(JTA) — The state-run Auschwitz Memorial Museum in Poland launched its official page on Facebook.
By Thursday, less than a week after the page debuted on the popular social networking Web site, the Auschwitz page had more than 1,400 members. The page was launched to reach out to a broader, younger public.
"Auschwitz Memorial is experimenting with new ways of reaching and educating people — such as Facebook," a note on the page said. "There are many contemporary issues connected with historical memory and there are contemporary problems that we must solve now, after 65 years. The question is, should Auschwitz Memorial, as an institution, be closed for such new possibilities as Facebook with millions of people?"
This year, more than 1 million people have visited the Auschwitz Memorial Museum, located at the site of the Nazi death camp in southern Poland.
The Facebook page includes information on Auschwitz and provides a forum to post discussions, photographs and Web links. The memorial museum already has a Web site and a YouTube channel.
Several other pages on Facebook are devoted to Auschwitz and Holocaust memory.
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