The fact is that 'Friedland' is an active camp for resettlers and refugees, which will not be closed either during the creation of the museum or after.
According to Deutsche Welle, the government of Lower Saxony plans to spend €650,000 just on the project planning stage, and all work overall could cost the administration several million euros. Currently, the project is in the planning stage. In addition, the Ministry of Interior of Lower Saxony has announced an open competition of ideas for the museum. According to the Minister of Interior of Lower Saxony, Uwe Schünemann, the museum will open in 2013.
According to the authorities, 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 exhibition, former sleeping barracks and other historical buildings will be used, including luggage storage rooms, old railway tracks and the station building on the camp territory.
The 'Friedland' camp was established in September 1945 at the junction of three occupation zones in divided Germany: Soviet, British and American. It was conceived as a reception center for resettlers 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 remains the gateway to the Federal Republic of Germany even today, as it is currently the only such point (in October 2000, other similar camps in Germany were closed).
As noted by Lenta.ru, the organization of work in the camp has remained unchanged since 1945. Resettlers 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 Germany.