As Deutsche Welle reports, the government of Lower Saxony plans to spend €650,000 just on the project planning phase, and all the work in total could cost the administration several million euros. Currently, the project is in the planning stage. In addition, the Ministry of the Interior of Lower Saxony has announced an open competition of ideas for the museum. According to the Minister of the Interior of Lower Saxony, Uwe Schünemann, the museum will open in 2013.
According to the authorities' plan, the museum in Friedland should remind of the fates of more than four million people who passed through the camp in its 63 years of existence. For the exposition, former sleeping barracks and other historical buildings will be used, including luggage storage facilities, old railway tracks, and the station building on the camp's territory.
The camp «Friedland» was created in September 1945 at the junction of three occupation zones in divided Germany: Soviet, British, and American. It was conceived as a reception point for displaced persons and refugees. Since May 1958, the camp began to accept ethnic Germans from the USSR who sought to move to Germany for permanent residence. It still remains the gateway to the Federal Republic of Germany, as it is currently the only such point (in October 2000, other similar camps in Germany were closed).
As Lenta.ru notes, the organization of work in the camp has remained unchanged since 1945. Displaced persons cannot choose a city for permanent residence at their own discretion, and after obtaining official registration, officials organize their distribution among the 16 federal states of the Federal Republic of Germany.