AHRON SHAPIRO

AS dawn broke on the morning of December 18 at the entrance to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and State Museum in southern Poland, it became apparent that something was very wrong.

A sign was missing. Not just any sign –- that sign. The iconic sign that hung over the entrance, that read “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work makes you free), a lie that came to symbolise the Nazi treachery and deceit that helped facilitate their campaign of genocide against the Jewish people.

As the sun rose over Auschwitz, so began a massive two-day manhunt that spread throughout Poland and beyond. For a time, the death camp, together with Holocaust survivors everywhere, was thrust back into the international spotlight.

Then, almost as quickly as it began, it was all over. The artefact was recovered, albeit in three pieces. Police arrested five Poles. The brazen theft, police said, was orchestrated by a Swedish neo-Nazi, who they believed intended to sell the sign to a collector for millions of dollars.

Perhaps the thieves did us all a favour. The incident raised awareness about the death camp at a portentous time. The very future of the site, Holocaust historians agree, hangs in the balance.

The Nazi’s biggest death factory is slowly dying. The waterlogged, poorly drained grounds upon which the complex was built have taken their toll on building foundations and the structures themselves. Wooden beams are warping and buckling. Old prisoner barracks are rotting. Paint is peeling and concrete is disintegrating. Experts have placed the cost of restoration at approximately 120 million euros.

Total reconstruction, while cheaper, is not an option, given the historically sensitive nature of the site. Just as importantly, museum officials are conscious of the risk of diminishing the authenticity of the camp, particularly significant in light of the efforts of Holocaust deniers to challenge the museum’s truth and legitimacy.

The Polish-government-mandated Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, the custodian of the site since 1947, found in recent years that its funding model, which had kept it running for more than six decades, was inadequate to provide for the kind of care the site required.

Until recently, the museum sustained itself through government appropriations and visitor-sourced revenue. As late as 2008, only five per cent of its funding had been sourced from foreign donors. It was, curators said, an untenable situation.

Last year, an Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation was established with the intent of tapping into foreign governments and benefactors to create a perpetual fund to carry out the necessary restorations, preservations and upkeep, and ensure that Auschwitz continues to educate future generations about the Holocaust long after the last living survivor passes away.

Twelve months after the foundation’s creation, the source of all the funding has yet to be finalised. Germany has agreed to contribute only partially to the effort, with the expectation that other countries will step in as well.

Foundation director Jacek Kastelaniec has been crossing the globe to rally support for the multinational campaign, efforts that have increased in intensity in recent weeks.

Conservationists are reportedly seeking 10 million euros from the UK. Other major countries being targeted for support are France, Belgium and the United States.

Earlier this month Roger Boyd of London’s Times, wrote: “The sluggish response worldwide to the restoration had been down, in part, to the feeling that the main burden should be on Germany.”

Kastelaniec told the Times, “The breakthrough came when we convinced not only Germany but also other contributors that this was not a project about guilt, but about the future.”

Many people, however, including some Holocaust survivors, feel strongly that culpability and responsibility should continue to hold weight, the way it has in the past. According to this viewpoint, there should be greater pressure placed upon the profiteers of the Holocaust.

These include both criminal, in the case of German seizures of Jewish assets during the war, and – not to equate the two – incidental, such as the Poles who benefit economically from the phenomenon of Holocaust tourism and memorabilia income.

Following this reasoning, Melbourne’s Jewish Holocaust Centre (JHC) volunteer and German-born Auschwitz survivor George Ginzberg has his own opinions about how to fund the restoration.

“Germany should give the money,” he told The AJN, appearing less than satisfied on hearing that the country had agreed to fund half the work.

“I’ll write a letter to [German Chancellor] Angela Merkel. She’s responsible. Who is the treasurer there? I’ll find out who the treasurer is. They are responsible.”

Should Germany somehow fail to meet the need, Ginzberg feels that Poland should be prepared to ante up more funding.

“The Polish government makes a lot of money [from Holocaust tourism and marketing],” Ginzberg said. This month, he observed, the Polish mint has even produced ­special-issue ­commemorative Auschwitz-liberation-themed coins for auction to collectors.

“Where is that money going?” he asked.

Returning to his original point, Ginzberg said Germany had plundered everything from the gold fillings in the teeth of the Jews they deported for extermination, to the properties those deported left behind. Germany profited, and Germany should now pay for the preservation of the camps.

“Yeah, I think Germany should take the lot,” Ginzberg said, “the bloody lot”.

Zvi Civins, education director at the JHC, told The AJN that regardless of who ultimately pays, the important thing is that the work gets done.

“In America, they wouldn’t let Valley Forge, or Gettysburg be left [to be destroyed by the elements],” he said, citing the revolutionary and Civil War battlefields that have been preserved. “You preserve these places.”

Civins added that even more than those places, Auschwitz has unique historical value as a powerful reminder of the depths of inhumanity, as well as immeasurable educational value.

“Being in a place and saying ‘it happened here,’” Civins observed, instead of merely pointing to pictures and videos makes a lasting impression that is impossible to create in a ­classroom.

“You’re there,” the educator said. “That’s powerful.”

Ginzberg added that the need to preserve Auschwitz is not for posterity, but to ensure that future generations can bear witness to the Holocaust in a personal way.

“Nothing is more important than seeing with your own eyes the real thing,” he said.

Leaning forward in his seat and gripping his cane, Ginzberg then suggested that future generations should make a Holocaust seder, the way they do for Pesach.

“Who cares about a few thousand Jews [that were saved] from Pharaoh,” he said almost jokingly. “They never had gas chambers [in Egypt],” he continued.

Presumably, like the Pesach requirement to identify with our ancestors who came out of Egypt, each person at a Holocaust seder would be asked to consider themselves as survivors of the Shoah.

“Everyone should sit down and talk about the Holocaust,” Ginzberg said. “Everyone.”

Elwood shule is hosting a commemoration evening marking the liberation of Auschwitz on Wednesday, January 27 at 6pm. For more information, email rabbishmuel@elwoodshule.org.

International Holocaust Memorial Day

IN November 2005, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly passed a resolution designating January 27 as an annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust; it also urged member states to develop educational programs that will inculcate future generations with the lessons of the Holocaust in order to help to prevent future acts of genocide.

The resolution further rejected any denial of the Holocaust as a historical event, either in full or part, as well as commending those states actively engaged in preserving sites that served as death camps and concentration camps.

The motion also condemned without reserve all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief.

In January 2007, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution condemning any denial of the Holocaust, and urging all member states unreservedly to reject any denial of the Holocaust as a historical event, either in full or in part, or any activities to this end.