As 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, memory is once again perpetuated within the site which attracts two million curious people each year. On site it is possible to see the gas chambers, the crematorium ovens, the old barracks and part of the collection of objects stolen from the prisoners before killing them.
"We have reopened, but with several preventive health measures for visitors, namely visits in small groups, respect for distances, the mandatory mask inside and hand sanitizer , " AFP told AFP. museum spokesperson, Bartosz Bartyzel. According to him, around 1000 visitors, Polish and foreign, had booked their visit via the museum's website for Wednesday. "Future reservations depend a lot on the evolution of the pandemic, the situation is still uncertain," added Bartyzel.
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Poland reopened its borders with most of its European Union partners on June 13, after introducing containment measures relatively early in March. The Polish Ministry of Culture provided support funds to the museum in June when the site, deprived of ticket sales revenues, was left without resources, he said.
To find out how the main extermination center in history works, located 70 km from Krakow, social distancing must be respected. BARTOSZ SIEDLIK / AFP
Last month, Germany doubled its financial contribution to an international fund for the maintenance of this former largest Nazi extermination camp, to 120 million euros.
Between 1940 and the beginning of 1945, the Nazis exterminated around 1.1 million people in Auschwitz-Birkenau, including one million Jews from different European countries. The camp, where some 80,000 non-Jewish Poles, 25,000 Roma and 20,000 Soviet soldiers also died, was liberated by the Red Army in January 1945.
