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Auschwitz Has Added You As a Friend

Concentration camp joins Facebook

by
Sara Ivry
October 15, 2009
(Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images))
(Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images))

Offiicials at the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum are trying to make it a little easier to never forget. They launched a Facebook page yesterday, which follows a YouTube channel earlier this year. “If our mission is to educate the younger generation to be responsible in the contemporary world, what better tool can we use to reach them than the tools they use themselves?” asked a museum spokesman, according to the BBC. And the Guardian reports that officials have been posting status updates—“65 years ago (on Oct 15, 1944) the number of female prisoners at Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau was 34317” reads one today—with factoids from a tragic history.

Right now accessing the page is proving impossible (and for those us who want to see it, incredibly frustrating); though it’s gained more than 1,300 fans since launching, the page has been temporarily disabled. But if you’re hellbent on finding out what kind of presence that particular concentration camp has on Facebook, know that the search term “Auschwitz” currently yields 699 unofficial pages.

Sara Ivry is the host of Vox Tablet, Tablet Magazine’s weekly podcast. Follow her on Twitter@saraivry.