Poland hopes to build replica of Nazi camp

A region of southern Poland plans to construct a facsimile of a Nazi concentration camp. The Debica regional authorities want to make the camp for educational and commemorative purposes, according to the English-language service of Polish Radio, a public broadcaster.

The camp would be near Pustkow, where 15,000 people, including 3,000 Jews, were murdered by the Nazis during World War II. According to Polish Radio, the camp would have prisoner barracks and barbed wire. It would not be far from a memorial to the Pustkow camp victims. Debica would receive European Union funds to build the camp.

Piotr Kadlcik, chairman of the Union of Religious Jewish Communities in Poland, told JTA the Debica initiative was "weird." He was skeptical that the camp planners would do the "proper scientific research" or " have an idea of what kind of message to send ... It's like building an attraction, like a scare house, the kind at a carnival where people pay to get scared out of their minds. This is not a good idea." — jta