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Government of Canada supports the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation
Canada’s support for the Memorial Site will help with the conservation of the buildings, grounds, and the thousands of historical objects that are endangered by erosion and deterioration. The memorial is almost 200 hectares, and includes 155 buildings, 300 ruins, including those of the gas chambers and crematoria, over 100,000 personal items that belonged to the people who were killed, archival documents, and works of art by prisoners. The Auschwitz death camp is the only place of its kind entered on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and more than 1.3 million people from all over the world visit the site every year.
Canada’s support for the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Site will come from Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. The support is in response to a request by the Polish Prime Minister, who, in February 2009, asked the heads of over 40 states for concrete financial support for the project.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation is a Polish non-governmental organization that seeks to preserve the former Nazi concentration and extermination camp by raising €120 million for the Perpetual Fund, whose sole purpose is to cover the conservation costs of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Site. The Foundation was created in January 2009 by Professor Władysław Bartoszewski, a former Auschwitz prisoner and current chairman of the Auschwitz Council.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Site in Poland in April 2008.
