Poland Orders Police to Halt Construction of Auschwitz Mall

Poland has ordered the police to stop the renewed construction of a controversial mini-mall across the street from the Auschwitz death camp.

Both Jewish and Polish officials were “shocked” to learn this week that construction started up again on the project, said Israel Singer, secretary general of the World Jewish Congress.

Singer, who reported the federal orders, was meeting Monday in Washington with Marek Siwiec, secretary of the office of Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, when both men learned that construction of the mall had resumed.

The mini-mall, which was to house a supermarket, a home and garden center and a fast-food restaurant, among other businesses, had drawn condemnation worldwide from groups ranging from Jewish organizations to the European Parliament.

The developer, Janusz Marscalek, who had originally argued that the mall would create jobs in Oswiecim, the town of 45,000 where Auschwitz is located, said in April that all work on the project was halted and that it would not be resumed.

His remarks came after Polish officials, including the president, denounced the project.

Foreign Minister Dariusz Rosati, who spoke in April at the Polish Consulate in New York, had made it clear that a supermarket adjacent to Auschwitz would not see the light of day.

At the meeting Monday in Washington, Singer and Siwiec had been discussing restitution issues concerning Poland, said Singer, who is also the chairman of the executive of the World Jewish Restitution Organization.

Singer, who was back at his New York office Tuesday afternoon, said he had just received a telephone call from Siwiec, who read a statement to him from the president and the Polish Parliament on the shopping center.

The statement contained the information on the extended authority to the Polish police, Singer said.

In Washington, meanwhile, Rep. Dick Zimmer (R-N.J.) is expected to offer an amendment to the foreign aid bill putting Poland on notice that Congress opposes “all commercial construction at the site.”

The amendment, which is expected to be approved without significant opposition, also points out that Poland is due to receive about $70 million in U.S. aid this year.

Zimmer was one of dozens of lawmakers who earlier had protested construction on the shopping area.

During World War II, nearly 2 million people were murdered, 90 percent of them Jews, at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

“This is not a place for people to do anything they want,” Singer said Tuesday.