The former sanatorium and nursing home should “under no circumstances be demolished,” according to a statement by the organization, which is committed to dignified commemoration of all groups of victims.
The Auschwitz Committee in the Federal Republic of Germany e. V. joins the demands of the medical ethicist Andreas Frewer and campaigns for the “as far as possible preservation” of the historical sanatorium and nursing home (HuPfla) in Erlangen. This “unique ‘victim site’ must under no circumstances be demolished,” says a statement by the organization, which is committed to raising awareness of the crimes of National Socialism in memory of those murdered in Auschwitz: “It is particularly important to us dignified commemoration of all groups of victims,” explains the Auschwitz Committee. In this effort, the importance of original buildings “cannot be overestimated because they have a special emotional quality”.
The “national media” drew attention to the “ongoing dispute over the preservation of the last building of the former sanatorium and nursing home”. This was initially to give way completely to a Max Planck Center, but a “compromise” three years ago ensured that a part of the building would remain where Nazi medical crimes would be documented in the future. The city and the University of Erlangen argue that a “core” of the now remaining building “with appendices in the east and west wings” should be preserved “in a paradigmatic way”. According to the medical ethicist Frewer, however, the actual “victim place” in which sick people were starved to death almost completely destroyed.
Recently, several organizations including “Doctors for Peace and Social Responsibility”, calling for an immediate halt to the demolition work. The Auschwitz Committee now agrees. With increasing distance to the time of National Socialism, the importance of original buildings becomes more and more important, so it is “particularly important to preserve visible traces of National Socialist crimes and to appreciate and use the authentic place as a ‘historical monument’,” says in the explanation. Susanne Kondoch-Klockow, chairwoman of the committee, explained in the SZ interview that it must be possible “to change construction plans and to reconcile tasks architecturally”.