UW Gazette, April 16, 1997
     
     from the UW news bureau
     
     A proposal to reconstruct the state museum Auschwitz-
Birkenau in Poland was unveiled recently by a research team
involving architecture faculty, students and alumni from
the University of Waterloo and Clark University in the
United States.
     The state museum will commemorate the deaths of more
than 100,000 Poles and over one million Jews at the Nazi
concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau.
     Last month, two internationally recognized experts, UW
professor Robert Jan van Pelt, cultural history and
architecture, and Deborah Dwork, Holocaust history at Clark
University, presented a Strategy For the Reconstruction of
the State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau to Poland's president,
Aleksander Kwasniewski, senior government officials,
provincial authorities and local authorities in Oswiecim
(Auschwitz), among others.
     At the meeting, a tentative agreement was reached to
jointly develop a master plan for the future of Auschwitz
by December 1998. It is expected that van Pelt, Dwork and
the UW research team will play a decisive role in the
creation of the master plan.
     The strategy proposal was developed by a collaborative
of professors, students and alumni of UW's School of
Architecture in conjunction with the Centre for Holocaust
Study at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.
     The UW-Clark proposal was commisioned by Miles Lerman,
chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, on behalf
of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors, American
Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League, Ronald S. Lauder
Foundation, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, World Jewish
Congress, as well as Yad Vashem and the Centre of
Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel.
     
     Background: In the summer of 1996, the newly elected
president of Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski, presented a
plan for growth and development of the town of Oswiecim
(Auschwitz) and the surrounding area to Miles Lerman,
chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.
     Poles and Jews have long held conflicting views about
the significance of the death camp of Auschwitz and about
the most appropriate way to commemorate the murder of more
than 100,000 Poles and over one million Jews at that site.
The aim of Kwasniewski's proposal was to resolve tensions
between Poles and Jews and provide a framework for the
future development of the site that would be acceptable to
both parties.
     Lerman convened a committee of the Jewish
organizations with the greatest stake in the future of
Auschwitz: the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors,
American Jewish Committee, Anti-defamation League, Ronald
S. Lauder Foundation, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, World
Jewish Congress, and Yad Vashem in Israel. For expert
advice, the committee and Lerman turned to University of
Waterloo Prof. Robert Jan van Pelt and Clark University
Prof. Deborah Dwork. Van Pelt and Dwork, the authors of the
multiple award-winning study Auschwitz: 1270 to the Present
(W. W. Norton, 1966), are internationally recognized
experts in this area.
     In conjunction with UW Prof. Valerio Rynnimeri, they
drafted a counterproposal, Preliminary Proposal for the
Conceptual Master Plan for the State Museum Auschwitz-
Birkenau, which was incorporated in a 12-point response
submitted by Lerman to President Kwasniewski in November
1996.
     The response called for the creation of a Master Plan
for the State-Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau, emphasizing
that the van Pelt/Dwork/Rynnimeri proposal "incorporates
essential elements for a future proposal and could serve as
a fruitful basis for discussions."
     Profs. van Pelt, Dwork and Rynnimeri asked their
colleagues, UW Profs. Donald McKay and Dereck Revington, to
join them as partners in a collaborative to prepare a more
detailed version of the preliminary proposal. The design
team, located at UW's School of Architecture and operating
in collaboration with the Centre for Holocaust Study at
Clark University, also included Omer Arbel, Douglas
Birkenshaw, Paul Blaser, Jed Braithwaite, Andrew Chatham,
Margaret Graham, Ariella Kanner, Beth Kapusta, Neil Kaye,
Katherine Ann Mullin, Jeffry Pidsany and Geoffrey Thun.
     The collaborative analysed current problems of urban
encroachment on the historic sites of the death camps of
Auschwitz and Birkenau, archeology and ecology of the
sites, existing and desirable infrastructures, as well as
zoning of the area and urban context. The Strategy For the
Reconstruction of the State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau pro
posed:
     ù To unify Auschwitz and Birkenau in one musuem
district with clearly defined boundaries to ensure the
continued preservation of both camps amid a dynamically
growing community;
     ù To erect a new visitor reception centre halfway
between Auschwitz and Birkenau, which would present both
camps as sites equally worthy of pilgrimage;
     ù To create a new approach from the visitor centre to
the camp at Auschwitz and the camp at Birkenau;
     ù To develop the economic and tourist infrastructure of
the communities of Oswiecim (Auschwitz) and Brzezinka
(Birkenau) to ensure successful management of increased
tourism.
     As well, the strategy included: two posters showing
four analytical plans, the conceptual urban plan and four
images of the new visitor reception centre; one site model
of the area surrounding the proposed visitor centre; and a
report explaining the reasons for the proposed development.
     The strategy was the focus of intensive discussions
held at the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, the Presidential Palace
in Warsaw and the House of Culture in Oswiecim. The profes
sional and scholarly quality of the strategy helped to set
the agenda for negotiations between Lerman and his
delegations and his Polish partners, resulting in a
tentative agreement to develop a joint Master Plan based on
President Kwasniewski's proposal and the UW/Clark Strategy
For the Reconstruction of the State Museum Auschwitz-
Birkenau.