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.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO