Editing Auschwitz concentration camp (section)

==After the war==
===Trials of war criminals===
{{Further|End of World War II in Europe|Auschwitz trial|Frankfurt Auschwitz trials}}
[[File:AuschwitzGallows2006.JPG|thumb|Gallows in Auschwitz I where Rudolf Höss was executed on 16 April 1947]]
Only 789 Auschwitz staff, up to 15 percent, ever stood trial;{{sfn|Lasik|2000b|p=116, n.&nbsp;19}} most of the cases were pursued in Poland and the [[Federal Republic of Germany]].{{sfn|Lasik|2000b|pp=108, 113}} According to [[Aleksander Lasik]], female SS officers were treated more harshly than male; of the 17 women sentenced, four received the death penalty and the others longer prison terms than the men. He writes that this may have been because there were only 200 women overseers, and therefore they were more visible and memorable to the inmates.{{sfn|Lasik|2000b|p=110}}

Camp commandant Rudolf Höss was arrested by the British on 11 March 1946 near [[Flensburg]], northern Germany, where he had been working as a farmer under the pseudonym Franz Lang. He was imprisoned in [[Heide]], then transferred to [[Minden]] for interrogation, part of the [[British occupation zone]]. From there he was taken to [[Nuremberg]] to testify for the defense in the trial of ''SS-Obergruppenführer'' [[Ernst Kaltenbrunner]]. Höss was straightforward about his own role in the mass murder and said he had followed the orders of [[Heinrich Himmler]].<ref>{{harvnb|Lasik|1998b|p=296}}; for "Franz Lang" and Flensburg, see {{harvnb|Höss|2003|p=173}}; for Höss's testimony, see {{harvnb|The International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg|1946|p=396ff}}.</ref>{{efn|In his testimony, according to Polish historian [[Aleksander Lasik]], "Höss neither protected anyone nor evaded his own responsibility. His stance came as a surprise to many, especially those who viewed him as a bloodthirsty beast. Instead, he viewed his crimes in terms of the technical obstacles and challenges with which he had to cope. Höss stated that he led the killings in Auschwitz on express orders of Reichsführer Himmler."{{sfn|Lasik|1998b|p=296}}}} Extradited to Poland on 25 May 1946,{{sfn|Lasik|1998b|p=296}} he wrote his memoirs in custody, first published in Polish in 1951 then in German in 1958 as ''Kommandant in Auschwitz''.{{sfn|Höss|2003|loc=Publisher's Note}} His trial before the [[Supreme National Tribunal]] in [[Warsaw]] opened on 11 March 1947; he was sentenced to death on 2 April and hanged in Auschwitz I on 16 April, near crematorium I.<ref>{{harvnb|Lasik|1998b|pp=296–297}}; {{harvnb|Lasik|2000a|pp=296–297}}.</ref>

On 25 November 1947, the [[Auschwitz trial]] began in [[Kraków]], when Poland's [[Supreme National Tribunal]] brought to court 40 former Auschwitz staff, including commandant [[Arthur Liebehenschel]], women's camp leader [[Maria Mandel]], and camp leader [[Hans Aumeier]]. The trials ended on 22 December 1947, with 23 death sentences, seven life sentences, and nine prison sentences ranging from three to 15 years. [[Hans Münch]], an SS doctor who had several former prisoners testify on his behalf, was the only person to be acquitted.{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|pp=138–139}}<!--find sources: Arthur Liebehenschel was hanged in 1948, Richard Baer died of a heart attack in pre-trial detention in 1963, Fritz Hartjenstein died of a heart attack while awaiting execution in 1954, Josef Kramer was hanged by [[Albert Pierrepoint]] in 1945, and Heinrich Schwarz was shot by firing squad in 1947.-->

Other former staff were hanged for war crimes in the [[Dachau Trials]] and the [[Belsen Trial]], including camp leaders [[Josef Kramer]], [[Franz Hössler]], and [[Vinzenz Schöttl]]; doctor [[Friedrich Entress]]; and guards [[Irma Grese]] and [[Elisabeth Volkenrath]].{{sfn|Steinbacher|2005|p=140}} [[Bruno Tesch]] and [[Karl Weinbacher]], the owner and chief executive officer of the firm [[Tesch & Stabenow]], one of the suppliers of Zyklon B, were arrested by the British after the war and executed for knowingly supplying the chemical for use on humans.{{sfn|Evans|2008|p=744}} The 180-day [[Frankfurt Auschwitz trials]], held in [[West Germany]] from 20 December 1963 to 20 August 1965, tried 22 defendants, including two dentists, a doctor, two camp adjudants and the camp's pharmacist. The 700-page indictment, presenting the testimony of 254 witnesses, was accompanied by a 300-page report about the camp, ''Nationalsozialistische Konzentrationslager'', written by historians from the ''[[Institute of Contemporary History (Munich)|Institut für Zeitgeschichte]]'' in Germany, including [[Martin Broszat]] and [[Helmut Krausnick]]. The report became the basis of their book, ''Anatomy of the SS State'' (1968), the first comprehensive study of the camp and the SS. The court convicted 19 of the defendants, giving six of them life sentences and the others between three and ten years.