The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation is proud to support the ongoing preservation and conservation efforts at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland—ensuring that the world’s most powerful site of Holocaust remembrance remains intact for future generations.

Our work includes direct financial support for the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation’s Perpetual Endowment Fund and fundraising for new preservation and educational initiatives developed in partnership with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum.

Why Preservation Matters

The Auschwitz-Birkenau site is the largest and most recognized symbol of the Holocaust. It is also one of the most fragile. More than 150 original buildings, 300 ruins—including the gas chambers and crematoria at Birkenau—13 kilometers of fencing, 3,600 concrete posts, railway tracks, sewage systems, and reservoirs stretch across 200 hectares. Time, weather, and the sheer scale of the site make preservation a constant and complex undertaking.

The Museum’s Preservation Department leads this work. It is one of the most advanced conservation units in the world, with state-of-the-art labs and a team of specialists in architecture, conservation science, and historical preservation. Every detail matters—from stabilizing original barracks and fences to maintaining fire prevention reservoirs and historic vegetation, including 20 hectares of woods.

The Endowment Fund

ABMF is the U.S. partner of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation (based in Warsaw), which established a Perpetual Endowment Fund to ensure the long-term care of the Memorial. The Fund is supported by 36 national governments, alongside private donors, institutions, and foundations. Income generated by the Fund allows for consistent, long-term conservation planning—regardless of economic or political changes in the future.

Preserving Every Object, Every Story

Conservation work at Auschwitz-Birkenau also includes thousands of personal artifacts and archival documents. These are preserved with deep care and the latest methods, always aiming to maintain as much of the original material as possible:

• 110,000 shoes
• 3,800 suitcases
• 12,000 pots and pans
• 40 kg of eyeglasses
• 470 prosthetic limbs
• 570 pieces of camp clothing
• 4,500 works of art

Additionally, the Museum preserves all the documents in The Museum’s Archives:

• 250 meters of documents
• 48 volumes of camp death records
• 248 volumes from the SS Central Construction Office
• 64 volumes from the SS Hygiene Institute
• 16 volumes of prisoner files
• 8,000 pieces of correspondence from the camp

Conservation teams document every phase of their work—through detailed photography, material analysis, and written records—so that all interventions are traceable, transparent, and, when possible, reversible.