
``It's time for other governments to take their turn, especially Germany,'' the museum's deputy director, Krystyna Oleksy, said by phone. ``Poland is hardly one of the world's richest countries and it has borne the brunt of the funding for decades now.''
The museum currently has a budget of about 20 million zloty ($9.6 million) a year. Half comes from the Polish government and half from tourism revenue such as sales of books and guided tours at the museum. Oleksy said the amount is ``far too low,'' and declined to estimate how much the museum needs for conservation work on the former barracks and the remains of the gas chambers.
The concentration camp, built in Nazi-occupied Poland to detain political prisoners and Jewish deportees from across Europe, was transformed into a death camp and equipped with gas chambers in 1942. An estimated 1.5 million prisoners died there.
The museum says it had about 1.2 million visitors last year.
``Germany certainly has a very special responsibility toward the museum,'' Stephan Raabe, head of Germany's Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Poland, said by phone. ``How it fulfills that responsibility, though, is open to debate.''
As well as essential maintenance to the 150 buildings and documents preserved in them, the museum lacks the funds to change its permanent exhibition in the Auschwitz I camp, which has not been replaced since it was first set up in 1955, according to Oleksy.
The regional daily newspaper Dziennik Polski reported this week that the museum needs about 200 million zloty to carry out the repair work and update the exhibition.
``This has to be the oldest exhibition ever!'' Oleksy said. ``The museum is a place of heritage for all humanity -- and it needs help.''
very good industry.Bravo,bravo...:rolleyes:
The museum on the site of the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz in Poland has appealed to the international community for funding, saying it can't afford to carry out urgent repair work.
``It's time for other governments to take their turn, especially Germany,'' the museum's deputy director, Krystyna Oleksy, said by phone. ``Poland is hardly one of the world's richest countries and it has borne the brunt of the funding for decades now.''
The museum currently has a budget of about 20 million zloty ($9.6 million) a year. Half comes from the Polish government and half from tourism revenue such as sales of books and guided tours at the museum. Oleksy said the amount is ``far too low,'' and declined to estimate how much the museum needs for conservation work on the former barracks and the remains of the gas chambers.
The concentration camp, built in Nazi-occupied Poland to detain political prisoners and Jewish deportees from across Europe, was transformed into a death camp and equipped with gas chambers in 1942. An estimated 1.5 million prisoners died there.
The museum says it had about 1.2 million visitors last year.
``Germany certainly has a very special responsibility toward the museum,'' Stephan Raabe, head of Germany's Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Poland, said by phone. ``How it fulfills that responsibility, though, is open to debate.''
As well as essential maintenance to the 150 buildings and documents preserved in them, the museum lacks the funds to change its permanent exhibition in the Auschwitz I camp, which has not been replaced since it was first set up in 1955, according to Oleksy.
The regional daily newspaper Dziennik Polski reported this week that the museum needs about 200 million zloty to carry out the repair work and update the exhibition.
``This has to be the oldest exhibition ever!'' Oleksy said. ``The museum is a place of heritage for all humanity -- and it needs help.''
very good industry.Bravo,bravo...:rolleyes: