Editing Auschwitz concentration camp (section)

==={{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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| image1 = Czeslawa Kwoka - Brasse.jpg<!--Auschwitz entrance.JPG-->
| 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
| image3 = End of the railway line, Auschwitz-Birkenau, 2012 (2).jpg
| caption3 = End of the rail track inside Auschwitz II
| image4 = Mattarella Auschwitz.jpg
| 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>