Auschwitz Sees Record Number Of Visitors In 2011

WARSAW, Poland -- The memorial site of Auschwitz-Birkenau says it saw more than 1.4 million visitors in 2011, a record high for the former death camp.

The figure released Friday underlines how the death and labor complex that Nazi Germany built in occupied southern Poland during World War II has become one of Europe's most visited Holocaust remembrance sites.

While the large number of visitors is seen as important for Holocaust education, mass tourism there is also adding strain to the barracks and other structures. Many are already in a state of severe dilapidation due to the passage of time, and the officials overseeing the site are struggling to preserve what they can.

The museum and memorial site said most of the visitors last year were from Poland, but other nations represented in large numbers are Britain, Italy, Israel, Germany, France and the United States.

Comments

[wjmlegal7]

06:20 PM on 01/27/2012

The treatment in Los Angeles, CA by a non Jewish media analyst/writer is second only to Auschwitz itself. After seeing currently $1.2 billion worldwide generated off of graeco roman themed projects from my literature (WGAW registered) alone and no compensation from Time Warner Inc./NBC Universal Inc. the message is if you're black get back. My heritage is caucasian, cherokee indian and african american, but its the latter that seems to be the biggest hang up. A ride on various buses throughout the city is like a Jim Crow Law expose'. It is incredibly odd to have an entertainment industry monopolized by Jewish people treating me in the same way the complained pharoahs of ancient Egypt treated their slaves.

[Peter Massa]

08:31 PM on 01/08/2012

Forward this to Iran and all the unbelievers.

[harrystocratical]

06:43 PM on 01/08/2012

The Holocaust memorials should remind the Jews that their enemy, in modern times,
is socialism,in all its forms..

National socialism,in Nazi Germany,
mythological socialim,in fascist Italy ( revival of Roman Empire),
&...regular socialism,in Soviet Union...

Socialism,is the archetypal countersemitism...

[RepublicanDepression]

05:07 PM on 02/16/2012

Why look. More Van Zan RACISM!

[LudeDude714]

04:10 PM on 01/08/2012

Sadly, it all boils down to money and not human life. Stalin was responsible for more deaths than Hitler and he persecuted many Jews in his purge. Pol Pot, Idi Amin, slaughtered million and the imperial Japanese army had many death camps and did many human experiments that are over looked by history today.Try to google them, more will come up about American interment camps for Japanese living here than the death camps and that really sad. Not to mention the retribution paid by the German people who had nothing to do with death camps in Poland, the citizens knew nothing of these camps. A handful of people knew and most guards were Ukrainian not German yet the German people have been taxed for decades to pay for crimes they knew nothing about. They finally wised up and refused anymore payment when in the 1990's the Israeli person collecting the money for disbursement was caught embezzling the money going to the victims.

[john bruno]

03:27 PM on 01/08/2012

Is there an admission cost to the site; and, if so, who gets the money and what do they do with it?

[electricxebra]

03:16 PM on 01/08/2012

What about Americans killing over 4 million people in Iraq so far??? Check our own US web sites for that info...

[hertamania]

03:26 PM on 01/08/2012

Don't care about dead muslims. Like dead gang bangers, nobody cares.

[AzizalSaqr]

03:49 PM on 01/08/2012

Speak for yourself, I care when innocents are killed, regardless of their religions or ethnicities.

[john bruno]

03:28 PM on 01/08/2012

Baloney....about 3.9 million less than what you suggested have died during the war.

[ARMY1775]

02:55 PM on 01/08/2012

1/3 of all of the worlds Jews were murdered during the holocaust. Yes, there have been other horrible acts of genocide around the world and in the U.S. (all tragic). None of them compare to the holocaust of WWII. Anti-Semitism has been around a long, long time and it will not go away until the end. The ugly head of Anti-Semitism is on the rise around the world and tragically too present in our wonderful USA. Every joke or off-color comment reflects the seething hatred below the surface too many "good" people have for the Jews and Beautiful Israel. Muslims and Islam openly profess their disdain of Israel and Jews but it is harder to see in some of our churches and government. I was raised to greatly dislike or even hate Jews without reason just because they were Jews. I regret my past words and attitude everyday. The Jews are Chosen and always will be the "Apple of G-ds eye" I will support the land and people and pray our gov't keeps her as a great ally. Sha'alu Shalom Yerushalim! Everyone in the world should visit the Holocaust Museum or a concentration camp, it would certainly affect the lethargic response to current genocides.

