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Forty countries now support the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation's Perpetual Fund, which ensures the preservation of the authenticity of the remains of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz.

In December 2024, agreements were signed with Serbia, contributing €357,000, and Albania, which pledged €10,000 to the Fund.

"On the eve of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, two more Balkan countries have joined the coalition of Foundation donors. This demonstrates that the authenticity of the preserved historical site resonates with allies in a region that deeply remembers the consequences of conflict and atrocities. I am pleased that the need to protect the Auschwitz Memorial unites and fosters close cooperation, as reflected by the growing number of supporting countries," said Wojciech Soczewica, Director General of the Foundation.

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation aims to finance the Master Plan for Preservation, a long-term program securing all camp remains. The overarching goal is to preserve the site's authenticity for future generations.

Since 2012, the Foundation has allocated over PLN 148 million for preservation work at the Auschwitz Memorial, including PLN 22 million in 2024. The value of the Perpetual Fund surpassed €180 million in 2024.

In recent years, the Foundation has also allocated additional resources to support the Museum's educational initiatives. Donors have contributed over €3 million for projects such as developing the online tours platform "Auschwitz. In Front of your Eyes" and training for guides.

American teacher Theodore Kempinski has been appointed the Honorary Consul of the Auschwitz Memorial in the United States. He will primarily support the activities undertaken by the Diplomacy of Remembrance of the Museum in the State of Massachusetts.

Haverhill High School in Massachusetts, where Theodore Kempinski teaches, was the first American school to start cooperation with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation to participate in online tours of the Auschwitz Memorial through the platform "Auschwitz. In Front of your Eyes."

"As a 25-year History secondary educator, I now commit a significant part of my life to improving Holocaust education relationships with organizations. As a teacher, I dedicated my career to empowering students at Haverhill High School. As time went on I grew to lead many years of community activism for improving public support for education in Massachusetts,” said Theodore Kempinski.

“I now take those two great wells of experience on my new mission to connect the American education system to primary Holocaust sources. Bridges between organizations will transform student lives,” he added.

“The Haverhill community initiative, the entire school district, and local administration have allowed local students to learn about the history of Auschwitz and the Shoah in a way previously inaccessible to them," said Wojciech Soczewica, the general director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation.

The appointment was made on 22 November during the National Council for the Social Studies educational conference in Boston, which was attended by thousands of teachers and others involved in education and the popularization of the social sciences in the United States.“This opportunity to meet with so many teachers is a unique chance for me to encourage everyone to watch together the upcoming commemoration event of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. This will allow them to be together with the Survivors and with us in their schools and their classrooms,” said Museum Director Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński. Details of the broadcast will be available at 80.auschwitz.org.

At the 104th NCSS conference, the Museum and Foundation present the interactive platform "Auschwitz. In Front of your Eyes" to American teachers, enabling live online tours of the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp. Additionally, other educational activities conducted by the Diplomacy of Remembrance and the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust are showcased.

The online tour lasts approximately two hours and is divided into two parts: Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The narration is conducted live by a guide who uses multimedia materials, archival photographs, artworks, documents, and testimonies from survivors. The application also allows interaction with the guide and asking questions.

The "Auschwitz. In Front of your Eyes" platform project, which was dedicated specifically to the Auschwitz Memorial, was developed in cooperation with the Museum, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, and the companies AppsFlyer and DISKIN.

"Participating in the NCSS conference provides an opportunity to introduce teachers and educators from across the United States to technology that allows local youth to work with the difficult history of the Shoah, which may seem remote due to geographical distance. Reflecting on the mechanisms of hatred and dehumanization, which Auschwitz symbolizes, remains disturbingly relevant today," said Wojciech Soczewica.

"One of the tasks of memorial sites is to find new ways of communication, reaching broader social groups and engagingly conveying knowledge of the past. Therefore, the platform 'Auschwitz. In Front of your Eyes' can play a pivotal role in building awareness among American students about the processes that led to the crimes at Auschwitz," he added.

