THE DEN OF THE BEAST

Chronicle (Levin), 23 July 1947, Page 5

THE DEN OF THE BEAST

i Press Assn

By Telegraph

.-Copyright

Received Tuesday, 7.0 p.m. LONDON, July 22. TIio Poles liave converted Auschwitz. concentration camp into what tliey call "a imiseum of martyrology ", as a perinanent reminder oi horrors perpetrated there by the Germans and "as a reiuindtT oi' iiiunan degradation. " Tiie Ihili-s have reslored tlie electrified double barbed wire fences summndiiig tlie camp with ite vvatchtowers and have repaired the niess hails and camp building. The muscuiii is divided into French, Dutch, Belgian, Rumanian, Russian, Pobsh and ilungarian sections with a separate hali devoted to exhibits emphasising the suffering of the Jews. Among the many gruesome exhibits are a great pile of women 's hair which the Germans rcmoved from their victims before exeeution and sold for mattress packing, a huge pile of soldiers' boots and children 's shoes taken from those who died in.gas chambers, and -mixed heaps of belongings taken from pris,oners. There is also the exhibition of Geriuan documents showing the number who died m Auscliwitz, tlie work they did and the punishments to which they were subjeeted. Illustrations on one wall show German officers using the hanging corpses of women as targets while other prisoners are licking their boots or being trampled upon. When the musoum was recently opened, over 50,000 Poles, many oi' them foimer prisoners, visited the camp.