Rare Auschwitz drawings presented to Netanyahu as he meets German leader in Berlin

Rare Auschwitz drawings presented to Netanyahu as he meets German leader in Berlin

Architectural plans for the Auschwitz death camp discovered last year have been presented to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to Berlin.

The 29 sketches of the camp, which was built in Nazi-occupied Poland, date back to 1941, and include detailed blueprints for living barracks, delousing facilities and crematoria, including gas chambers.

The plans, which are signed by the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, and Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoess, are to be displayed at Israel's official Holocaust memorial.

Memorial chairman Avner Shalev said: 'This set is a very early one, which was found here in Berlin, from the autumn of '41.

'It brings a better understanding of the whole process, and the intention of the planners of the complex, and from this perspective it is important.'

He said they will be put on display at Yad Vashem on January 27, 2010, as part of a special exhibition to mark the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

More than 1 million people, mostly Jews, died in the gas chambers or through forced labor, disease or starvation at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, which the Nazis built after occupying Poland.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1209409/Rare-Auschwitz-drawings-presented-Netanyahu-meets-German-leader-Berlin.html

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