{{sfn|Wittmann|2005|p=3}} [[East Germany]] also held trials against several former staff members of Auschwitz. One of the defendants they tried was [[Horst Fischer]]. Fischer, one of the highest-ranking SS physicians in the camp, had personally selected at least 75,000 men, women, and children to be gassed. He was arrested in 1965. The following year, he was convicted of crimes against humanity, sentenced to death, and executed by [[guillotine]]. Fischer was the highest-ranking SS physician from Auschwitz to ever be tried by a German court.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wollheim Memorial |url=http://www.wollheim-memorial.de/en/prozess_gegen_horst_fischer_1966 |access-date=2022-10-01 |website=www.wollheim-memorial.de |archive-date=1 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221001171415/http://www.wollheim-memorial.de/en/prozess_gegen_horst_fischer_1966 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Legacy===
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| caption1 = Barracks at Auschwitz II
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| caption2 = Auschwitz II gate in 1959
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In the decades since its liberation, Auschwitz has become a primary symbol of the Holocaust. [[Seweryna Szmaglewska]]'s 1945 autobiography ''[[Dymy nad Birkenau]]'' (''Smoke over Birkenau'') has been credited with spreading knowledge about the camp to the general public.<ref name="Huener2007">{{cite book |last1=Huener |first1=Jonathan |editor1-last=Finder |editor1-first=Gabriel N. |editor2-last=Aleksiun |editor2-first=Natalia |editor3-last=Polonsky |editor3-first=Antony |title=Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 20: Making Holocaust Memory |year=2007 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=978-1-80034-534-8 |page=167 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AnFvEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA167 |chapter=Auschwitz and the Politics of Martyrdom and Memory, 1945–1947}}</ref>{{Rp|page=167}}<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Morawiec |first=Arkadiusz |date=2009 |title=Realizm w służbie (nieosiągalnego) obiektywizmu. "Dymy nad Birkenau" Seweryny Szmaglewskiej |url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=166368 |journal=Pamiętnik Literacki. Czasopismo kwartalne poświęcone historii i krytyce literatury polskiej |language=Polish |issue=1 |pages=121–143 |issn=0031-0514}}</ref> Historian [[Timothy D. Snyder]] attributes this to the camp's high death toll and "unusual combination of an industrial camp complex and a killing facility", which left behind far more witnesses than single-purpose killing facilities such as [[Chełmno extermination camp|Chełmno]] or [[Treblinka extermination camp|Treblinka]].{{sfn|Snyder|2010|pp=382–383}} In 2005 the [[United Nations General Assembly]] designated 27 January, the date of the camp's liberation, as [[International Holocaust Remembrance Day]].<ref>{{cite news |title=General Assembly designates International Holocaust Remembrance Day |url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2005/11/158642-general-assembly-designates-international-holocaust-remembrance-day |work=UN News |date=1 November 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180905023327/https://news.un.org/en/story/2005/11/158642-general-assembly-designates-international-holocaust-remembrance-day |archive-date=5 September 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Helmut Schmidt]] visited the site in November 1977, the first [[West Germany|West German]] [[Chancellor of Germany (1949–present)|chancellor]] to do so, followed by his successor, [[Helmut Kohl]], in November 1989.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Butturini |first1=Paula |title=Kohl visits Auschwitz, vows no repetition of 'unspeakable harm' |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1989-11-15-8901310354-story.html |work=Chicago Tribune |date=15 November 1989 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190720064824/https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1989-11-15-8901310354-story.html |archive-date=20 July 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> In a statement on the 50th anniversary of the liberation, Kohl said that "[t]he darkest and most awful chapter in German history was written at Auschwitz."