The United States and Germany signed an agreement this week under which they will work together to protect sites associated with the Nazi Holocaust. Reuters reports that the agreement covers European cemeteries, places of worship, memorials and other sites of importance associated with the more than six million Jewish victims of genocide during the Second World War. Germany's Ambassador to the U.S., Wolfgang Ischinger, who signed the agreement, said at the ceremony, "The preservation of memorial sites is of special importance to me personally and to my generation and future generations of Germans."
Representing the U.S. was Warren Miller, chairman of the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad. "The European Jews had everything taken from them," Miller said, "including their lives. Even in death, most were not afforded a burial place - they were burned, their bones crushed, their ashes scattered." The Commission partnered with German federal and local governments last year to build a new memorial at the Buchenwald concentration camp. They are working together again to build a museum at the site of the Mittelbau Dora concentration camp.
Reuters reports that Holocaust survivors and historians are concerned by the deteriorating state of key Holocaust sites, especially in Poland. In Auschwitz, important remains such as two tons of hair shorn from victims and thousands of shoes are deteriorating. At other sites, including the extermination camp of Belzec where some 600,000 Jews are thought to have been murdered, there still is no proper memorial.
Representing the U.S. was Warren Miller, chairman of the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad. "The European Jews had everything taken from them," Miller said, "including their lives. Even in death, most were not afforded a burial place - they were burned, their bones crushed, their ashes scattered." The Commission partnered with German federal and local governments last year to build a new memorial at the Buchenwald concentration camp. They are working together again to build a museum at the site of the Mittelbau Dora concentration camp.
Reuters reports that Holocaust survivors and historians are concerned by the deteriorating state of key Holocaust sites, especially in Poland. In Auschwitz, important remains such as two tons of hair shorn from victims and thousands of shoes are deteriorating. At other sites, including the extermination camp of Belzec where some 600,000 Jews are thought to have been murdered, there still is no proper memorial.