On the 11th September 1947, from an initiative by former prisoners, the gross-Rosen Protection Committee was founded. A contest for the design of a monument was announced and a collection of funds for the construction was started. The monument was unveiled in the autumn of 1953, the ashes of prisoners, collected from the dumping ground near the crematorium, were placed in the mausoleum. In 1963 the bronze statue was removed from the stone base and in the 1970’s replaced by a votive candle and in 1985 two wings added in which was placed soil from two former Gross Rosen sub camps. In 2007 the monument underwent restoration.