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kinzer |first1=Stephen |author-link=Stephen Kinzer |title=Germans Reflect on Meaning of Auschwitz |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/28/world/germans-reflect-on-meaning-of-auschwitz.html |work=The New York Times |date=28 January 1995 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190410130720/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/28/world/germans-reflect-on-meaning-of-auschwitz.html |archive-date=10 April 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> In January 2020, world leaders gathered at [[Yad Vashem]] in Jerusalem to commemorate the 75th anniversary.<ref>{{cite news |first=David M. |last=Halbfinger |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/world/middleeast/holocaust-jerusalem-auschwitz-leaders-antisemitism.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200122225006/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/world/middleeast/holocaust-jerusalem-auschwitz-leaders-antisemitism.html |archive-date=2020-01-22 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=World Leaders, Gathering to Mark Holocaust, Are Urged to Fight 'Deadly Cancer' |work=The New York Times |date=22 January 2020}}</ref> It was the city's largest-ever political gathering, with over 45 heads of state and world leaders, including royalty.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/22/jerusalem-hosts-largest-ever-political-gathering-for-holocaust-forum |title=Jerusalem hosts largest-ever political gathering for Holocaust forum |first=Oliver |last=Holmes |date=22 January 2020 |work=The Guardian |access-date=24 January 2020 |archive-date=25 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125031702/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/22/jerusalem-hosts-largest-ever-political-gathering-for-holocaust-forum |url-status=live }}</ref> At Auschwitz itself, [[Reuven Rivlin]] and [[Andrzej Duda]], the presidents of Israel and Poland, laid [[Wreath|wreaths]].<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51266883 "Auschwitz 75 years on: Holocaust Day prompts new anti-Semitism warnings"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200128030155/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51266883 |date=28 January 2020 }}. BBC News, 27 January 2020.</ref>

Notable memoirists of the camp include [[Primo Levi]], [[Elie Wiesel]], and [[Tadeusz Borowski]].{{sfn|Snyder|2010|p=383}} Levi's ''[[If This is a Man]]'', first published in Italy in 1947 as ''Se questo è un uomo'', became a classic of Holocaust literature, an "imperishable masterpiece".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Simpson |first1=Mona |title=If This Is a Man |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/06/if-this-is-a-man/305897/ |work=The Atlantic |date=June 2007 |access-date=4 February 2019 |archive-date=4 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190204065923/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/06/if-this-is-a-man/305897/ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{efn|In ''[[The Drowned and the Saved]]'' (1986), Levi wrote that the concentration camps represented the epitome of the totalitarian system: "[N]ever has there existed a state that was really "totalitarian"&nbsp;... Never has some form of reaction, a corrective of the total tyranny, been lacking, not even in the Third Reich or Stalin's Soviet Union: in both cases, public opinion, the magistrature, the foreign press, the churches, the feeling for justice and humanity that ten or twenty years of tyranny were not enough to eradicate, have to a greater or lesser extent acted as a brake. Only in the Lager [camp] was the restraint from below nonexistent, and the power of these small [[satrap]]s absolute."{{sfn|Levi|2017|pp=35–36}}}} Wiesel wrote about his imprisonment at Auschwitz in ''[[Night (memoir)|Night]]'' (1960) and other works, and became a prominent spokesman against ethnic violence; in 1986, he was awarded the [[Nobel Peace Prize]].{{sfn|Norwegian Nobel Committee|1986}} Camp survivor [[Simone Veil]] was elected President of the [[European Parliament]], serving from 1979 to 1982.<ref>[https://europa.eu/european-union/sites/europaeu/files/foundingfathers-simoneveil-en-hd.pdf "Simone Veil: Holocaust survivor and first female President of the European Parliament (1927‑2017)"] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191121224603/https://europa.eu/european-union/sites/europaeu/files/foundingfathers-simoneveil-en-hd.pdf |date=21 November 2019 }}. European Commission.</ref> Two Auschwitz victims—[[Maximilian Kolbe]], a priest who volunteered to die by starvation in place of a stranger, and [[Edith Stein]], a Jewish convert to Catholicism—were named saints of the [[Catholic Church]].<ref>{{harvnb|Espín|2008}}; for Kolbe, see p.&nbsp;139.</ref>