More information about the online tour can be found here. Schools and educational institutions interested in incorporating the online tour into their programs are encouraged to contact via email: education@fab.org.pl

A panel discussion titled "What Auschwitz Can Teach Us Today: Holocaust Memory and Its Implications for Future Education" also took place at the NCSS conference.

Participants included Jenn Goss from Echoes and Reflections, an organization that collaborates with 145,000 teachers and educators in the USA; Jeremy Nesoff, director at the Boston-based organization Facing History and Ourselves, which prepares educational materials for teachers; Auschwitz Museum Director Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński; and Theodore Kempinski. The discussion was moderated by Wojciech Soczewica, the general director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation.

Founded in 1921, the National Council for the Social Studies is the largest professional association in the USA dedicated solely to social science education. NCSS supports teachers in strengthening and promoting social sciences.

On 1 October in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland in Warsaw, the 14th session of the International Committee of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation took place, with representatives from countries supporting the Foundation's efforts to preserve the Auschwitz Memorial Site. Besides matters related to the conservation of the Memorial, an important topic of discussion was the upcoming 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Opening the session, the Chairman of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation Council, Marek Zając, thanked Minister Grzegorz Karpiński for allowing the International Committee meetings to return to the Chancellery of the Prime Minister. He then addressed all Committee members: “We all realize how important it is to preserve the traces of this tragic history. Conservation at the Memorial and all related work have been and are a great challenge. It's work that requires immense dedication.”

"The 80th anniversary of the liberation of KL Auschwitz is approaching. With each passing year, there are fewer survivors with us. We must do everything to ensure their voices resonate powerfully on this day, worldwide. We must prevent the world from re-adopting the catastrophe of hatred. This is our common goal, our common duty, and our shared task,” added Zając.

The President of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation and Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński, emphasized the significance of the Foundation's support for preserving the authenticity of the Memorial: "Last year, the Foundation contributed a record twenty-seven million zlotys for conservation works, and the total support for the Museum since the beginning of the Foundation exceeded one hundred million zlotys at the start of this year."

Jolanta Banaś-Maciaszczyk, Head of Conservation at the Auschwitz Museum, presented information on 14 ongoing or recently completed conservation projects funded by the Foundation. These projects include the conservation of brick barracks, latrines, kitchen, disinfection station, and the ruins of crematoria and gas chambers at the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp, as well as the conservation of victims' objects, including thousands of shoes belonging to the youngest victims of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp. The conservation projects also cover the protection of historical greenery, water management at the site of Birkenau, and digital documentation of ongoing works.

"Standards and high quality of conservation work developed and applied by the Museum's conservators guarantee the longest possible preservation of historical objects at the Memorial," stated Rafał Pióro, deputy director of the Auschwitz Museum responsible for conservation, during the meeting.

General Director of the foundation, Wojciech Soczewica, emphasized that beyond its primary mission of financing conservation work, the Foundation is gradually developing support for educational activities, funded with additional resources beyond the Endowment Fund.

"The 'Auschwitz. In Front of your Eyes' platform, which allows live guided online visits at the Auschwitz Memorial—currently available in seven languages—was launched in January this year. More and more schools and institutions are starting to incorporate this form of education into their programs. For example, Leeds has allocated funds for students from all 44 public schools in this British city to visit the Auschwitz Museum online. We are also working on a general educational strategy for the Museum, and soon, we will also start a special training program for museum guides," said Wojciech Soczewica.

"The online visits project is particularly significant for us. We see interest in such a form of learning not only from schools and educational institutions but also from companies that want to incorporate reflection on dehumanization based on the history of Auschwitz into the ethical foundation of their organizations. We are also at the beginning of a completely new project, which is the creation of an art exhibition in the building of the former camp kitchen at Auschwitz I, featuring art created by prisoners in the camp and by Survivors after its liberation," added Director Cywiński.

Piotr Cywiński also spoke about the upcoming 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. This will probably be the last round anniversary with a large group of Auschwitz survivors present. Their words will be heard around the world, including by state delegations gathered in front of the main gate of the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp.

"The focus on that day will be on the Survivors. We do not yet know how many of them will be physically with us on January 27. I hope it will be several dozen. However, it should be emphasized that during the anniversary commemorations, there will be no political speeches," stressed Director Cywiński.

