A Jewish pavilion was scheduled to be inaugurated today at the site of Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp where 3.5 million Jews perished in the Holocaust. It will be part of the national museum that Auschwitz has become and the Polish authorities have attached a great deal of importance to the opening of the pavilion more than 30 years after Auschwitz was liberated at the end of World War II.
According to Nahum Goldmann, former president of the World Jewish Congress, who arrived in Warsaw yesterday at the head of a delegation representing world Jewry, the Polish government is interested in improving its image in the eyes of Jews generally, specifically the influential American Jewish community, and possibly also the people of Israel.
The delegations from nine countries attending the inaugural include one from Israel headed by Gideon Hausner, director of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem and Stefan Grayek, chairman of the Organization of Jewish Partisans and Ghetto Fighters. The Yad Vashem and the Ghetto Fighters Museum in Israel were invited by the Polish government to help prepare the pavilion and select its contents.
There is also a small delegation representing Soviet Jewry, consisting of the president of the Jewish community of Moscow and his deputy. According to reports from Warsaw, they are keeping to themselves to avoid any political discussions.
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