Vatican Chips in $135K to Auschwitz Preservation
The Vatican has joined 30 other states in contributing funding to help preserve the site of the former Auschwitz death camp.
An announcement Monday on the website of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum said the Vatican will contribute $135,000 to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, which aims to raise $162 million to preserve the authentic remains of the former Nazi death camp located in southern Poland.
“Considering the significance of the goal of the Foundation and the support it received from the Polish government, the decision to send support … has been taken. This sum is so modest due to the limited possibilities. However, this is an expression of full support for the project of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation,” read a letter from Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, quoted in the announcement.
The announcement said that so far, 31 countries, including the Vatican, have pledged more than $129 million to the Foundation.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO