“Last summer, Grazyna Jurczak, a 62-year-old Polish widow, decided to sell the house where she had lived for more than forty years with her husband and two children to the non-governmental organization Counter Extremism Project. Among the reasons that led her to sell it was that for a few months, more and more people had been wandering around the house: they were visitors to the Auschwitz concentration camp, a few meters away, and who had seen the film The Zone of Interest , directed by Jonathan Glazer, released in 2023 and set in her house.”

“As reported by Polish Radio, a centre for combating hatred will be established in the villa of the Auschwitz commandant. The villa where Rudolf Höß, the first commandant of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, lived, has been sold by its private owner to the New York-based foundation Counter Extremism Project. The building will serve as the Center for the Study of Hate, Extremism and Radicalization. The facility, located next to the former camp, is to become a center for education and prevention against hate speech and extremism. Piotr Cywiński, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, emphasized in an interview with Radio Kraków that this is an innovative idea that can play a key role in the fight against hate and radicalization. The center will operate independently of the museum, becoming an important point on the educational map.”

"The American non-governmental organization Counter Extremism Project acquired the house of the commandant of the German Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, Rudolf Hoess, in the summer. As reported by the New York Times, the property will be open to visitors on January 27, 2025, on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the camp. The director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, Piotr Cywiński, does not rule out cooperation with the new institution. The film "Zero interest" about the Höss family attracted many people interested in the history of the house to the property in Oświęcim. This convinced its resident, Grażyna Jurczak, to sell it. The transaction, which amounted to over $120,000, was finalized in October.”

“The American non-governmental organization Counter Extremism Project purchased the house of the commandant of the German Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, Rudolf Höss, in the summer and will open it to visitors on January 27, the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the camp, The New York Times reported. The director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, Piotr Cywiński, did not rule out cooperation with the new institution. The film “Zero interes,” which tells the story of the Hoess family, has led to strangers entering the property in Oświęcim, interested in the history of the house. This has prompted Grażyna Jurczak, who lives there, to sell it. The sale of the house and the adjacent post-war building was finalized in October. The Counter Extremism Project and Ms. Jurczak have not disclosed the amount of the transaction, but as the NYT writes on Wednesday, it is more than $120,000.”

"I read yesterday that the commandant of Auschwitz’s private villa has been sold to the Counter Extremism Project, a New York-based nonprofit, and is being turned into a part of the camp visitors can enter. It’s hard to describe the absurdity of the disconnect of the beautiful house with a backdrop of the most organized mass murder perpetrated in the 20th century. The house literally overlooks an early Nazi gas chamber as well as domino rows of barracks where hundreds of thousands of Jews and other prisoners starved and died. That’s perhaps why the film about the house released that year, “The Zone of Interest,” is so powerful — it doesn’t try to describe the indescribable, it merely presents you with audio and images that express the twisted story."