JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel pledged $1 million to help preserve Auschwitz.
The money will be given in two transfers over the next two years to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation.
Some $162 million is needed to create a perpetual fund to pay for ongoing maintenance work at the site of the former Nazi death camp in Poland. About two-thirds of the money already has been pledged, including $15 million from the United States, about $80 million from Germany and $13 million from Poland.
About 1 million people visit the site each year. There are 155 preserved buildings and 300 ruins on the 495-acre site, according to the French news service AFP.
Some 1.1 million people were killed at Auschwitz-Birkenau between 1940 and 1945, including 1 million Jews from throughout Europe.
