Auschwitz archives closed to prevent flooding damage

Flooding in southern Poland has killed at least five people, and officials closed the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial site on May 18 to protect its Holocaust archives and artifacts.

Heavy rains that began in central Europe last weekend also caused flooding in areas of Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, with rivers bursting their banks, inundating low-lying homes and roads and cutting off villages.

Thousands of people have been evacuated; in Poland nearly 2,000 were cleared from their homes. The flooding has so far claimed five victims, including one firefighter involved in the rescue efforts.

At Auschwitz-Birkenau, the former Nazi death camp that draws about a million visitors a year, authorities carried historical documents and some artifacts, including brushes and bowls that belonged to victims, to the upper floors of old barracks that are used to house exhibits, said spokesman Jaroslaw Mensfelt.

Mensfelt said the memorial site was closed to visitors, the first time that has happened due to the threat of floods. Waters were rising in two nearby rivers, the Vistula and the Sola. — jta