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Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation raises 101 mln euros in funds

Xinhua, November 30, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, tasked with carrying out conservation work at the former Nazi German death camp, has already raised 101 million euros (107 million U.S. dollars) of its 120-million-euro funding target, Polish Press Agency reported Tuesday.

The money raised will be used to finance the comprehensive conservation and maintenance of the historic buildings at the Auschwitz-Brikenau Memorial Museum, according to the foundation's director general Anna Miszewska.

Over 30 countries and nine individuals have supported the foundation. However, the 120-million-euro target may soon prove insufficient, said Piotr Cywinski, the Auschwitz Museum director and the foundation's chairman.

Anna Lopuska, the Auschwitz Museum's conservation specialist, estimates that the foundation will spend about eight million zloty (1.92 million U.S. dollars) on the heritage site works this year.

The Auschwitz concentration camp was set up in 1940. Auschwitz II-Birkenau was created two years later. The Germans killed over one million people there, most of them of Jewish origin, but also Poles, Soviet war prisoners and others of different nationalities.

In 1947, Auschwitz and Auschwitz II-Birkenau were turned into museums. Before the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation was established, most of the museum's funds came from the Polish government and the museum's own profits.

Auschwitz is the only former German concentration and death camp listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Endit