In 2017, a [[Körber Foundation]] survey found that 40 percent of 14-year-olds in Germany did not know what Auschwitz was.<ref>{{cite news |title=Auschwitz-Birkenau: 4 out of 10 German students don't know what it was |url=https://www.dw.com/en/auschwitz-birkenau-4-out-of-10-german-students-dont-know-what-it-was/a-40734980 |publisher=Deutsche Welle |date=28 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170928204158/https://www.dw.com/en/auschwitz-birkenau-4-out-of-10-german-students-dont-know-what-it-was/a-40734980 |archive-date=28 September 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Posener |first=Alan |author-link=Alan Posener |title=German TV Is Sanitizing History |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/04/09/dont-mention-the-war-germany-television-holocaust-anti-semitism-babylon-berlin-europe/ |work=[[Foreign Policy]] |date=9 April 2018 |access-date=20 January 2019 |archive-date=20 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190720064815/https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/04/09/dont-mention-the-war-germany-television-holocaust-anti-semitism-babylon-berlin-europe/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The following year a survey organized by the [[Claims Conference]], [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] and others found that 41 percent of 1,350 American adults surveyed, and 66 percent of [[millennials]], did not know what Auschwitz was, while 22 percent said they had never heard of the Holocaust.<ref>{{cite news |title=New Survey by Claims Conference Finds Significant Lack of Holocaust Knowledge in the United States |url=http://www.claimscon.org/study |publisher=Claims Conference |date=2018 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20180412152716/http://www.claimscon.org/study |archive-date=12 April 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Astor |first1=Maggie |title=Holocaust Is Fading From Memory, Survey Finds |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/us/holocaust-education.html |work=The New York Times |date=12 April 2018 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20180418071414/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/us/holocaust-education.html |archive-date=18 April 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> A [[CNN]]-[[ComRes]] poll in 2018 found a similar situation in Europe.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Greene |first1=Richard Allen |title=CNN poll reveals depth of anti-Semitism in Europe |url=https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2018/11/europe/antisemitism-poll-2018-intl/ |publisher=CNN |date=November 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181127064644/http://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2018/11/europe/antisemitism-poll-2018-intl/ |archive-date=27 November 2018}}</ref>

==={{anchor|"Arbeit macht frei" sign theft}}Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum===
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{{Main|Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum}}
{{multiple image
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| caption1 = [[Czesława Kwoka]], photographed in Auschwitz by [[Wilhelm Brasse]] of the camp's [[Auschwitz Erkennungsdienst|Erkennungsdienst]]
| image2 = Israeli Air Force jets Fly-over Auschwitz concentration camp.jpg
| caption2 = [[Israeli Air Force]] [[F-15 Eagle]]s fly over Auschwitz II-Birkenau, 2003
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| caption3 = End of the rail track inside Auschwitz II
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| caption4 = Italian president [[Sergio Mattarella]] standing in front of the "Death Wall"
