The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum has launched a Facebook web page, in the hope of raising awareness about the Holocaust among the tech-savvy younger generation.

Launched earlier this week, the website already has over 1,000 subscribers. The move comes just months after the museum opened a Youtube channel.

“Our aim is to teach the younger generation responsibility in the modern world, and what better way than to employ a tool they already use themselves?” the museum’s spokesman, Paweł Sawicki told the TVN 24 news channel in Poland.

The museum’s Polish and English-language Facebook website features news and information about the Auschwitz museum, links to videos posted on Youtube and to the museum’s official web site.

There is also a discussion board, the first topic of which is a debate about whether Auschwitz should be present online.

Museum spokesman Paweł Sawicki stresses that the aim of the initiative is to create a platform for debate, although the memory of the 1.1 million victims who died there, 90 percent of them Jewish, will not be allowed to be tarnished. “For now it is only an experiment. We’ll see how people react to it,” said Sawicki.

The website will be run by the museum’s press office, yet Internet users across the globe will be able to make contributions, by posting links and engaging in discussions moderated by the staff.  (pg/ab)

Related links:

Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum Facebook web page: http://www.facebook.com/auschwitzmemorial

Museum Youtube channel