A center to document and study the extermination of 22,000 European Gypsies is planned for Auschwitz, the notorious World War II Nazi death camp.

Construction of the center will begin this year in Brzezinka, a part of the Auschwitz prison camp network, Roman Kwiatkowski, deputy chairman of Poland's Romanies' Association, told the Polish news agency PAP Tuesday.

About 1.5 million Jews from across Europe died at Auschwitz between 1940 and 1945. Poles and Gypsies were the next largest groups murdered there.

The studies center will house an archive of World War II documents on the extermination of Gypsies. Construction is to be financed by funds from the United States, Germany, the Polish culture ministry and private donations.

The center wants to establish contacts with the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., the Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and with Simon Wiesenthal's center in Vienna.

There are about 21,000 Gypsies living in Poland now. Kwiatkowski estimated the cost of the center at about $3.5 million.