New York, NY, April 21, 2006 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today applauded Polish government officials for their immediate action to halt plans by a theater company to stage the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar" at the site of the former Nazi concentration camp Majdanek, near Lublin.

"We appreciate the government's response, yet we still find it hard to fathom how this could have ever happened," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor.  "Concentration camps are not public parks. They are sacrosanct and are meant to serve as museums, memorials to the dead and permanent monuments to the horrors committed by the Nazis.

"If anything, this episode speaks volumes about the need for continuing Holocaust education and for resensitizing ordinary Polish citizens to the horrors perpetrated at these camps, as well as the importance of protecting and respecting the many sites across Poland where mass killings occurred," added Mr. Foxman.

On April 20, the Polish Embassy in Washington, D.C. released a statement to ADL explaining that, "The unfortunate information about the decision of the local authorities in Lublin was released to media prior to any consultations with the proper authorities in Warsaw."  The Polish Culture Ministry, in a statement issued by the state press agency PAP, quoted camp museum director Edward Balawejder as saying, "With regret I have to refuse to give permission to use Majdanek for presentation of this spectacle."

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.