During the discussion at the Committee meeting, many questions were raised about the anniversary, and diplomats—informally so far—indicate the presence of many delegations at the highest possible level.

The main commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz will begin on January 27 at 4 p.m. in a special tent that will be erected over the gate to the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp. One of the symbols of the commemorations will be a freight train car of the type used by the Germans to deport Jews to extermination camps.

On 20 June at the Warsaw headquarters of KPMG, which has supported the Foundation’s activities from the start, the 19th session of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation Council took place.

The meeting was opened by the Council's Chairman Marek Zając, and attendees were welcomed by Andrzej Marczak, Head of Tax Advisory in Central and Eastern Europe at KPMG, and Łukasz Ziąbkowski, a key auditor at KPMG:‘

Charity is in our DNA and our values. Our pro bono activities have an educational dimension. We are very pleased that we can support the Foundation's activities with our professional knowledge,’ said Andrzej Marczak.

‘We strive to make our audits of the highest quality. We are happy with such long-term cooperation and hope it will continue,’ added Łukasz Ziąbkowski.

Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński, President of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation and Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, in his presentation highlighted: ‘In 2023, the Foundation contributed 27 million PLN to the Museum for conservation works. This is a record since the Endowment Fund began supporting the Museum’s activities in preserving the Memorial in 2012.’

‘We have achieved stability and created a special protective umbrella over the Museum. The Foundation carries the huge machinery of financing conservation on its shoulders,’ he added.

The Director also emphasized how important the Foundation's current activities and the development of the "Auschwitz. In Front of your Eyes" online live visits project are for educating about the history of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz.

‘We promised ourselves that once the Endowment Fund was established, we would also start supporting the Museum's educational mission. During the COVID pandemic, it was clear that we needed to move part of the narrative online. We started working with AppsFlyer to create a new type of tour. This led to the creation of a special platform for online visits, which we launched in January this year,’ said the Director, who also emphasized that the development of this project and its funding is secured for the future.

One of the key elements of the presentation was the upcoming 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, for which preparations began already in 2023.

‘We successfully resolved the tender for building the entire infrastructure. Both for the main tent, where the commemoration event will be held, and for the auxiliary tents and press tent. We also plan to set up a television studio, which will broadcast a special program for several hours before and after the event, which we will provide for free both via satellite and on the Internet. Previous anniversaries, the 70th and 75th, were watched by 500-700 million people worldwide,’ said Piotr Cywiński.

Director Cywiński also mentioned plans to create a new, immersive exhibition of camp art, which will be set up in the kitchen building of the former Auschwitz I camp.

Wojciech Soczewica, the General Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, said in his speech: ‘Most of the Foundation's diverse activities are being continued. We have been able to maintain the scholarship program for Ukrainian conservators, which was initially funded by the Foundation, then supported by the German government, and this year is supported by Taiwan.’

‘We are very grateful for the support related to the online visiting project that we received from Google and Orange. In connection with the development of educational projects supported by the Foundation, including online visiting, we plan to launch a special training program for Museum educators. We have also developed a new educational strategy for the Museum, which was financed by the Norwegian government,’ said Soczewica.

It should be emphasized that the funds for educational activities carried out by the Foundation do not come from the profits of the Endowment Fund, which exclusively supports conservation work.

The Endowment Fund created and managed by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation has been supported by nearly 40 countries. Its current value is over 180 million euros. Profits from the invested Fund are allocated for the conservation of the Auschwitz Memorial. At the beginning of this year, the Foundation's support for conservation work at the Memorial Site already exceeded 100 million PLN.

Jolanta Banaś-Maciaszczyk, head of Conservation at the Museum, presented current information in her presentation about the conservation of personal items belonging to Auschwitz victims – including children's shoes, as well as many works conducted on the site of the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp: securing the ruins of gas chambers and crematoria, historic brick and wooden buildings – primarily prisoner barracks, conservation of archives and items belonging to victims, conservation of metal from the so-called Canada warehouses, conservation of paint layers, and conservation of greenery.

