Mission statement

Auschwitz is the most recognizable symbol and place of genocide in the world

From the moment when the Polish State established the Auschwitz Memorial on the site of the former camp, it committed itself to preserve the memory of the crimes committed in that Nazi German Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. 

Common words do not describe this site properly. Nowadays it is called a graveyard, a monument, a memorial site, a museum. But those words cannot express the full meaning of Auschwitz which is so hard to grasp and express. It is the best preserved evidence of the greatest fall of mankind and an enormous tragedy in the history of Europe. This is a symbol of the whole Shoah history, the system of concentration camps and an unrecorded crisis of evil.

Protection of Camp Relics

Our main goal is to protect and conserve camp relics or in other words to keep the authenticity and the thrust of the biggest concentration camp and the only extermination center that the SS did not manage to raze to the ground. 

To support the efforts the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation was established in 2009. It created the Perpetual Fund to provide means for the planned and systematic realization of the conservation works at the Memorial Site.

Education

Education, understood in a broader sense, is an equally important task. One can teach about Auschwitz and the Holocaust anywhere. Only at the Auschwitz Memorial, however, is it possible not only to get to know the history of the camp operation and gain direct access to the first-hand accounts of witnesses, but also to see the evidence of the Extermination with our own eyes: the ruins of the gas chambers, crematoria and other leftover camp remains.

Meaning of Auschwitz

Auschwitz lies at the very heart of the European experience. It is the biggest Extermination site, a symbol of its monstrous entirety. It is a constant point of reference in the post-war history of the Old Continent, fully justifying all the efforts aimed at creating a unified, different, new, more humane and sensitive Europe. 

Taking care of the site is not only an obligation towards the past generations, victims and survivors; to a great extent, it is also an obligation towards the generations to come. It will be their responsibility to carry on our post-war endeavors for a better, united, sensible, supporting and safe world. It is our children and grandchildren who will build the future of our civilization. We owe them the truth about Auschwitz.