The Birdman of Auschwitz: New Exhibition at the House 88

Parallels: People’s Lives and Deeds

Some while ago, not that far from now, Ambassador Marc Wallace was discussing things with his friend, famous architect Daniel Libeskind. The conversation was, in a form of reflections, about a few core phenomena that we associate with the Shoah all those eighty years, and counting. “ It is maybe a myth, but the belief that birds do not sing in and over the concentration camps bothers me”, – shared Marc with his friend. – “It signifies and underlines the depth of horror that occurred here, to the degree that it has become a death zone literally, for decades”.  “Here” in this conversation in early 2025 was Auschwitz. Wallace and Libeskind were in the Zone of the Interest, as the 40 square kilometres area around Auschwitz that has been under Nazi control during WWII has become known for posterity. 

The reason of them to be at the place was the opening of the new landmark next to Auschwitz, ARCHER at House 88, unique project of memory and compassion that acts nowadays from  the premises of the house in which the butcher Rudolf Höss and his family were thriving in all their hellish idyll while the head of the family commanded over Auschwitz-Birkenau death factory. 

Ambassador Wallace was the driving force of this truly special project that has been functioning as part of his CEP, Counter Extremism Project , which is known for its efficient fight against terrorism and anti-Semitism world-wide. 

Marc Wallace’s elder friend Daniel Libeskind, with his and his Poland-born family’s life experience has mentioned to his friend: “I am sure, Marc, the birds will sing there one day. They will, trust me”. 

That conversation might stay as a friendly exchange unless soon after it a book has been published in the UK. An extraordinary book, it must be said, as of its subject, as of the way it has been researched, written and presented. The book is a thoroughly researched biography of a leading German ornithologist, the head of the Ornithology Department of the famed Museum of Natural History in Vienna, who also happened to be the SS-guard in Auschwitz. The book’s title is Birdman in Auschwitz: The Life of Gunter Niethammer, the Ornithologist Seduced by the Nazis ( 2025).  Its author is a well-known British ornithologist and historian Nicholas Milton. 

The book was published a month after Marc Wallace and Daniel Libeskind’s friendly exchange next to the Auschwitz zone. As Marc Wallace sees it, “it was the Hashem’s call in all this”.  And I see his point. From the moment of seeing and reading Nicholas Milton’s book on pre- and post war life and recognised achievements of Niethammer despite his Nazi crimes and conviction, Marc Wallace and his team knew the theme of the next important multi-month event at the ARCHER at House 88 in Poland. It would be about Science and Faltered Conscience, sampling birds in a dizzy paradoxical macabre of human behaviour and morale in the most painful moment of the 20th century, which is becoming........

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