The U.S. government is finally paying off a promise made in 2010 to give $15 million to preserve the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp — the last international partner to meet its pledge.
Congress gave the final OK in the 2015 spending bill that cleared in December, making good on a commitment then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made in 2010 as part of an international push to ensure the camp is preserved a reminder for the world of the horrors of the Nazi regime.
Congress had actually appropriated the $15 million several years ago, but the State Department had refused to release it, saying it didn’t feel it had the authority to spend the money, and asking Capitol Hill for a specific approval.
This year’s budget bill that passed in December includes language that authorizes the State Department to make the payment, though it’ll still likely take a few months, said Douglas Rivlin, a spokesman for Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, an Illinois Democrat who fought to finally get the payment done.
“The site cannot be allowed to disappear because it should be seared into the consciousness and conscience of every generation,” Mr. Gutierrez said. “It is more than a memorial to millions of innocent lives. It is a touchstone for avoiding genocide, injustice, and war. Remembering is the only way to ’never forget.’”
The Auschwitz complex was established in 1940 and became the largest concentration camp, with more than 1 million Jews being killed there during the Holocaust, according to the camp’s website. Birkenau, sometimes called Auschwitz II, was the largest part of the camp and where the majority of inmates were killed.
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At the camp, prisoners, including more than 200,000 children, were forced to work, subjected to medical experiments, suffered from hunger and cold and many were killed.
Mr. Rivlin said the $15 million donation will be transferred to the fund in early 2015, though it’ll likely come after the 70th anniversary of the camp’s liberation on Jan. 27.
A State Department official said it would make its first contribution “in the coming months” now that Congress has approved the appropriate authorization.
Almost 30 countries pledged to contribute $160 million to the preservation of the historic site and all except the U.S. had already made their donations, according to the release from Mr. Gutierrez.
The largest donor was Germany, which gave just over $70 million, according to the fund’s website. Other countries who contributed include Poland, Austria, France, Great Britain, Israel, Russia and Switzerland.
The fund to preserve Auschwitz-Birkenau was founded in 2009 and needs about $6 million a year to continue conservation work at the concentration camp, the fund’s website said.
“We created the fund to make sure that future generations will have a possibility to see the authentic space which is not only a living witness of one of the biggest crimes in the history of mankind but also a place which has a fundamental meaning for the entire European civilization,” the website says.
• Jacqueline Klimas can be reached at jklimas@washingtontimes.com.
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