The Auschwitz Birkenau State Museumand the Unit 731 Exhibition Hall in northeast China on Monday expressed intention to exchange exhibition.

Deputy director of the Auschwitz Birkenau State Museum, Krystyna Oleksy, presented to the Chinese a detailed introduction to the museum and a picture book about those who died in the Auschwitz camp. In exchange, curator of the Unit 731 Exhibition Hall, Wang Peng, presented her a book on how the notorious Japanese military unit conducted germ tests and warfare in China.

"This is the first step towards bilateral cooperation in the future, though a detailed schedule hasn't been set," said director of the information center of the Auschwitz museum Teresa Suiebocka, adding they still need time to study items and documents preserved by the exhibition hall, in a bid to decide what to present in the Auschwitz museum.

Oleksy and Suiebocka paid a visit to the site of Unit 731 on Sunday, and discussed with the Chinese the logistics of exchange of exhibitions. Wang visited the Auschwitz museum in June this year.

Unit 731 was a secretive detachment of the Japanese invading troops which experimented on live humans in order to develop germ weapons, such as bubonic plague, typhoid, anthrax and cholera. At least 3,000 people mostly Chinese civilians and including Russians, Mongolians and Koreans, died in the experiments between 1939 and 1945. Outside the site, more than 200,000 Chinese were killed by biological weapons produced in the unit's laboratories.

Both the sites of Auschwitz museum and the Unit 731 Exhibition Hall are evidence of Fascism's murderous brutality, such as the frozen and germ experiments on live humans, said Suiebocka, adding the cooperation between the two exhibition agencies will provide amore comprehensive picture of history, and an impetus to all the people to the promotion of world peace.

Although many countries suffered a lot in World War II, like Poland, some Europeans don't know what happened outside Europe during the war. The exchange of exhibits will help people know the crimes committed by Fascists across the world.

As for the possible difficulties in their cooperation, Suiebocka said, "If there is any difficulty, we can overcome it. Because we have a similar mission, which is to protect the people against a new world war."

(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2005)