[redleg69]

03:47 PM on 01/08/2012

dont forget stalin ,mao 125mil or so between them

[vampyreangelus]

02:16 PM on 01/08/2012

Those that dont learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.

[mcb2578]

02:41 PM on 01/08/2012

Its will happen again if someone doesnt get a grip of the Islamic middle east who want to do away with not only the Jewish people but anyone who does not agree with their views or faith.

[vampyreangelus]

03:55 PM on 01/08/2012

I agree with you.

[Cara Bishop]

02:06 PM on 01/08/2012

Its sad that people think it never happened.

[TheTruth76]

01:50 PM on 01/08/2012

??????

[bonnie1946]

01:37 PM on 01/08/2012

Never forget.

[mscellanus]

01:32 PM on 01/08/2012

What about the Armenians? The world conveniently forgets their genocide in the hands of the Turks. Oh they were not Jewish? I see. Only a "preferred" group can be remembered.

[Cara Bishop]

01:58 PM on 01/08/2012

its because america wasnt as involved. simple as that.

[jasflalmt]

02:11 PM on 01/08/2012

What does America have to do with it, and which America are you talking about, North America, South America, Latin America??? Or did you mean the United States? How does America's involvement affect the Turks? Or did you read mscellanus wrong, who was talking about Armenians, not Americans? I didn't really get what your response meant, please explain.

[pentaxfox]

02:04 PM on 01/08/2012

You need to watch more educational TV. Was there ever a war that killed as many innocent people as WWII and Hitler? and it wasn't just 6 million + Jews. There were many more killed. Because of their profession, because of where they lived, etc. Over 6 million is just one figure for the Jews. Read up a little on history, and even more recent history. It's out there.

[mscellanus]

03:41 PM on 01/08/2012

Gee I thought Hitler had killed over 9 Million??? The numbers keep fluctuating depending on what is being discussed. Maybe I'm getting Hitler mixed up with Josef Stalin, who according to scholars was just another good guy!

[drkaos]

01:07 PM on 01/08/2012

I was there last summer and it just boggles the mind when you find out how many people died there in such horrific ways. We had a really awesome tour guide who was very informative and sensitive. It was eerie because it really just looks like any wartime government set of buildings until you hear of what happened there, until you see the glasses, shoes, suitcases with people's names on them. The worst was one of the gas chambers that was still intact, with the little window where they put in the zyklon B. Or the photos of prisoners with their names, dates of arrival and their dates of death, sometimes just a few weeks, some held out for months before being starved or worked to death. It's a death factory basically. It's important people remember and that it's a place to teach kids not to go along with everybody else when you know it's so wrong. Everyone should visit.

[drkaos]

12:36 PM on 01/08/2012

The camp is near Cracow not Warsaw.

[rockshock]

12:25 PM on 01/08/2012

Their are many 'Auschwitz' running today. Try breaking into the high end lawyer crowd, on 'K' for cutie Street in DC. You will only be able to find a therapist with a certain ethnic background. Likely, or number two, the local demographic favorite, and number three, the plastic crucifix favorite, both number two and three, probably 'OUT TO LUNCH'. Number one, with bagels, creamed cheesey, shwopped liver, let you talk forever. LONG as your money and your law practice last. Whatever, dahlinks. put in Disney rides close by in Poland and a Lady Gaga vendor. Oops, we pooped on the tourists. Whatever.

[dwbarne]

01:06 PM on 01/08/2012

Send me some of whatever you're taking. Reality is bumming me out.

[rockshock]

01:21 PM on 01/08/2012

I only had coffee and a frozen, defrosted sandwich for breakfast. Don't bumm yourself out.

[carolinacookie4]

02:25 PM on 01/08/2012

What ever you're on, lay off for awhile until your brain stops sizzling.