WARSAW (AP).- An exhibition hall at the former Nazi death camp of Sobibor has been closed because of a lack of funds, a Polish official said Friday.

The memorial site's spokesman, Marek Bem, also said guided tours at the site have been discontinued.

Bem said talks are now under way with the Culture Ministry to secure financing that would allow the exhibition hall to reopen next year. He said the problems arise from the fact that Sobibor is funded by the local government rather than the central government, like other Holocaust sites.

Experts believe at least 167,000 people were killed at the camp.

Sobibor is in a remote part of the country and receives relatively few visitors. Very little remains at Sobibor, which was destroyed by the Nazis. An outdoor memorial mound of ashes, plaques and stone monuments to the victims remain accessible to visitors.

John Demjanjuk, a former Ohio autoworker, was convicted May 12 of 28,060 counts of accessory to murder after a Munich court found he served as a guard at Sobibor. He was sentenced to five years in prison, but was immediately released pending his appeal, which could take as much as two years, after the court ruled he was not a flight risk.


Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.