Financial crisis at the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum

30.1.2009

ORAL QUESTION H-0081/09
for Question Time at the part-session in March I 2009
pursuant to Rule 109 of the Rules of Procedure
by Bogusław Sonik
to the Commission

The Auschwitz-Birkenau museum is facing a financial crisis. Unless financial resources are quickly found to preserve and protect the buildings of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, irreversible changes will occur in the coming years as a result of which this place of memory will lose its authenticity and fall into ruin. Within the 200 hectares covered by the museum, there are 155 buildings and 300 ruins, as well as collections and archives at risk of destruction. Until now the museum has been funded mainly from the Polish state budget and its own revenues. In 2008, foreign aid accounted for barely 5% of the museum's budget. Europe has a moral duty to rescue this site and keep alive the memory of the extermination of hundreds of thousands of European citizens.

 

Given the financial crisis facing the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, will the Commission consider tackling this problem through European Union support for museums?

 

 

Tabled: 30.01.2009

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