The former Kommand Post of the extermination camp at Belzec, in eastern Poland, will not now be included in a proposed auction on 22 June. The owners of the building, the Polish State railways, made the announcement in a statement: “Today, the auction for the sale of the building has been cancelled. The PKP [Polish Railways – ed] will develop a new concept for the use of the building in question, together with the Town Council of Belzec and the Museum of Majdanek”.

ANED, which only two days had launched an appeal to the EU to intervene with the Polish Government to stop the auction and to include the Kommand Post in UNESCO’s list of “World Heritage Sites” would like to express its complete satisfaction with this decision, which now means that the issue of what to do with the Kommand Post can be considered in a proper manner.

ANED would like to thank Federica Mogherini (High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy), the Union of Italian Jews, and many others – organisations, associations, private citizens and members of the Italian and European Parliaments – for having supported our demand for urgent action.

Naturally, this is only the first step: we will maintain a watchful eye on developments, offering our total backing to the Memorial at Belzec and that at Majdanek (on which the former depends), and to the memory of nearly half a million men, women and children (largely Jews) who met their deaths in the camp.