City Hall donates £300,000 to preserve Auschwitz memory

The train tracks at Birkenau
PA
Ross Lydall @RossLydall15 January 2020

A major donation was announced today from London to the charity that preserves the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp to ensure the horrors of the Holocaust are never forgotten.

Mayor Sadiq Khan said £300,000 from City Hall would help to preserve the camp as a museum and educate future generations about the 1.1 million men, women and children, including more than 950,000 Jews, who perished there during the Second World War.

He also confirmed he would attend the 75th anniversary commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27 alongside 200 survivors, including some from London, world leaders and royalty.

Mr Khan said: “As the years pass, and as we have fewer survivors to pass on their stories, it is vital that we work even harder to preserve the site and ensure younger generations learn the lessons from history. These lessons are all the more significant as we see anti-Semitism and hate crime on the rise.”

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation manages the conservation of the site in Poland, including the camp infrastructure and all personal items of victims.

The London donation will help preserve the ruins of the gas chambers and crematoria, the barracks and other exhibits. About 300,000 Britons, including thousands of schoolchildren, visit each year.

Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, welcomed the London donation as “a great boost to this important work”.

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