The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum reopens to the public after nearly four months under a coronavirus lockdown that forced it to appeal for funding as revenues from visitors dried up.
The museum on the site of Nazi Germany’s most notorious concentration camp normally draws more than two million visitors from across the globe each year. This year’s closure was unprecedented.
“We’ve reopened with several health precautions for visitors, namely smaller tour groups, social distancing, masks required indoors and the use of hand sanitizer,” museum spokesman Bartosz Bartyzel says.
Virtual memorial plaques are projected on the gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau for Holocaust Remembrance Day, April 20, 2020. (Marcin Kozlowski/March of the Living)
He says that around 1,000 visitors, including Poles and people from abroad, had booked tours via the museum’s website for today.
“Future bookings depend very much on how the pandemic evolves, the situation is still uncertain,” Bartyzel adds.
Poland reopened its borders with most European Union partners on June 13th after it introduced anti-virus lockdown measures relatively early in March.
— AFP
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