"On Auschwitz" (33): Creation of the Auschwitz Memorial

After the liberation of Auschwitz, its two main parts - the
former main camp (Auschwitz I) and Auschwitz II-Birkenau - were
first placed under the control of the Soviet military
authorities. In the first of these, from February to September
1945, Soviet field hospitals and the Polish Red Cross hospital
operated, where most of the surviving prisoners were
treated. A transit camp for German prisoners of war also
operated there from spring to autumn of that year. A similar camp
existed at the former Birkenau camp until early 1946. Commissions
investigating the crimes committed by Nazi Germany at Auschwitz
also began to work at the site of the former camp.


At the same time, survivors began to make efforts to establish an
institution at the site of the former camp to commemorate the
victims.


Dr Jacek Lachendro, from the Museum Research Centre, talks about
the process that led to the creation of the Auschwitz Memorial in
1947.