Museum spokesperson Bartosz Bartyzel told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) on Sunday that "every object and document has immense significance for us and should find its place in the museum’s collections and archives."
He stressed that such items can only be properly preserved, researched and displayed within the institution, adding that the museum continually monitors attempts to trade in objects connected with the former camp.
In a post published on X earlier on Sunday, the museum reminded the public that the Auschwitz Memorial encompasses not only the site itself but also documents and personal belongings tied to the history of the Nazi German camp and its victims.
With the number of survivors dwindling, the museum warned that "memory is not given once and for all" and must be safeguarded through what remains.
The Felzmann auction house in Neuss, western Germany, had been due to begin selling a private collection on Monday that reportedly included documents and items linked to victims of Nazi German persecution.
The planned sale drew strong criticism from the International Auschwitz Committee and from Polish officials.
Presidential spokesperson Rafał Leśkiewicz said President Karol Nawrocki had urged the government to demand the return of the items – or, if necessary, purchase them to bring them back to Poland.
Polish Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Radosław Sikorski said on Sunday that all artefacts connected to the auction had disappeared from the auction house’s website.
He noted that Jan Tombiński, head of the Polish embassy in Germany, had been intervening for several days, and that he had discussed the matter with his German counterpart, Johann Wadephul.
Both ministers agreed that such a sale should be prevented.
Polish Culture Minister Marta Cienkowska later announced that her ministry would investigate the provenance of the items and seek their return where justified.
According to Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the auction catalogue listed 623 objects.
They included a letter from an Auschwitz prisoner with an early camp number addressed to Kraków, with an opening price of EUR 500, a Dachau medical report concerning the forced sterilisation of an inmate (EUR 400), and a Gestapo registry card detailing the execution of a Jewish prisoner in the Mackheim ghetto in July 1942 (EUR 350).
Other items included an antisemitic propaganda poster and a Jewish star from the Buchenwald concentration camp.
(ał)
Source: PAP
Click on the audio player above for a report by Agnieszka Bielawska.