Debate over significance of released 'Auschwitz blueprints'
Just ahead of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Israel's Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem is displaying what they say are the blueprints of Auschwitz, the notorious Polish camp that has become a symbol of the Nazi genocide of European Jewry.
However, an architectural historian and leading expert on Auschwitz, has publicly denounced the importance of the release, suggesting the plans were fakes, motivated by the lucrative market in Nazi memorabilia and documents....
Handwritten initials H.H. seen on the plans belong to the infamous Nazi SS chief Heinrich Himmler says Yad Vashem.
But Prof. Robert Jan Van Pelt doubts the authenticity of the signature, believing a high-ranking officer would not have signed such plans....
Ralf Georg Reuth, the historian who wrote the piece in Bild, said the existence of such plans in Russian archives was known, "but German institutions have no originals, and therefore the importance of the finding of such original material is very great."...
Daniel Uziel, the historical adviser to the exhibition, said although the prints did not add much to what is already known about the camps, they did provide "a great illustration of the process of turning Auschwitz from a small Polish concentration camp to the centre of the Holocaust"....
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However, an architectural historian and leading expert on Auschwitz, has publicly denounced the importance of the release, suggesting the plans were fakes, motivated by the lucrative market in Nazi memorabilia and documents....
Handwritten initials H.H. seen on the plans belong to the infamous Nazi SS chief Heinrich Himmler says Yad Vashem.
But Prof. Robert Jan Van Pelt doubts the authenticity of the signature, believing a high-ranking officer would not have signed such plans....
Ralf Georg Reuth, the historian who wrote the piece in Bild, said the existence of such plans in Russian archives was known, "but German institutions have no originals, and therefore the importance of the finding of such original material is very great."...
Daniel Uziel, the historical adviser to the exhibition, said although the prints did not add much to what is already known about the camps, they did provide "a great illustration of the process of turning Auschwitz from a small Polish concentration camp to the centre of the Holocaust"....