The Future of Auschwitz

Auschwitz: The Past Meets the Future

Few museums draw controversy as does the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum in Poland. The site of one of the largest killing camps in the Third Reich, with over 1.1 million people dead, the camp was made into a museum that opened in 1950. It is hard for the human mind to comprehend 1.1 million people dying in one place, let alone 6 million Jews, 2 million Rroma, and the list goes on. As the survivors of the Holocaust and the veterans of World War II pass on, the question must be asked: what do we do with Auschwitz?

There are survivors from Auschwitz who have stated that Auschwitz should be allowed to decay, that destruction is the appropriate fate of the killing fields. An equal number state that without Auschwitz, future generations will not understand what happened there.

I conducted a small survey of twelve people, aged 22-66, if they felt Auschwitz should be saved as a museum and a memorial. Ten people between the ages of 22 and 51 stated they felt Auschwitz should be preserved and restored. All ten said they were concerned that without Auschwitz and its educational programs, the world would forget and future generations would then be at risk of replaying history. Two of these ten were children of Holocaust survivors; one was the child of an Auschwitz survivor. The other two, one aged 37 and the other 66, felt Auschwitz should be allowed to decay as a tribute to those who died there. One of those two stated that when Auschwitz was a ruin, it should then be turned into something that will benefit the community around it, such as farmland. The question evokes emotion, even form those who have not been there.

Regardless of public opinion, Auschwitz is currently in a state of conservation and preservation. This work is an expensive and time-consuming process, requiring exacting work in order to preserve the integrity of the structures and artifacts in Auschwitz’s collection.

According to Steve Henken who has worked for the State of Iowa Archaeological Department, Auschwitz-Birkenau has a heavy burden.

“It always comes down to how to save what is important. What artifacts define Auschwitz? Can they afford to keep the entire thing or must they decide on what is critical to the site? They have to ask the research questions. Mainly, what answers can Auschwitz provide humanity and what artifacts and structures best serve that purpose? What do they want the site to say to the world? What percentage (of the camp) may be preserved that will answer these questions? Find the voice of the collection and preserve and conserve that voice.”

The Auschwitz Mission

Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, a former inmate of Auschwitz and the current Chairman of the International Auschwitz Council sent this written appeal to the governments of the world as well as private individuals. Quoting from the document on the Auschwitz-Birkenau website,
“The generation of Auschwitz survivors is fading away. We, former concentration camp prisoners and eyewitnesses of the Shoah, have devoted all our lives to the mission of keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive. Today, as our mission is coming to an end, we understand better than anyone else that our whole work and toil might be in vain if we do not succeed in bequeathing the material evidence of this terrible crime to future generations. The Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp remains the most important of these testimonies: once a place of suffering and death for hundreds of thousands of Jews, Poles, Roma, Sinti and people from all over Europe, today it is a memorial site visited by millions of people from around the world

In the next sixteen pages, Chairman Bartoszewski gives the world a list of restoration projects that must happen in order to maintain the museum, not only for conservation, but for safety issues for the public as well. His list appears below.

Currently, the conservation/preservation goals of Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum are as follows:
1. Conservation of the most deteriorated brick barracks
a. Forty-five of the oldest buildings located in Auschwitz II. This includes repairing the drainage ditches, reinforcing the foundations, repairing walls and support beams in the ceiling, and conservation of original architecture including brickwork, paint layers, inscriptions, and other elements essential to the building.
2. Conservation of the most deteriorated wooden barracks
a. Twenty-two wooden barracks that are the most preserved at the site. This includes structural repair, conservation of original paint, repair, and conservation of interiors, the installation of fire prevention devices, and other conservation elements necessary to each building.
3. Conservation and explanation of the vestiges of the wooden barracks
a. Two hundred and ten barracks have deteriorated. All that remains are the chimneys. These need conservation and disinfecting of molds and an explanation, perhaps in outline form, of the buildings.
4. Conservation of the wooden guard towers
a. Six large and twenty-one small guard towers need repairs and conservation as a visual element to the site.
5. Conservation of eleven blocks (buildings) in the new main exhibition at the Auschwitz 1 site
a. This is the main exhibition site originally opened in 1955. The exhibits must be moved to the main floors of the buildings so that the upper levels and stairways may be reinforced.
6. Conservation of archival and moveable objects
a. This includes not only the archives on paper, but the objects taken from the prisoners by the Nazis, items such as eyeglasses, combs, suitcases, as well as organic items like hair. The list is as follows in approximate numbers:
i. 250 meters of archival documents
ii. 39 thousand negatives of photographs and several thousand photographs
iii. 3,800 suitcases
iv. 460 prosthetics
v. 260 prayer garments
vi. 40 kg of eyeglasses
vii. 12,000 pots and pans
viii. 6,000 works of art
ix. Numerous bunks, stools, cabinets, and other furnishings
7. Continuation of current conservation work already underway
a. Securing and conserving crematoria IV and V
b. Conservation of the small gas chamber known as the little white house
c. Conservation of the unloading ramp and the Gate of Death
d. Conservation of the remains of the sewage treatment plant
e. Conservation of the air raid shelters

Funding the Mission

Again, quoting from the appeal from Chairman Bartoszewski,
“The Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation was founded in January 2009 to secure the conservation and the preservation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Site for future generations by implementing a long-term, comprehensive conservation plan prepared by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum’s team of historic preservationists. This plan assumes that the annual sum of €4 to €5 million will make it possible to plan and systematically carry out essential conservation work at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Site. In order to achieve an annual income of €4-5, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation has dedicated itself to raising a Perpetual Capital Fund of €120 million. This fund will not be spent, but rather invested so that the annual income from such investment will secure the authenticity of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Site. Therefore, for the first time in its history the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial has a real chance of creating an ongoing, long-term conservation program that will make it possible to safeguard the remains of the camp for future generations. The Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation’s objective is to promote global solidarity with the mission of amassing €120 million for the Auschwitz-Birkenau Perpetual Fund by approaching international governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and other donors who recognize the unquestionable importance of the Foundation’s mission.”

According to the BBC News in July of this year, Germany pledged $80 million dollars, the United States pledged $15 million, Austria pledged $6 million, with smaller amounts pledged by Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands. With this amount of funding, it is possible that Auschwitz now has the reserves it needs to begin new conservation and preservation efforts as well as finish current projects already underway.

The Future of the Museum

In order to move ahead into the next century and beyond, Auschwitz must constantly consider its mission statement and their responsibilities not only to those who were murdered there, but also to those who survived. This responsibility must be tempered with a duty to educate students as well as teachers, about the history of the Holocaust and the relevance the Holocaust has around the world today.

The problem Auschwitz faces, along with every museum, is the ability to engage the next generation of technically minded children and adults. With the museum’s desire to preserve the sacred memory of those 1.1 million people who died there, it will be difficult for them to embrace a new technology to promote their educational programs.

Thanks to the internet, television, and movies, our young people are more visually minded and require information quickly; therefore current administration must consider updating displays, exhibits, and explanations to get their point across.

Currently, the museum offers educational programs to history teachers as well as to students. These programs were developed at Auschwitz but are offered to universities and educational institutions around the world. By marrying the reverence for the past with technology of today, Auschwitz can move forward into the next century not only as a memorial, but as a successful museum as well.


























Bibliography



Bartoszewski, Wladyslaw. “The Preservation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Our Responsibility for Future Generations.” Memorial and Museum at Auschwitz-Birkenau. .

BBC News Europe. July 2010. .

Hanken, Steven. Personal interview, 14 December 2010.