Today, the musicians Kollegah and Farid Bang visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial. Their visit was in response to an invitation by the International Auschwitz Committee which they received following the fierce public debate surrounding the rappers’ texts and the Echo music award. During their tour of the remembrance sites the two musicians were accompanied by Christoph Heubner, the Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, and representatives from the Memorial.

They laid flowers at the infamous Death Wall of Block 11 in Auschwitz in honour of the people murdered there. During their tour of Birkenau extermination camp they also met with young people from Germany and Poland who are currently involved in preservation work at the memorial site. The tour of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial was consciously organised as a private visit and at short notice.

Commenting on his meeting with Kollegah and Farid Bang in Auschwitz, Christoph Heubner said in Oswiecim:

"It’s a good thing that the rapper duo Kollegah and Farid Bang decided to enter the environment of this place and confront themselves with the history of Auschwitz. The walking tours in Auschwitz and in Birkenau, combined with the present-day remembrance of the Jewish people and all of the victims who were tormented and murdered in Auschwitz, have clearly shed an entirely new light on their previous views. When they left the Memorial they were contemplative, moved and full of questions. The rappers’ visit has given a sense of satisfaction to the Auschwitz survivors, and they hope the musicians’ young fans will recognise this as a gesture showing that hatred, contempt for humanity and anti-Semitism should have no place in art."