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del.icio.us Digg It!  new Last update - 12:51 13/11/2006 Auschwitz-Birkenau 'face-lift' plan raises survivors' ire By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondent An initiative to refurbish the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp has sparked a storm among Holocaust survivors in Israel. The initiative was announced last month by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum's new director, who claimed that the current exhibits were outdated and insufficiently attractive to visitors. A detailed refurbishing plan has yet to be drawn up, but participants at a recent meeting of Holocaust survivors' organizations warned against moves to "beautify" the site, as has been done with other Nazi concentration camps. "Dachau and Sachsenhausen have already become well-kept gardens; we won't allow the same to happen to Auschwitz," they said. Advertisement In September, historian Dr. Piotr Cywinski, 34, replaced Jerzy Wroblewski as director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. Shortly after taking up his new position, the energetic young director announced that it was time for the site to get a "face-lift." Cywinski said he planned to replace the current exhibit, set up during the communist era, with a more attractive one that would embody relevant educational messages against anti-Semitism, racism and genocide. During a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem last month, Cywinski suggested including in the new exhibit personal stories of survivors and a section on anti-Semitism in Europe before the Holocaust. Cywinski is slated to submit a detailed plan of proposed changes to the International Auschwitz Council, the forum responsible on behalf of the Polish prime minister for managing the site. The council, which also includes members from Israel and the United States, will convene on December 5 in the Polish premier's offices. Over the past few months, work has been under way at Auschwitz-Birkenau to preserve the remains of five of the death camp's seven gas chambers and two of its crematoria  buildings that were blown up by the Germans shortly before they abandoned the site in January 1945. Urgent preservation work is also required with respect to the personal items of the victims that are on display. Noach Flug, president of the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel (COHSI), says the survivors support all preservation work that doesn't prejudice the authenticity of the site. "We are in favor of preserving and keeping things the way they were as far as is possible  and not of building anything anew," Flug said. "We are opposed to the beautification of the site. There are camps such as Bergen-Belsen that look pretty today, and they didn't look like that [during the Holocaust]." Other members of the COHSI management expressed their sentiments more vehemently. "Now is the time to get up on our hind legs and refuse to permit any beautification of the situation," commented Zeev Factor, chairman of the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Survivors in Israel. The recent concerns vis-a-vis changes at Auschwitz-Birkenau comes on the heels of criticism that has been voiced for some time now by Israeli historians who argue that the Jewish narrative that concerns the site is being pushed to the margins. Auschwitz-Birkenau, where some 1.5 million people were murdered, is considered today one of the most popular tourist attractions in Poland: By the end of this year, the site will have been visited by around one million people from some 106 countries, including Pope Benedict XVI. The museum and educational center at the site attract groups of teachers and historians with their seminars on genocide-related issues, and in recent years, various European countries have set up memorials to their citizens in buildings at the camp. According to Yad Vashem's Prof. Israel Gutman, however, the international success of the site blurs the fact that more than 90 percent of the camp's victims were murdered for being Jews. "The message arising from the exhibits is that various peoples were murdered at Auschwitz, and the fact that almost all those who were murdered were first and foremost Jews is being pushed aside," Gutman said in a recent interview with Haaretz. Bookmark to del.icio.us Not quite Balfour Arab-Israeli Balad party to vote on whether to accept Israel as a Jewish state. Jews saving the world A documentary examines Judaism's connection to vegetarianism and activism.   1.   Big deal 02:33  |  W 13/11/06   2.   A difficult question with perhaps no right answer 02:41  |  Chris Linthwaite 13/11/06   3.   authenticity is nice, but... 06:58  |  avni 13/11/06   4.   Haaretz 07:36  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 13/11/06   5.   Haaretz, 2 08:24  |  Linichka 13/11/06   6.   NOT A BIG DEAL 08:26  |  Arik Silverman 13/11/06   7.   I`ve been there 08:37  |  Rose 13/11/06   8.   To Cipora Julianna Kohn #5 09:08  |  Ari ben Yisrael 13/11/06   9.   face-lift 09:35  |  isa 13/11/06   10.   Just turning round a bush 09:53  |  sceptnick 13/11/06   11.   Auschwitz should be preserved exactly as it was 10:15  |  Clickfool 13/11/06   12.   #9, Ari ben Israel 10:20  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 13/11/06   13.   For Hollingsworth # 3 10:33  |  Clickfool 13/11/06   14.   For Cipora Julianna Kohn # 5 10:35  |  Clickfool 13/11/06   15.   To No. 12 10:49  |  sceptnick 13/11/06   16.   Exhibition update is necessary 11:23  |  Paul Henzen 13/11/06   17.   To No. 17 11:42  |  sceptnick 13/11/06   18.   Flatten it 11:46  |  David 13/11/06   19.   sceptnick 11:49  |  Isa 13/11/06   20.   #15, clicky 12:01  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 13/11/06   21.   #15, Freedom of speech 12:19  |  D 13/11/06   22.   Isa 12:20  |  sceptnick 13/11/06   23.   "Authentic" and "fake" in history. The same coin? 12:23  |  zmogus 13/11/06   24.   Auschwitz Birkenau 12:29  |  Nicole 13/11/06   25.   # 12, Clickfool. On "beautification" 12:51  |  zmogus 13/11/06   26.   To sceptnick 13:25  |  Paul Henzen 13/11/06   27.   A question to my chaver ClickFOOL #11 13:38  |  Jonathan S 13/11/06   28.   # 14- Clickfool- Freedom of Speech is Everything 13:53  |  Klaudia 13/11/06   29.   Difficult Questions 14:11  |  Ronnie Wolman 13/11/06   30.   For Cipora Julianna Kohn # 20 14:29  |  Clickfool 13/11/06   31.   Clickfool #28 17:47  |  Gee 13/11/06   32.   to Ronnie Wolman 18:12  |  rose 13/11/06   33.   Comparison 19:58  |  Neu Tral 13/11/06   34.   To No.25 20:39  |  sceptnick 13/11/06   35.   Cipora No. 20 21:22  |  Acangana 13/11/06   36.   To all "Let it remain as it is" respondents 21:43  |  Meteor Zeta 13/11/06   37.   Memorials 23:05  |  Tony Price 13/11/06   38.   Updates 23:41  |  Mike 13/11/06   39.   Cipora #20 23:48  |  Danite 13/11/06   40.   W- Israel is there because 02:44  |  Tobia 14/11/06   41.   The Germans/Poles need a brain lift. 04:26  |  Dr David I Gross 14/11/06   42.   Too Late 05:45  |  KC 14/11/06   43.   PROOF OF CONDITIONS 06:55  |  TOBIA 14/11/06   44.   To No. 27 08:47  |  sceptnick 14/11/06   45.   #18 For David who has a Jewish name but... 09:25  |  Hastaroth 14/11/06   46.   #1 09:42  |  Michal 14/11/06   47.   Updating of museum content is necessary 16:31  |  Richard Walter 29/11/06   48.   kc 00:02  |  steven 01/12/06   49.   Auschwitz-Birkenau `face-lift` 19:28  |  Brian Leary 20/11/07

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