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© RIA Novosti / Anton Denisov
WARSAW, August 6 — RIA Novosti. The Minister of foreign Affairs of Poland Witold Waszczykowski believes that the responsibility for non-admission of Russia to participate in the project on updating of a Museum — place of memory “Sobibor” in Poland is not only Warsaw.
The death camp at Sobibor operated from March 1942 until the end of 1943. According to the latest historians, the Nazis killed here about 170 thousand Jews from Poland and other European countries, previous estimates said about 250 thousand victims. The Russian side was invited to join a project to upgrade the Museum — the memorial place Sobibor in 2013. The project, initiated by Poland, Israel, the Netherlands and Slovakia, involves the construction of a new memorial, Museum facilities, the creation of appropriate infrastructure. However, in July received an official message from Warsaw that held 12-13 June meeting of the International steering Committee of the project it was decided to continue cooperation in the same composition.
The Russian foreign Ministry expressed its disappointment with this decision and called the denial of Russia to participate in the project “immoral from the point of view of historical truth.”
“Sobibor is an international issue. It depends not only on Poland, because there is an international Committee that manages the Sobibor, and it’s not just the responsibility of Poland. So Russia needs to ask all other countries that are engaged in Sobibor,” Waszczykowski said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
“If I’m not mistaken, in 2014, we have invited Russia to participate in its restoration, but the decision is the responsibility of the international Council,” he added.
Earlier, the press Secretary of the Museum of memory of victims of the Nazi concentration camp Majdanek Agency Kowalczyk-Nowak told RIA Novosti that the archaeological work at the former concentration camp Sobibor was held in 2000. Was found in a total of about thousands of different items, including many things that belonged to people brought here, in particular keys, thimbles, glasses, spoons, cigarette cases, shaving machines. Some items are produced in the Netherlands or France, which indicates the country where the camp took people. Found items showing that the camp got children, for example, a brooch with Mickey mouse and two metal pendants with names and dates of birth of children of Lea Judith de La Penha 11 may 1937 and Didier Zach on February 23, 1935.
In the fall of 2014 as a result of archaeological works on the territory of the former concentration camp was discovered, the foundations of the gas chambers. It was assumed that they had to glaze and presented in the new Museum.