I MUST praise our hard-working Member of Parliament, Andrew Smith, who was saddened by what I had experienced when describing to him my recent visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.

Mr Smith wrote on my behalf to the Foreign Office to inform them of my concerns.

On arriving at Auschwitz-Birkenau you would be forgiven for thinking you had arrived at the wrong place.

It reminded me of some commercialised outlet, what with a fast-food restaurant, cash dispensers, a post office and, on top of that, people making all sorts of noise, eating and drinking, mobile phones ringing and cameras flashing.

To top everything, a tourist party was posing inside the main gate for photographs and, to my astonishment, one member of this party raised an arm in the Hitler salute.

I wrote to the director of Auschwitz-Birkenau and not only was I dissatisfied by waiting a long time for her reply, but with what she said, so contacted Mr Smith.

The response he sent me from from Europe Minister David Liddington said that the Government is determined to take an active approach to preserving the memory of the Holocaust.

He added that the Government’s commitment to these issues includes support for the long-term preservation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau site, which epitomises the true horror of the Holocaust and should be maintained in an appropriate manner, both to educate future generations of the evils of that period in history and to warn them of the consequence of allowing intolerance and hatred to flourish.

Mr Liddington said that the Government is to contribute £2.1m to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation to support work to preserve the camp and will encourage the Foundation to carry out the work in a suitably sensitive manner.

MICHAEL HOLDER, Collinwood Road, Risinghurst