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On 2 July 1947, the Polish government passed a law establishing a state memorial to remember "the martyrdom of the Polish nation and other nations in Oswiecim".<ref>{{harvnb|Dwork|van Pelt|2002|p=364}}; {{harvnb|Steinbacher|2005|p=132}}.</ref> The museum established its exhibits at Auschwitz I; after the war, the barracks in Auschwitz II-Birkenau had been mostly dismantled and moved to Warsaw to be used on building sites. Dwork and van Pelt write that, in addition, Auschwitz I played a more central role in the persecution of the Polish people, in opposition to the importance of Auschwitz II to the Jews, including Polish Jews.{{sfn|Dwork|van Pelt|2002|p=364ff}} An exhibition opened in Auschwitz I in 1955, displaying prisoner [[mug shot]]s; hair, suitcases, and shoes taken from murdered prisoners; canisters of Zyklon B pellets; and other objects related to the killings.{{sfn|Permanent exhibition – Auschwitz I}} [[UNESCO]] added the camp to its list of [[World Heritage Site]]s in 1979.{{sfn|UNESCO, ''World Heritage List''}} All the museum's directors were, until 1990, former Auschwitz prisoners. Visitors to the site have increased from 492,500 in 2001, to over one million in 2009,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Curry |first1=Andrew |title=Can Auschwitz Be Saved? |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/can-auschwitz-be-saved-4650863/ |work=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]] |date=February 2010 |access-date=31 January 2019 |archive-date=31 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190131093128/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/can-auschwitz-be-saved-4650863/ |url-status=live }}</ref> to two million in 2016.<ref>{{cite news |title=Auschwitz museum plans traveling exhibition |url=https://www.dw.com/en/auschwitz-museum-plans-traveling-exhibition/a-39852308 |publisher=Deutsche Welle |date=27 July 2017 |access-date=20 January 2019 |archive-date=21 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190121010951/https://www.dw.com/en/auschwitz-museum-plans-traveling-exhibition/a-39852308 |url-status=live }}</ref>

There have been protracted disputes over the perceived Christianization of the site. Pope [[John Paul II]] celebrated [[Mass (Roman Rite)|mass]] over the train tracks leading to Auschwitz II-Birkenau on 7 June 1979{{sfn|Carroll|2002}} and called the camp "the [[Calvary|Golgotha]] of our age", referring to the [[crucifixion of Jesus]].{{sfn|Berger|2017|p=165}} More controversy followed when [[Carmelite]] nuns founded a convent in 1984 in a former theater outside the camp's perimeter, near block 11 of Auschwitz I,{{sfn|Dwork|van Pelt|2002|pp=369–370}} after which a local priest and some survivors [[Auschwitz cross|erected a large cross]]—one that had been used during the pope's mass—behind block 11 to commemorate 152 Polish inmates shot by the Germans in 1941.<ref>{{harvnb|Carroll|2002}}; {{harvnb|Berger|2017|p=166}}.</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Rabbi unhappy at Auschwitz cross decision |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/158626.stm |work=BBC News |date=27 August 1998 |access-date=27 January 2019 |archive-date=3 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200303160426/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/158626.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> After a long dispute, Pope John Paul II intervened and the nuns moved the convent elsewhere in 1993.{{sfn|Berger|2017|p=166}} The cross remained, triggering the "War of the Crosses", as more crosses were erected to commemorate Christian victims, despite international objections. The Polish government and Catholic Church eventually agreed to remove all but the original.{{sfn|Berger|2017|p=167}}

On 4 September 2003, despite a protest from the museum, three [[Israeli Air Force]] [[F-15 Eagle]]s [[Israeli Air Force flight over Auschwitz|performed a fly-over]] of Auschwitz II-Birkenau during a ceremony at the camp below. All three pilots were descendants of Holocaust survivors, including the man who led the flight, Major-General [[Amir Eshel]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Barkat |first1=Amiram |title=IAF Pilots Perform Fly-over at Auschwitz Death Camp |url=https://www.haaretz.com/1.5370524 |work=Haaretz |date=4 September 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180619064758/https://www.haaretz.com/1.5370524 |archive-date=19 June 2018}}</ref> On 27 January 2015, some 300 Auschwitz survivors gathered with world leaders under a giant tent at the entrance to Auschwitz II to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the camp's liberation.{{sfn|BBC News|2015a}}{{efn|Attendees included the president of the [[World Jewish Congress]], [[Ronald Lauder]], Polish president [[Bronisław Komorowski]], French President [[François Hollande]], German President [[Joachim Gauck]], the film director [[Steven Spielberg]], and King [[Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands]].{{sfn|BBC News|2015a}}<ref>{{cite news |last1=Connolly |first1=Kate |title=Auschwitz liberation ceremony will be the last for many survivors present |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/27/auschwitz-holocaust-survivors-liberation-70-anniversary-nazi-poland |work=The Guardian |date=27 January 2015 |access-date=31 January 2019 |archive-date=1 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190201065432/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/27/auschwitz-holocaust-survivors-liberation-70-anniversary-nazi-poland |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

