The Polish government wants to change the official name of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp on the UNESCO world heritage registry to emphasize that it was run by German Nazis, reports the Associated Press.
The government, led by the Law and Justice Party, requested that the official UN-listed name be changed from “Auschwitz Concentration Camp” to the “Former Nazi German Concentration Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.”
According to news reports, Polish officials are frustrated with hearing references in the media to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp as a "Polish concentration camp".
The site of Auschwitz-Birkenau has undergone a major change since the fall of the Berlin Wall - during the Communist era, foreign visitors were often shocked by the presentations, which glorified the role of the Soviet Army and concentrated heavily on the confrontation between Fascism and Communism.
The plight of the some one million and a half Jews who were murdered there was not heavily highlighted, although since 1989 the various exhibitions and presentations at the Auschwite-Birkenau complex now make it quite clear to visitors.
The conservative and Catholic “Law and Justice Party” currently forms the Polish government - the Polish Present Lech Kaczyński and the Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz are both members.
