WARSAW, Poland, March 31 (UPI) -- Poland wants the official name of the World War II death camp Auschwitz be changed to bear a direct reference to Nazi Germany.
The Warsaw government would like the most memorable symbol of the Holocaust is linked, not to Poland and its people, but to Nazi Germany which built and ran the death camp in southern Poland.
The government wants the name of Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, is changed to "Former Nazi German Concentration Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau," the BBC reported.
More than 1 million people, almost all of them Jews, died in Auschwitz in the 1940-45 period. A total of 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis during World War II.
Nazi Germany built and operated the twin camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau, near Oswiecim in occupied Poland.
The U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization placed Auschwitz-Birkenau on its world heritage list in 1979.
The Polish government has written a letter to UNESCO to change the official name of the camp, and officials said they expected a response later this year.
