News

Auschwitz Legacy Fellowship. American program for high school teachers in partnership with the Auschwitz Memorial.

On January 26th, 2022, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation (ABMF), together with its institutional partner the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, as well as four local partners in the U.S., launched the Auschwitz Legacy Fellowship - a year-long program for high school teachers from all over the United States.

The inaugural online meeting took place in conjunction with the 77th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, which is commemorated around the world on January 27th as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

“Seventy-seven years and three generations have now passed since Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated, and there are young people who know nothing about it. When people don't know anything about the Nazis and the gas chambers and the horror, that's when crimes like this can be repeated," said during his remarks on January 27, 2022, ABMF's Chairman, Ronald S. Lauder.

Recognizing the need to bring lessons of Auschwitz to American high school students, ABMF launched its first educational initiative in the United States: Auschwitz Legacy Fellowship. The idea behind this year-long program is to bring American high school teachers to Auschwitz so that they - upon their return - can bring lessons of Auschwitz and the Holocaust to their students back home and continue to teach them for the next five consecutive years.

The 2022 cohort will include 32 fellows from Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Michigan, and Utah, as well as Holocaust educators from the partner institutions. Welcoming the 2022 Fellows to the program, Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywinski, the director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, said: “The mission you are on is of the greatest importance. The lessons of Auschwitz you will bring to your students can and will change your students’ perception of the world they live in.”

“Over the next five years, ABMF will recruit 500 high school teachers from all fifty states. They will travel with us to Poland for an intense week-long visit to Warsaw, Krakow, and the Auschwitz Memorial. The program will ensure that teachers visit the Memorial Site, spend time with the team of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust, immerse themselves in this challenging and tragic history, visit the barracks, see the Preservation Laboratories, obtain the tools and language necessary for teaching this hard material in their classrooms, and meet people who have committed their lives to the work of memory preservation. Upon returning to the U.S., teachers will receive educational tools to share with their students, including a documentary movie, lesson plans, and access to new online, live, guided remote tours of Auschwitz-Birkenau (developed by the Auschwitz Memorial and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation). Supported by our team and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum’s staff, our Fellows will continue to teach lessons of Auschwitz for years to come,” said Dr. Maria Zalewska, the Executive Director of ABMF.

This year, ABMF is proud to begin this crucial work with four local partners: the United Jewish Federation of Utah,  the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education (Kansas/Missouri), the Mizel Museum (Colorado), and the Zekelman Holocaust Center (Michigan). 

“We are proud to partner with ABMF on this unique and powerful initiative,” said Melanie Pearlman, Mizel Museum president, and CEO. “Through the Mizel Museum’s longstanding Holocaust education programs, we have developed enduring relationships with educators across the state. We are honored to have a number of those teachers serve as Auschwitz Legacy Fellows who will take this education to the next level and provide life-changing experiences for Colorado students.”

“The United Jewish Federation of Utah is proud to be one of the partners for the inaugural cohort of four Utah teachers, who are participating in this wonderful program through the generosity of a local donor,” said Diane Hartz Warsoff,  Federation board member and daughter of a Holocaust survivor. “With the passage of SCR 001 - Resolution on Holocaust Education in 2021, this program will bring invaluable resources to Utah’s K-12 educational community.”

“It can be easy for American students to think of the Holocaust as a very distant event, far removed from their own word. Having access to the space in which these crimes occurred is a powerful reminder of our proximity to this event.  What was once safely confined to black and white images, is now before them in the full color of today’s present,” said Shelly Cline, MCHE Historian and Director of Education.

“All of us at Union Station, to include our customers and the entire community, are humbled and honored to be part of this important program,” Union Station’s president and CEO, George Guastello, said. “We have no doubt that generational change will be the result as local educators are immersed in the truths of the Holocaust and bring their experiences back to share with young hearts and minds. Indeed, our student generations of today must be equipped to ensure the seeds of hatred, intolerance, and indifference never again find fertile ground nor grow to such devastating consequences again. And that is worth every investment in education we can make,” said George Guastello, CEO of Union Station Kansas City.

“The Zekelman Holocaust Center is honored to be a part of this important program,” said Ruth Bergman, Director of Education. ” The 14 participating teachers from Michigan will be able to share the knowledge they gain with their colleagues across the state. This opportunity will enhance the educational programming that The Holocaust Center provides for Michigan teachers and students.”

Learn more about the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation on preserveauschwitz.org