By Raffi Berg BBC News, Auschwitz-Birkenau It is a bitterly cold
winter's day at one of the most notorious and harrowing places
on Earth. Patches of ice crunch underfoot with every step,
punctuating the silence which has long pervaded this former
killing field. This is Birkenau, the largest camp in the
Auschwitz complex, where most of its 1.1 million victims - 90%
of them Jews - were murdered. But after nearly seven decades
exposed to the elements, few of what were originally hundreds of
structures remain standing, and those which have survived are
gradually rotting away. Unlike the smaller Auschwitz I - sturdy
brick-built former Polish cavalry barracks expropriated by the
Nazis - Birkenau (or Auschwitz II) was erected in 1941 solely as
a death camp, and was not built to last. With every passing year
the urgency to preserve what is left of the site grows, and
while steps are being taken to do so, crucial conservation work
is hampered by a shortage of funds. "Auschwitz Museum is in a
financial crisis, that's f