Link to the original article in the Australian

A PRIVATE ceremony at Auschwitz honouring the father of Australian tycoon Frank Lowy has triggered controversy in Israel for being a semi-private function at a site dedicated to the memory of the 1.6 million people murdered at the Polish concentration camp. The ceremony was a secret until it was inadvertently revealed by former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, a friend of Mr Lowy who was to have been the principal speaker, the newspaper Haaretz reported yesterday.

Mr Olmert cancelled his participation a day before Thursday's ceremony to fly to Israel to respond to a corruption probe. Participants in the event were asked by the organisers not to reveal its existence to the media. The ceremony was organised by the Keren Hayesod United Israel Appeal, which raises funds abroad to support projects in Israel. A central feature of the event was the dedication of a freight car used in the transportation of Jews from around Europe to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. Attached to the car was a sign that read: "The train car was donated and restored by the sons of Hugo Lowy, who was put to death here in May, 1944".

Frank Lowy paid the organisers E100,000 to find a freight car used in the transport of Jews to the death camp, the report said. Israeli journalist Micha Limor, who conducted the search, found the car in the village of Wessum near the Dutch border. It belonged to a German doctor who had purchased it from the British army 20 years before. The doctor, Ronald Hauser, presented the car as a gift and two German artists volunteered to restore it.

Limor boycotted last week's ceremony, saying he had not known that the memorial project would be a private affair closed to the public. "I went to locate an authentic freight car out of the feeling that this was a public mission that would confirm the story of the Holocaust," he said.

The Auschwitz memorial site had for years refused to display any item not found in the death camp on the day of its liberation in January 1945 for fear that the camp's authenticity would be compromised, making the site vulnerable to Holocaust deniers.

Explaining the change in policy regarding the freight car, the site's director, Piotr Cywinski, wrote: "Today, when we have gone a long way from the days of the Second World War, youths have difficulty imagining the hell of the transports, which sometimes took many days in a crowded freight car. The possibility of exhibiting a car like this is extremely important from the educational point of view."

The site management deviated from its policy of not singling out individuals for memorialisation but insisted that the explanatory sign also include reference to the hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews brought on the transports to be murdered in gas chambers.Mr Lowy was not available for comment yesterday.

Outstanding issues

International Business Times
http://www.ibtimes.com.au/articles/20081110/germany-seeking-nazi-suspects-extradition.htm
Polish concentration camp.

Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/books/book-reviews/brutal-exploration-of-the-souls-darkest-corners/2009/02/27/1235237908406.html
the death camps of Poland, particularly Auschwitz

Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25174849-2703,00.html
Polish death camps

Trends News
http://en.trend.az/news/world/israel/1459090.html
Poland's Sobibor Nazi death camp.

Morning Bulletin
http://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/story/2009/08/08/the-rocky-man-who-took-on-the-nazis/
Stalag Luft 3, the Polish camp

Brisbane Times
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/entertainment/wednesday-tv-white-collar-20091123-iuu2.html
the notorious Polish death camp Auschwitz