During the meeting, the substantive report of the Foundation's work for 2023 was approved, as well as annual action plans and financial plans. Members of the Foundation Council also approved the financial statement for 2023, which according to an independent audit conducted by KPMG again raised no objections and presented a fair and transparent picture of expenditure and cash flow. The financial statements are fully compliant with all legal requirements.

Google is supporting the development of the project "Auschwitz. In Front of your Eyes." This will enable people worldwide to visit the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau online with a live guide. Thanks to a $1 million grant from Google.org, Google's non-profit organisation, the memorial will expand education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust worldwide and improve access for people with disabilities, people in remote areas and those who are unable to travel.

Google's support will contribute to the further development of the technological platform and its accessibility. This includes the introduction of live captioning, AI-assisted translation into multiple languages, and the digitisation of survivor testimonies used in the tours. In addition, the guides will receive comprehensive training and the reach of this unique form of visit will be expanded worldwide. This includes working with schools to improve access for students.

This builds on the long-standing partnership with Google, when the memorial and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, together with Google Arts & Culture, made important stories from Auschwitz and over 700 artefacts from their archives accessible online.

The "Auschwitz. In front of your eyes" project was developed over three years in cooperation between the museum, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation and companies such as AppsFlyer, DISKIN and Orange. Visitors have been able to use the platform since January this year.

On 13 May, a panel discussion was held in Warsaw with Rowan Barnett, Director of Google.org for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński, Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, and Wojciech Soczewica, Director General of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. Auschwitz survivor Bogdan Bartnikowski was present as a guest of honour.

"I am very pleased that the museum was able to launch this special programme. Three years ago, I witnessed its beginnings and was very excited to see how it would ultimately develop. It is extremely important that people from many countries and continents can see what Auschwitz looked like thanks to modern technology, without having to visit the museum," said Bogdan Bartnikowski.

Bogdan Bartnikowski emphasised the importance of authentic representation of the site and recalled a recent training session for museum guides, during which he told his story: "I must say that my frequent visits to the memorial have made me somewhat immune. You could say I've become accustomed to this place. But when I sat in front of a group of guides in the barracks where I was imprisoned, it was an overwhelming experience for me. I was able to show exactly where the three-tiered bunk bed I had slept in had stood, and there, on the other side, about two hundred young Jewish men were locked up in the middle of the barracks, presumably selected for further work in German industry and mining. And here, against the wall of the barracks, I saw a pile of corpses of murdered, tortured prisoners waiting to be cremated."

Participants in the meeting also had the opportunity to experience the "Auschwitz. In Front of your Eyes" platform in action during a live tour offered as part of the event.

"With the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz approaching, it is of utmost importance to give as many people as possible around the world the opportunity to learn about this place and its history. This is especially true given the difficult and unpredictable situation in our world today, with the outbreak of successive wars and increasing dehumanisation, terrorism and xenophobia. In these times, a heightened sense of responsibility is needed, which can best be developed on the basis of truth and remembrance," said Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński, Director of the Auschwitz Museum.

"The online tours of the Auschwitz Memorial arose from the need to provide access to all those who, for various reasons, cannot travel to the museum in person. This was a major challenge, including on a technological level. Google's decision to join this coalition and contribute its expertise to the development of technologies that expand access to the history of Auschwitz and the Holocaust is of immense importance," emphasised Wojciech Soczewica.

Making the history and experiences of Auschwitz accessible to all people worldwide is crucial to preserving the memory of the Holocaust. Technology can be a powerful tool for promoting education and remembrance. Our $1 million grant will enable the memorial and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum to expand their online tours to additional languages, improve accessibility, and digitise survivors' testimonies so that their stories can be told to future generations and never be forgotten," said Rowan Barnett, Director of Google.org for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

"The commitment of international organisations to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum is particularly valuable. Together, we are showing how to effectively strengthen the memory of history in order to counteract indifference or attempts to distort and instrumentalise history in the present," added Wojciech Soczewica.

The online tour of the memorial takes about two hours and is divided into two parts: Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The tour is broadcast live. In addition, multimedia materials, archive photos, works of art, documents and survivor testimonies are used. The app also allows users to interact with the tour and ask questions.