Auschwitz Museum sees record high number of visitors
A record high number of more than 1.72 million people visited the former Nazi German death camp Auschwitz in 2015, Pawel Sawicki of the Auschwitz Museum press office announced on Monday.
Over the past ten years, the number of visitors was above one million annually.
"Walking among the remains of the camp is not only a history lesson. It is also a moment of unique reflection upon our contemporary responsibility for the shape of our world," said Auschwitz Museum Director Piotr M.A. Cywinski. A number of countries, including the United Kingdom, have recognised this aspect and have created their own measures to support educational visits by young people, Cywinski added.
Poles constituted the largest group of visitors in terms of nationality last year (425,000) and were followed by Britons (220,000), Americans (141,000), Germans (93,000), Italians (76,000), Spaniards (68,000) and Israelis (61,000).
Specialist educational projects constitute an important part of the Museum's activities. Last year over 11,000 people took part in seminars, conferences and study visits organised by the International Centre for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust.
The Auschwitz concentration camp was opened in 1940, its second section Birkenau two years later. Auschwitz consisted of a main camp and 40 sub-units, where the Nazis killed over 1.1 million people, mainly Jews, Poles, Roma and Soviet POWs.
The camp was liberated by the Soviets on January 27, 1945.
In 1947 the camp site was declared a national memorial site. (PAP)
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