1.43 million visit Auschwitz in 2012

The Auschwitz Museum says 1.43 million people passed through the gates at the site, an increase from 2011, when 1.38 million people visited.

The country from where the greatest number visited was Poland (446,000) then Britain (149,00) and United States (97,000).

Sixty eight thousand came from Israel and 74,000 from Germany.

“The largest increase, compared to 2011, was from Canada, with 25,000 visiting, a rise of 200 percent,” said deputy director of the Auschwitz Museum, Andrzej Kacorzyk.

“On the other hand, the number of school children from Poland decreased by 25 percent. This is the direct result of changes made to the history curriculum in Polish schools,” he added.

An estimated 1.1 million people, mostly Jews but also Poles, Roma Gypsies and others, died in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp during WW II at the hands of the occupying Nazis.(pg)