A three-story house overlooking an Auschwitz gas chamber, formerly owned by the camp’s commander, Rudolf Hoss, has been purchased by the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) with the aim of opening it up to visitors, the New York Times revealed on Wednesday.
In addition to its historical significance, the house is famous for its prominence in the Oscar-winning 2023 film Zone of Interest.
CEP bought the house from Garzyna Jurczak, who raised her children there but who found living in it too challenging when people began peering into her windows following the release of the film.
The chief executive of CEP, Mark Wallace, a former US diplomat, declined to reveal the price the house was purchased for, saying only that he “wanted to do right” by Jurczak but “did not want to pay a big premium for a former Nazi property, even if we could.”
“Finally, we can open it to honor survivors and show this place of incredible evil,” Wallace added.
CEP is now preparing no.88 Legionow Street, situated outside the camp’s perimeter fence, for public visits as part of commemorations for the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Army’s liberation of Auschwitz.
The NYT added that as part of the preparations, workers had removed all post-war elements, leaving the house as it would have looked when the Hoss family lived there from 1941 to 1944.
CEP has, however, added a mezuzah to the front door in honor of Jewish tradition.
Several original items were found after the purchase of the property, including Nazi newspapers and an SS coffee mug. In the attic, workers found the striped trousers worn by Auschwitz inmates being used to fill up a hole.
NYT reported that researchers are trying to identify the trousers’ owner, using the faded prisoner number and the presence of a yellow triangle – indicating the owner was a Jew – to narrow down the search.
Plans for the property
Wallace added that CEP planned to convert the house and the one next door into the base of a new organization called ‘Auschwitz Research Center on Hate, Extremism, and Radicalization.’
Daniel Libeskind, an American architect, has been commissioned to redesign the property.
Libeskind told NYT that he envisages turning the interior of the house into “a void, an abyss,” but will leave the external walls untouched as a UNESCO preservation order protects them.
“A house is a house,” said Jaczek Pulski, who is involved in the project. “But it is in uninteresting, regular houses like this where extremism is happening today.”
Auschwitz director Piotr Cywinski said extremism is not a mental illness but “a method.”
Extremism can turn ordinary people into monsters, he added.
“Höss was a wonderful father to his kids and, at the same time, the main organizer of the most brutal killings in the history of the world.”
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