On November 17, 2000, the Commission presented the English translation of a detailed account of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. The New York Times called the five volumes “the most complete and authoritative history of the vast killing center for the Nazi extermination of the Jews.”

Entitled Auschwitz: 1940-1945, an initial version of the books was published in Polish in 1995. The books were subsequently published in German.

Commission Chairman Warren L. Miller raised the funds for the English translation, which was published by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in cooperation with the Commission. The first three volumes of the treatise were dedicated to him.

Chairman Miller has said of the books, "This monumental work is the most extensive and well documented study in existence of the history of Auschwitz. It reflects years of meticulous research by the staff of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and broad international consultation and cooperation in the exchange of documents." The 1,799-page work contains several thousand footnotes, diagrams, photographs and copies of Nazi documents.

Auschwitz-Birkenau, located in southern Poland, was the largest Nazi concentration camp and the largest center for the mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust. Approximately 1.6 million people were murdered at Auschwitz, of which, it was estimated, up to 1.5 million were Jews.

Caption for the picture above: Presentation of Auschwitz: 1940-1945 to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Attending (from left) Museum Director Sara Bloomfield, then Chair of the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Council, Rabbi Irving Greenberg, Chair Emeritus of the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Council Miles Lerman, Member of the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, Warren L. Miller, and then Commission Chairman Michael Lewan, in Washington, D.C. on November 17, 2000.

In the Media

• Keeping Memories Alive, GWU Magazine, Aug. 2001
• Auschwitz Revisited: The Fullest Picture, New York Times, Jan. 28, 2001