The Counter Extremism Project has purchased the Auschwitz commander’s villa in Poland to transform it into a centre for research on extremism, education, and combating antisemitism.
During World War II, the building was owned by Rudolf Hoess, a high-ranking SS officer in Nazi Germany who served as the commandant of the German concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The centre will be named the Auschwitz Research Centre on Hate, Extremism, and Radicalisation (ARCHER).
“This will be a global institution,” Jacek Pruski, the head of the future centre, said on Wednesday. “We want to monitor online hate. We will combat radicalisation, research modern trends that threaten our security, and teach those influencing our security how to use this knowledge.”
UNESCO pledged to help with the ARCHER initiative. Audrey Azoulay, the UNESCO director-general, said that education on the matter and forwarding the knowledge to the younger generation is vital, given the declining number of Holocaust survivors.
The ARCHER initiative, which is currently “at the start of its road,” according to Pruski, will also receive support from the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“I cherish the hope that it will take months rather than years (for the institution to open – PAP), but we’re realistic about that – it won’t happen overnight,” Pruski told PAP. The building will include a museum, he added. Pruski emphasised that Hoess’s villa does not bear any historical importance.
On Monday, January 27, Poland and the world will commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Survivors of the camp will attend the commemoration ceremony and will have an opportunity to visit the villa while it is being transformed into an extremism research centre.
By PAP – Polish Press Agency