On
May 14, 2012, the Canadian government announced that it is supporting
Holocaust education, research and remembrance by announcing a
$400,000 grant to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation in Poland. Prime
Minister Stephen Harper made this announcement during the visit of
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to Canada.
The
press release said that “Canada’s support for the Memorial Site
will help with the conservation of the buildings, grounds, and the
thousands of historical objects that are endangered by erosion and
deterioration. The memorial is almost 200 hectares, and includes 155
buildings, 300 ruins, including those of the gas chambers and
crematoria, over 100,000 personal items that belonged to the people
who were killed, archival documents, and works of art by prisoners.
The Auschwitz death camp is the only place of its kind entered on the
UNESCO World Heritage List, and more than 1.3 million people from all
over the world visit the site every year.
The
Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation is a Polish non-governmental
organization that seeks to preserve the former Nazi concentration and
extermination camp by raising €120 million for the Perpetual Fund,
whose sole purpose is to cover the conservation costs of the
Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Site. The Foundation was created in
January 2009 by Professor Władysław Bartoszewski, a former
Auschwitz prisoner and current chairman of the Auschwitz Council”.
To do more reading about the Polish people in Canada, here are some websites which may interest you -
Poles
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/022/022-905.007-e.html
Dominik Barcz was the first Polish person in Canada, and he came in
1752. Read about the impact the Polish people have had on the history
of the country.
Resources
for Polish-American and Polish-Canadian Genealogical Research
www.tc.umn.edu/~brand050/books/bookpolish.htm
Ed Brant gives the researcher a overview of books and articles.
Polish
Canadians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Canadians Gives a
brief history of the Polish people in Canada, and a long list of
notable Polish Canadians.
Wilno
www.wilno.com Visit
Canada's oldest Polish community, Wilno, located in Eastern Ontario, having
been settled in the 1800s.
