As the area suffered from severe heat, the site’s managers set up misting showers to keep visitors cool as temperatures soared well into the 90s. I told her: “‘With all due respect it reminds me of the gas chambers, ‘ she told me she was very sorry”, Bolka told the online English-language Israeli news website Ynetnews.
Advertisement
After an outcry on social media networks, the Auschwitz museum management said it had not meant to hurt the feelings of visitors and that the placement of the showers would be reassessed going forward.
“The Jerusalem Post” reported that one Israeli visitor referred to the sprinklers as a “Holocaust gimmick”.
“Because of the extreme heat wave we have experienced in August in Poland, mist sprinklers which cool the air were placed near the entrance to the Museum”, the Auschwitz Museum wrote. He said the museum had to do all in its power to “minimize health risks”. “We’ve seen people pass out before while waiting in line”, Sawicki said.
Some visitors, however, have expressed outrage, immediately drawing parallels between the installation and the mock “shower” chambers which were used to lethally gas some of the Jews, Polish and Soviet political prisoners, Romani, and other “undesirables” killed there during the Holocaust between 1940 and 1945-in total, over a million. “Zyklon B was dropped inside the gas chambers in a completely different way – through holes in the ceiling or airtight drops in walls”.
In 1947, only a few years after the end of World War II, the land and its structures were repurposed to serve as a memorial to those who suffered and perished under Nazi doctrines. More than a million people have visited the Auschwitz memorial since the beginning of 2015.
Mist showers have reportedly been installed at the death camp’s entrance to help tourists battle the high summer temperatures in Poland, where Auschwitz is located.
Advertisement
“I think this is a well-intended gesture toward visitors, who even in this heat choose to come to the memorial site”, Heubner said.
