One of UK's major museums has come under attack for allowing a German company connected to the Nazi death camps to fund a major international conference. The Imperial War Museum in London wants to hold a three-day 'Beyond Camps and Forced Labor' seminar in January 2009, which will bring together academics studying the effects of Nazi atrocities on survivors. However, a Holocaust survivor told the 'Jewish Chronicle' that it was wrong for the museum to accept funding from Degussa, whose original parent company, Degesch, produced the Zyklon B gas used by the Nazis to kill Jews. Degussa also extracted and smelted gold teeth from camp victims.
A spokeswoman for the museum said accepting the funding, whose figure is unknown, was “legitimate”. Organizers of the conference include Jewish historian David Cesarani and Suzanne Bardgett, who oversees the museum's permanent holocaust exhibition. In 2004, Degussa pulled out of a contract to provide graffiti-proofing chemicals for Berlin's Holocaust memorial. Evonik Industries, Degussa's current parent company, said it accepted responsibility for events in its past and wanted to support the conference, to raise awareness that “the Holocaust did not end with the liberation of those who survived” and has had a severe impact on subsequent generations.
