Conservation completed on two Auschwitz blocks

WARSAW, Poland — A conservation project to preserve two blocks at the site of the former Auschwitz death camp has been completed.

As part of a three-year project, blocks 2 and 3 were preserved in an unaltered state. Tourists will have the opportunity to see the blocks, which were not rebuilt after World War II.

“What in every other historic building would have been replaced with new parts, here is meticulously preserved,” said Malgorzata Omilanowska, the Polish deputy minister of culture and national heritage, said Wednesday at a conference to unveil the conservation work. “They are as authentic as it was possible to keep them.”

The $5.6 million restoration, which began in 2010, was financed by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and the European Regional Development Fund.

“Auschwitz original objects are today for the world not only unique, material evidence of the German Nazi crimes, but also a symbol of the atrocities of war, terror, the Shoah and the genocidal, racist policy,” Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum director Piotr Cywinski said. “They are a clear sign for next generations.”