IN-PERSON Barcelona. Section B

Abstract

At its founding in 1945, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) aimed to advance peace and human rights by facilitating dialogue among nations. As part of this effort, UNESCO in the 1970s established a list of World Heritage sites. Countries could nominate their own cultural or natural sites, and an international committee decided whether the sites were indeed of universal significance and of “outstanding value to humanity.” Most of the chosen sites display great natural beauty or signify a remarkable and inspiring accomplishment of humanity. But in 1979, its second year, the committee accepted Poland’s nomination of Auschwitz Concentration Camp as a World Heritage site. The acceptance came with a caveat: the committee entered Auschwitz on the World Heritage List as a “unique site” and restricted “the inscription of other sites of a similar nature.” This paper examines Auschwitz as a complicated World Heritage site, one that was preserved for its “negative historical value” and that was designated as both unique and representative. The paper examines the site in light of historical and ongoing debates over how best to understand and commemorate the Holocaust.