(Jewish Group) Angela Merkel announces Germany will donate $66 million to Auschwitz museum
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, making her first visit to Auschwitz, pledged an added 60 million euros — or $66 million — in funding to its memorial museum.
Merkel entered the former Nazi concentration camp though the infamous gate under the sign that reads “Arbeit Macht Frei” — work will free you. An entourage of survivors and dignitaries kept their distance as she and her guides made her way slowly along the path that led to death for so many.
Her visit on this cold, sunny Friday included a moment of silence at the so-called Black Wall, where some 20,000 people were shot to death. Together with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder, Merkel walked through the former death camp where over 1 million people were murdered.
The last sitting German chancellor to visit the site was the late Helmut Kohl in 1995.
more...
