Turning Auschwitz

From the BBC:
"Auschwitz 'may turn away people' amid record visits"

The former Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz is attracting so many visitors people may have to be turned away, staff there have warned. The Polish site, now a museum and memorial, saw a 40 per cent increase in visits in the first three months of 2015, compared with the previous year. Staff advise people wishing to visit to book in advance online. More than a million people, mostly Jews, died at Auschwitz during World War Two. "We already see that on particular hours, long waiting may be necessary in order to enter the former camp," said Andrzej Kacorzyk, the museum's deputy director.

 "If the attendance continues to grow in such a dynamic way in the months to follow, it may result in the fact that not all persons willing to enter the former camp and learn about the history of Auschwitz in its authentic space will be able to do it." This year the death camp marked 70 years since its liberation by Soviet soldiers, a possible explanation for the surge in visitors. But attendances had already been growing, with a record 1.5m people visiting in 2014. The news came as a former Nazi SS guard at the camp began the second day of his trial on charges of being an accessory to the murder of at least 300,000 Jews. Oskar Groening, 93, has admitted he was "morally" guilty but said it was up to the court to decide whether he was guilty under criminal law.

 

^ From 1945 to 1991 Auschwitz was behind the Iron Curtain in Communist Poland and many people couldn't go visit there. Since 1991 there have been an influx of visitors and it seems that this year - the 70th anniversary of both the liberation of Auschwitz as well as the end of World War 2 has seen even more people visit. ^

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32422627