Auschwitz museum struggles to preserve site

Museum authorities at the former Nazi German Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland are struggling to save the enduring symbol of the Holocaust from the impact of time and the elements.

In the drive to stop the site falling into ruin and preserve the memory of the 1.1 million overwhelmingly Jewish victims who died here during World War II, they face tall odds.

"This is our last chance," warned Piotr Cywinski, director of the state-run museum.

The museum keeps going thanks to the Polish government, which covers around half of its costs, plus visitors' ticket fees. Up to five percent of its budget comes from the US-based Lauder Foundation and Germany's regional governments.

Last month it announced plans for a 120-million-euro 162-million-dollar appeal to enable it to become self-financing.

Crucially, said Cywinski, it could then set aside some 5.0 million euros a year for conservation work.

The rudimentary buildings of the camp's Birkenau site, built by the prisoners on marshy land, are being battered by soil erosion and water damage.

"We have to finish conservation work on all these buildings within 10 to 12 years, so we need to start within three years at the latest," said Cywinski.

"The primary goal is to preserve the site's authentic nature and not to rebuild it, in order not to change the perception of this place," he added.

"But the big question today is: do we want to save this place?", he said.

Preserving a single barrack-block costs around 880,000 euros, said conservation chief Rafal Pioro.

Warsaw has called on the international community to support the new drive to maintain the camp.

The museum site covers 191 hectares 472 acres, with 155 buildings and 300 ruins, and has a collection of thousands of personal items, as well as documents exposing the minutiae of the Nazis' killing machine.

The Nazis initially set up the camp for Polish resistance fighters, nine months after invading Poland in September 1939.

The original camp was at a former Polish army barracks on the edge of the southern town of Oswiecim -- known in German as Auschwitz.

Two years later the Nazis greatly expanded the site at nearby Brzezinka, or Birkenau.

Around 1.1 million people died at Auschwitz-Birkenau between 1940 and 1945 -- one million of them Jews from Poland and elsewhere in Nazi-occupied Europe -- some from overwork, starvation and disease, but most in the notorious gas chambers.

The museum, set up by the Polish government in 1947, last year drew 1.13 million visitors compared to half that in 2001 -- crucial for remembrance, but putting extra physical pressure on the site.





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