Auschwitz museum struggling for funds under lockdown

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum has been forced to launch an appeal for funding after two months under a coronavirus lockdown that saw revenue from visitors dry up.

The site of Nazi Germany’s most notorious death camp normally draws more than two million visitors from across the globe each year.

“We are calling for financial assistance from all those who consider it necessary to preserve memory,” the museum says in a statement published on its official website.

This file photo taken on December 5, 2019 shows a man walking by the barbed wire fence enclosing the memorial site of the former Auschwitz German Nazi death camp. (Janek Skarzynski/AFP)

“The 2020 budget has collapsed,” it says, despite “special support” from the Polish culture ministry and the Auschwitz-Birkenau International Foundation, which will help maintain jobs and continue maintenance work to preserve the site.

— AFP