Vatican pledges $125,000 for Auschwitz preservation & upkeep

 

The Vatican’s Secretary of State says, “Given our limited resources, the amount is small, but it is an expression of our full support.”
• More than 100 million euros from 31 countries was pledged to Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation for the preservation & upkeep of former Nazi death camp.

By News Agencies & Israel Hayom Staff

 

The Vatican has pledged a 100,000 euro ($125,000) donation to the preservation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum, located at the former Nazi death camp in southern Poland.

This undated file image shows the main gate of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz I, near Oswiecim, Poland – Photo: AP

“Given our limited resources, the amount is small,” Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin said. “But it is an expression of our full support for the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation” that oversees the upkeep of the former camp, where the Nazis gassed hundreds of thousands of prisoners in occupied Poland during World War II.

The Vatican is one of 31 countries that will donate to the foundation. More than 100 million euros in donations have already been pledged, including 60 million euros ($76 million) from the German government alone.

The Vatican’s decision to contribute to the preservation of the death camp is not at all trivial considering the fact that wartime Pope Pius XII has been repeatedly accused of turning a blind eye to the mass extermination of European Jews.

Between 1940 and 1945, a million Jews died at the camp in the Polish city of Oswiecim. More than 100,000 others including non-Jewish Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and anti-Nazi resistance fighters also died there, according to the museum.

More than one million people visit the museum each year.

 

View original Israel Hayom publication at: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=20447