June 2, 2011
Sobibor museum closes due to lack of funds
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The museum at the Nazi death camp Sobibor closed due to a lack of funding.
The museum in Poland on the grounds of the death camp announced Thursday that it closed because the regional government did not provide enough funding to keep it open, the German press agency dpa reported.
About 20,000 people a year visited Sobibor. Some 250,000 people, mostly Jews, were killed there during the Holocaust.
The museum this year received less than half of the $360,000 it requires to remain open, according to reports.
Sobibor guard John Demjanjuk was convicted last month of being an accessory to more than 28,000 deaths at the camp.
“Holocaust survivors are aghast that the museum at Sobibor, the site of John Demjanjuk’s crimes, has closed because of insufficient funding by Polish state authorities,” Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, said in a statement.
“The demands of history and our obligation to the education of future generations must be respected so that this solemn place remains open. Whatever the price of memory, the cost of forgetfulness is so much greater.”
