The U.S. State Department, working with Congress, is slated to send $2 million to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation to “preserve the Auschwitz and Birkenau Memorial and Museum so future generations never forget, and to further efforts to combat contemporary forms of anti-Semitism,” announced U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday.
Between 2013 and 2018, the United States sent $15 million to support the foundation.
“The United States encourages other nations to join us in supporting the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. We firmly believe it is humanity’s duty to honor Holocaust survivors, guard the memory of Holocaust victims and all other victims of Nazi persecution, and fight back against anti-Semitism, and attempts to ignore and revise history,” said Pompeo. “We urge all to take active steps to make sure the horrors of the Holocaust are not repeated and future crimes against humanity are prevented.”
Additionally, the U.K. government also announced a similar pledge, saying it would provide £1 million funding to the foundation.
The announcement came on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is marked annually on Jan. 27, to commemorate the 11 million people who perished in the Holocaust, 6 million of whom were Jews.
Last week marked a commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, where at least 1.1 million people were killed, most of whom were Jews.