Museum curators consider visitors who pick up items from the ground to be thieves, and local police will charge them as such; the maximum penalty is a 10-year prison sentence.{{sfn|BBC|2016}} In 2017 two British youths from the [[The Perse School|Perse School]] were fined in Poland after picking up buttons and shards of decorative glass in 2015 from the "Kanada" area of Auschwitz II, where camp victims' personal effects were stored.<ref>{{cite news |title=Court fines UK teens for stealing from Auschwitz |url=https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/court-fines-uk-teens-for-stealing-from-auschwitz/ |work=The Jewish News |agency=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |date=30 March 2017 |access-date=30 December 2019 |archive-date=30 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191230204350/https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/court-fines-uk-teens-for-stealing-from-auschwitz/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The {{cvt|16|ft|m|adj=on}} {{lang|de|Arbeit Macht Frei}} sign over the main camp's gate was stolen in December 2009 by a Swedish former neo-Nazi and two Polish men. The sign was later recovered.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Paterson |first=Tom |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/former-neo-nazi-jailed-for-auschwitz-sign-theft-2172533.html |title=Former neo-Nazi jailed for Auschwitz sign theft |work=The Independent |date=31 December 2010 |access-date=20 January 2019 |archive-date=1 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181001114017/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/former-neo-nazi-jailed-for-auschwitz-sign-theft-2172533.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2018 the Polish government passed an amendment to its [[Act on the Institute of National Remembrance]], making it a criminal offence to violate the "good name" of Poland by accusing it of crimes committed by Germany in the Holocaust, which would include referring to Auschwitz and other camps as [["Polish death camp" controversy|"Polish death camps"]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Henley |first1=Jen |title=Poland provokes Israeli anger with Holocaust speech law |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/01/poland-holocaust-speech-law-senate-israel-us |work=The Guardian |date=1 February 2018 |access-date=9 March 2019 |archive-date=8 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190208103724/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/01/poland-holocaust-speech-law-senate-israel-us |url-status=live }}</ref> Staff at the museum were accused by nationalist media in Poland of focusing too much on the fate of the Jews in Auschwitz at the expense of ethnic Poles. The brother of the museum's director, [[Piotr Cywiński]], wrote that Cywiński had experienced "50 days of incessant hatred".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Davies |first1=Christian |title=Poland's Holocaust law triggers tide of abuse against Auschwitz museum |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/07/polands-holocaust-law-triggers-tide-abuse-auschwitz-museum |work=The Guardian |date=7 May 2018 |access-date=9 March 2019 |archive-date=19 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190219064238/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/07/polands-holocaust-law-triggers-tide-abuse-auschwitz-museum |url-status=live }}</ref> After discussions with Israel's prime minister, amid international concern that the new law would stifle research, the Polish government adjusted the amendment so that anyone accusing Poland of complicity would be guilty only of a civil offence.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Davies |first1=Christian |title=Poland makes partial U-turn on Holocaust law after Israel row |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/27/poland-partial-u-turn-controversial-holocaust-law |work=The Guardian |date=27 June 2018 |access-date=9 March 2019 |archive-date=3 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190203134837/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/27/poland-partial-u-turn-controversial-holocaust-law |url-status=live }}</ref>