Germany pledges 120 million euros to Auschwitz preservation fund

‘We want to support this work and preserve the memory because German responsibility for the Holocaust will never end,’ says FM Heiko Maas

By AFP 17 June 2020, 2:40 am

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Holocaust survivors walk below the gate with its inscription 'Work sets you free' after a wreath laying at the death wall at the memorial site of the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz during ceremonies to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the camp's liberation in Oswiecim, Poland, on January 27, 2020. (Janek Skarzynski/ AFP/ File)

WARSAW, Poland — Germany has doubled its share of a fund to preserve the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp to 120 million euros ($135 million), Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Tuesday.

The death camp, which is located in Poland, was where Nazis murdered 1.1 million people, a million of whom were Jews, from 1940 to 1945.

Around 80,000 Poles, 25,000 Roma and 20,000 Soviet soldiers also perished there before the Red Army arrived in January 1945.

More than a decade ago, Poland sought contributions to establish a permanent fund to preserve the site.

Maas was quoted in a statement issued by the Auschwitz museum as saying that Germany would keep doing what “it has done for years within the context of its historical responsibility.