Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Auschwitz Removes Controversial Showers as Temperature Dips

Mist sprinklers installed at the site of the former Nazi concentration camp complex Auschwitz-Birkenau that sparked controversy were removed.

Administrators of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum told the Hebrew-language Nana10 website on Wednesday that they were removing the sprinklers, which resemble shower heads, because they were no longer needed following a drop in temperature.

Many visitors and people who saw photos of the sprinklers complained that they were reminiscent of the showers seen in gas chambers at the death camp.

In a statement posted Sunday on Facebook, the museum said it had installed the sprinklers to help visitors deal with extremely high temperatures.

“Among visitors there are many people who come from countries where such high temperatures as we have this summer in Poland do not occur,” the post read. “Something had to be done, as we have noticed cases of fainting among people and other dangerous situations.”

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.