MOSCOW, September 29 (RIA Novosti) – Vatican has pledged 100,000 euros ($125,000) to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, which aims to preserve the authentic remains of Auschwitz, the notorious Nazi death camp in Poland, AFP reports.
“Given our limited resources, the amount is small. But it is an expression of our full support for the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation”, said Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, as quoted by AFP.
So far, 31 states donated to the foundation, which has by now received 102 million euros. More than half of this sum – 60 million euros – was donated by the German government, AFP said.
The concentration camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau is the remaining symbol of Nazi Germany’s genocide of European Jews. Between 1940 and 1945, one million Jews were killed at the camp; more than 100,000 other people, including Soviet prisoners of war, Roma, Poles, and other “undesirable” groups according to the Nazis were killed in Auschwitz, the BBC said.
