Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial

The Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial was a difficult project. An unsuccessful competition was held in 1957-58 under the guidance of British sculptor Henry Moore. 400 designs were submitted, including one that envisioned the camp being submerged by a lake, with bridges over the camp with devotional places for remembering. By 1967, all submissions had been rejected, especially those that violated the July 2, 1947 law on the inadmissibility of changes to the concentration camp grounds.

Several different forms were combined to make the present memorial:

Architects:

Pietro Cascella
Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz
Julian Palka
Giorgia Simoncini
Tomaso Valle
Maurizio Vitale

The unveiling of the International Monument to the Victims of Fascism in Birkenau, as the memorial was originally called, occurred in 1967 with approximately 200,000 people in attendance. Polish state officials, prisoners' organizations from many countries, the Israeli welfare minister, the East German and Italian foreign ministers, and numerous ambassadors and journalists were present.

The memorial has plaques in many languages stating:

"Forever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women and children, mainly Jews, from various countries of Europe."

Note: The plaques indicating "4 million people" were removed in 1990. Former Historian of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Dr. Sybil Milton, explains the problem as follows:

"It was never clear to most visitors that the original plaque substituted figures about the mortality of all prisoners murdered iun Poland (Jews, Gypsies, Soviet POWs, Polish nationals, members of the resistance, and others), for those killed only at Birkenau. This resulted in more than a decade of debate about Auschwitz mortality statistics in the international press."

Sybil Milton and Ira Nowinski, In Fitting Memory: The Art and Politics of Holocaust Memorials (Cetroit, Wayne State University Press, 1991), p.130.

For an interesting paper on the controversial submission by Oskar and Zofia Hansen see: Oskar Hansen and the Auschwitz "Countermemorial," 1958-59

Auschwitz Marker

Above: Old marker removed in 1990 at Auschwitz-Birkenau after research revealed propagandistic nature of number of deaths. However, this change did not alter overall number of 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust.

For other monuments see:

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Last modified on October 22, 2009