The Fight for Auschwitz

A scar on the face of humanity, the imposing structure of Auschwitz has been a preserved as a tribute to the 1.1 million people who were murdered there. The Auschwitz complex made up of Auschwitz and Auschwitz II (more commonly referred to as Birkenau) has been a museum since 1947 and after seven decades of exposure to the elements this complex of death is disappearing into the pages of history.

The museum site includes over 300 ruins, 155 buildings, and 191 hectares of land. The cost of preserving the Auschwitz museum, as stated by museum officials, is somewhere around $100 million dollars, which is $90 million more than the museums annual budget. A 92 year old survivor of the concentration camp, Kalman Sultanik, who is also the treasurer of the museums budget, has been quoted by the BBC saying that the international community, more so Germany, has not done enough for the survivors of Auschwitz and the complex itself.

Officials of the museum are hoping to set up a $170 million dollar endowment fund with the help of the international community in order to save the museum for future generations as a reminder that there are truly evil people in the world.

There are some, however, who believe that we should simply leave Auschwitz and Birkenau to the roots and brambles and allow them to simply be erased as if they had ceased to exist at all. Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, the chairman of the International Auschwitz council and former prisoner, number 4427, commented on the importance of saving Auschwitz to the BBC,

“But the moment when there will be no more eyewitnesses left is inexorably approaching. What remains is that when the people are gone “the stones will cry out". The ruins of the crematoria and gas chambers in Birkenau, the empty bunks in barracks, the dark cells in Block 11 and the wall of death- all of them will cry out. If we let the memorial cease to exist, we will take a great burden on our conscience- we will trample upon the testament of the victims.”

The complex of Auschwitz-Birkenau offers a pang of remorse to those people who are indifferent to the suffering of others. Auschwitz-Birkenau should not be forgotten. It should not be left to the roots and brambles; it should not be allowed to rot away because like Bartoszewski said when all of the survivors have gone the walls and buildings and grounds still tell their stories.