Clinton: U.S. to contribute $150 million to Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation
The American contribution is subject to Congressional authorization, but if approved it will begin in 2012.
By Natasha Mozgovaya and Haaretz Service Tags: Israel news Jewish world Hillary Clinton U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday announced the U.S. intends to contribute $15 million to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation.
Clinton made the announcement at the Schindler Factory Museum in Krakow, Poland, where Oskar Schindler, the German entrepreneur, saved hundreds of Jewish factory workers during the Holocaust.
The State Department on Saturday said Clinton's announcement of the anticipated contribution helps commemorate the 1.1 million victims who perished at the Nazi death camp, and demonstrates the U.S. administration's commitment to Holocaust remembrance and education.
The contribution is subject to Congressional authorization, but if approved it will begin in 2012.
The U.S. contribution is intended to help fund a 120 million euro endowment to preserve and safeguard the remains of the camp, whose buildings and other artifacts are in serious danger of irreversible deterioration.
In 2009 alone, more than 1.3 million people from around the world visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum and memorial.
Clinton made the announcement at the Schindler Factory Museum in Krakow, Poland, where Oskar Schindler, the German entrepreneur, saved hundreds of Jewish factory workers during the Holocaust.
The State Department on Saturday said Clinton's announcement of the anticipated contribution helps commemorate the 1.1 million victims who perished at the Nazi death camp, and demonstrates the U.S. administration's commitment to Holocaust remembrance and education.
The contribution is subject to Congressional authorization, but if approved it will begin in 2012.
The U.S. contribution is intended to help fund a 120 million euro endowment to preserve and safeguard the remains of the camp, whose buildings and other artifacts are in serious danger of irreversible deterioration.
In 2009 alone, more than 1.3 million people from around the world visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum and memorial.
Clinton says US to give $15m to preserve Auschwitz
Page last updated at 04:49 GMT, Sunday, 4 July 2010 05:49 UK BBC
Hillary Clinton visited the Schindler Museum in Krakow US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the US will donate $15m (£10m) to preserve the site of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Mrs Clinton was on a visit to Poland, where she oversaw the signing of a key missile base agreement.She warned of a "steel vice" of repression crushing democracy and civil liberties activists in countries such as Iran, Egypt and Zimbabwe.
She held up Poland, which elects a new leader on Sunday, as a model democracy.
More than a million people, most of them Jews, were murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz during World War II.
The money to preserve Auschwitz-Birkenau depends on Congressional approval.
Mrs Clinton defended US funding for advocacy groups in other countries, which some governments condemn as meddling.
Mrs Clinton said social activists in many countries were being harassed, censored, arrested or killed.
The Iron Curtain no longer existed, she said, "but we must be wary of the steel vice in which governments around the world are slowly crushing civil society and the human spirit".
Mrs Clinton later travelled on to Azerbaijan, and is also due to visit Armenia and Georgia.
'Evolving threats' The secretary of state witnessed the signing of the amendment to the ballistic missile agreement with her Polish counterpart, Radoslaw Sikorski, in the southern city of Krakow.
The deal sets up a permanent US missile base as part of a revamped version of the controversial missile defence shield.
Russia opposes a Polish base hosting US missiles. Mrs Clinton said the new deal did not threaten Russia.
Mrs Clinton said the agreement would "protect Poland and our allies from evolving threats, such as those from Iran".
In Azerbaijan and Armenia, Mrs Clinton will push for a resolution of the region's conflicts and will seek to bolster US access to an overland route used for supplying troops to Afghanistan, says the BBC's David Stern in Kiev.
In Georgia, Mrs Clinton will have to reassure officials that the government of embattled President Mikhail Saakashvili still has US support despite Washington's attempt to improve relations with Russia, our correspondent adds.
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