How to Prepare Students for Visits to the Auschwitz Memorial

The European pack for visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum is a lengthy English-language resource targeting teachers and advisors planning visits to the Auschwitz Memorial. It is the result of several years of work by specialists from the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, the Council of Europe, and the Polish Ministry of National Education.

The publication is the result of a several year undertaking by professionals from the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, the Council of Europe as well as the Polish Ministry of Education.

In this book you will find not only all the necessary practical information about organizing the visit, but above all, texts and historical materials, lesson plans, and information about the contemporary meaning and functioning of the Auschwitz Memorial.

The first part of the book is devoted to preparing for the visit. This includes, what students should know before they come to the Memorial, what emotions they will have to cope with during the tour, and how a meeting with a witness of history can be useful — these are just a few of the topics touched upon.

In the second part, which concerns the visit to Auschwitz, there is information concerning the history of the Museum, the activities of the International Centre for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust and other educational institutions functioning around the Memorial Site, and a brief description of the Museum's exhibition. One of the chapters is devoted to the basic problems that may arise during the visit, including both the organizational and emotional issues.

What to do once the group returns from their visit to the Memorial Site is the subject of the third part the publication. Among the subjects addressed in this section are topics, such as, creating a summary of the group’s visit, suggestions for interdisciplinary projects that take place at the intersection between the history of Auschwitz and the modern world. There are also several lesson plans, including, "What to do with what you learned in Auschwitz."

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Contents

Preamble and acknowledgements

Auschwitz — The European dimension

The symbolism of Auschwitz and its universal message

1. Before the visit
1.1. What preparations need to be made for visiting Auschwitz and why?
1 .2. The problem of age and coping with emotion as a visitor to Auschwitz
1.3. What do students need to know before the visit?
1.4. Organising workshops to prepare students for the visit
1.5. Meeting a survivor as part of the preparatory process
1.6. Visiting Cracow and Oswiecim as a way of learning more about the culture of Polish Jews in the context of Polish history
1.7. How should you plan a visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum?
1.8. Activity — How could people create such a fate for others?
1.9. Activity — Functions of "Auschwitz Concentration Camp"
1 10. Activity — Individual and collective meaning of a visit to Auschwitz
1.11. Activity — Coping with emotions at Auschwitz
1.12. Activity — Photographs of Auschwitz
1.13. Activity — Documentary films about Auschwitz

2. During the visit
2.1. Who created the museum, and why?
2.2. Educational work and programmes offered by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oswiecim
2.3. A brief description of the exhibits at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oswiecim
2.4. Visiting the museum
2.5. What is appropriate behaviour while visiting Auschwitz?
2.6. What are the main difficulties faced during visits to Auschwitz?
2.7. International youth meetings in Oswiecim
2.8. Programmes offered by other Oswiecim-based institutions dealing with education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust

3. After the visit
3.1. How to evaluate the visit
3.2. Getting back to normality after a visit to Auschwitz
3.3. Various activities for students after their visit to Auschwitz
3.4. Suggestions for interdisciplinary projects on the relationship between Auschwitz and the present day
3.5. Meeting a survivor
3.6. Activity — "There is a station they reach, from wherever they came..."
3.7. Activity — What to do with what we learn in Auschwitz
3.8. Activity — The fate of individual victims of Auschwitz in documents, testimonies and photographs

Editors' and authors' biographies