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Auschwitz plans put on display in Berlin

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-02-16 21:04

BERLIN -- Architectural plans for the Nazi death camp Auschwitz that were discovered in Berlin last year go on public display in the German capital on Tuesday.

In this Nov. 9, 2008 file picture, allegedly original construction plans of the Auschwitz concentration camp are seen in Berlin. Architectural plans for the Nazi death camp Auschwitz that were discovered in Berlin last year go on public display in the German capital on Tuesday Feb. 17, 2009. [Agencies]

The Axel Springer Verlag publishing company said Monday that it felt that it was its "duty" to put on display some of the 28 sketches that turned up in an apartment in November and ended up in its possession.

The documents, drawn on a scale of 1:100, show details for expanding the camp in Poland that include a crematorium and a gas chamber. They are dated between 1941 and 1943, and have been authenticated by Germany's federal archive, Axel Springer's Bild newspaper reported.

Other original plans for Auschwitz exist, but these are the first that are in Germany's possession, Bild reported.

"For the professional historian these documents bring an addition or two to their research; for the layman, they show how systematically the Nazi criminals went about murdering the European Jews," said Kai Diekmann, editor-in-chief of Bild.

The plans will be on display starting Tuesday at the publishing company's office in Berlin's Kreuzberg district through Feb. 27.

Following the exhibit, the company plans to pass the documents on for permanent display to a museum or an archive, but has not yet decided where.