Financial Support for the Museum

The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum is financed by the Polish government budget, which bore for over 40 years the entire financial burden for the upkeep and preservation of the camp.

This situation changed to some extent when outside aid appeared in the early 1990s.
The International Auschwitz Council, founded in 1990, offered the Museum its experience, organizational skills, and advice in opening the way for broader international contacts, especially with similar museums in the United States and Israel.

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp Victims Memorial Foundation, also established in 1990, has been concerned primarily with raising additional funds to augment the government appropriations.

The Lauder Foundation of New York has extended substantial aid. Experts commissioned by the Lauder Foundation prepared reports on the technical condition of the camp and proposals for the extent, methods, and costs of preservation. Thanks to the work of the Lauder Foundation, interest has grown around the world in the funding of Auschwitz preservation. Acting in cooperation with representatives of the Polish government, the International Auschwitz Council, and the Museum administration, Ronald Lauder and Kalman Sultanik have carried on talks in many countries that have yielded significant results. The largest sums have been approved and implemented by the German Federal government and the governments of the German Lands. Aid has also come from the governments of Greece and Belgium, the American Holocaust Council, institutions, and private donors. Nord Deutsche Rundfunk organized a valuable drive that raised approximately two million DM in contributions from the German public. These funds made it possible to develop a preservation plan for the most important buildings and other objects at the site of the camp.