“A house once owned by Rudolf Höss, the notorious commandant of the Nazi German Auschwitz concentration camp, has been purchased by the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), a US-based non-governmental organisation, and will soon open to visitors. Located at 88 Legionów Street in the southern Polish city of Oświęcim, the house sits near the former camp’s perimeter fence. The property became the focus of public attention after last year’s release of The Zone of Interest, a British-Polish-American film that depicted the domestic life of Höss and his family living in the shadow of Auschwitz from 1941 to 1944.”
 

“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."

“Rudolf Höss's house in Auschwitz, or rather, in Oswiecim, has become famous throughout the world thanks to Jonathan Glazer's film  The Zone of Interest , winner of two Oscars. The camp commander lived right next to the camp: from the upstairs window the view opened onto the ovens, as Glazer shows, but on the ground floor there was a flowery and well-kept garden, a path leading to a river for the summer, and an ice rink for the winter. The house, in recent years, was inhabited by Grazyna Jurczak, a 62-year-old widow, who raised two children there. After several years, the woman decided to sell the house to a New York-based organization called Counter Extremism Project. Among the reasons for the sale, Jurczak said, was the excessive attention of visitors to Auschwitz to the house following the success of Glazer's film.”

“Hamas is down in the Gaza Strip but not out. Hamas has been traying rebuild itself in Gaza under a new leader. The new leader is Mohammed Sinwar, a senior Hamas commander the younger brother of slain former Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar… Before the war elevated him to his current role, Mohammed was the Hamas’ head of logistics and manpower and one of the top commanders of Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, according to the think tank Counter Extremism Project (CEP).”

“The group, through its media organization Az-Zallaqa Foundation, also criticized journalists and the local government's security management in light of the crisis in the region on Monday, regional media reported. The 72-year-old was kidnapped by unknown assailants on Saturday in the desert city of Agadez. According to KURIER information, the assailant is Eva Gretzmacher, who lives in Niger… Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM), the "Support Group for Islam and Muslims," is a Mali-based affiliated al-Qaeda group that has expanded its operations to neighboring countries such as Burkina Faso, Niger and Senegal in recent years. As a formal al-Qaeda branch in Africa, JNIM is committed to disempowering regional governments and implementing sharia (Islamic law) in the areas in which it operates, explains the anti-extremism organization Counter Extremism Project (CEP).”

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "What can recent developments in the scandal over child sexual exploitation tell us about our dangerous descent into a low trust society? Two Labour MPs have now broken ranks to contradict the leadership and say a national inquiry into child rape grooming gangs is now needed. Many people will not have heard of Dan Carden, but Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, is Red royalty and his intervention will matter."