Honorary Consuls
Honorary Consuls of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial
Nothing can replace a personal visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial. Yet we know that millions of people, for various reasons, will never make that journey. That is why education, accurate information, and responsible storytelling about the past are so important. And that is why diplomacy of remembrance is so essential.
Honorary Consuls of the Auschwitz Memorial operate to build an international network of individuals committed to preserving the memory of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz and of the Holocaust — as a warning to the contemporary world. The Museum assists Consuls in initiating and carrying out educational and social projects that combat racism and intolerance and help build responsible, sensitive, and engaged societies.
Netherlands - Netherlands
Prof. dr. Marc van Berkel Endowed Professor of Holocaust Education at Radboud University’s Faculty of Arts in Nijmegen, from September 2023.
Van Berkel conducts research at the crossroads of historical issues and education. He consequently focuses on the Holocaust and its representations in history education throughout the years. The researcher seeks to optimize Holocaust education by studying educational resources and curricula, by interviewing teachers and students, and by supporting teachers through training or refresher courses.
Marc van Berkel began his academic career at Leiden University, where he completed his History degree. He worked as a history teacher in Rostock and Voorburg and has been involved in several research projects. He has been working as a Senior Lecturer in History at HAN University of Applied Sciences’ Education Academy since 2007. He began his PhD at Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2012, which resulted in a PhD thesis on fifty years of Holocaust representations in history textbooks in North Rhine-Westphalia and the Netherlands.
Van Berkel has led several research projects, including those on students’ knowledge and teaching practices of the Holocaust and World War II in the Netherlands, plus those on the representations of the decolonisation of the Dutch East Indies and the legacy of Srebrenica in history education. He is also a member of the Dutch delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).
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Portugal - Prof. Marina Pignatelli
Prof. Marina Pignatelli is a Cultural Anthropologist and Associate Professor at the Social and Political Sciences Institute – University of Lisbon. Her research focuses on Portuguese Jews and Judaism, since 1990, and the Portuguese intangible cultural heritage.
She is the author namely of Crypto-Jewish Prayers Notebook and Ethnographic Notes on the Jews and New-Christians of Braganza (2019); Jews and New Christians in the Lusophone World (2017); “The Origins and Religious Practices and Identities of the Honen Dalim Jewish Community in Mozambique” (2015); Interiorities and Exteriorities of the Jews of Lisbon (2008); and The Jewish Community of Lisbon: Past and Present in the Construction of Ethnicity (2000).
She is the executive coordinator of the Jewish Studies Laboratory at the University of Lisbon since 2015, co-coordinator of the Religions in Multiple Modernity’s Researchers Network and the Genalogias de Sefarad Researchers Network and researcher at CRIA – Centre for Research in Anthropology, where she also coordinates the Anthropology of Religion Network.
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Spain - Don Álvaro Enrique de Villamor y Soraluce
Don Álvaro Enrique de Villamor y Soraluce is a business consultant and cultural promoter with extensive experience in the protection of European heritage, memory education, democratic values, and international cooperation.
As Honorary Consul of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial, he founded the National Auschwitz-Birkenau Institute in Spain (INABE).
He established the Association for the Protection of European Tradition and Culture (APTCE) and developed the European Cultural Route Románico XXI as well as the Renaissance Award—projects promoting European identity and cooperation among European nations through educational travel and historical events in Spain, France, and Poland. He initiated cooperation between the historic cities of Gernika and Oświęcim, aswell as a twinning partnership between Gernika and Irpin (Ukraine) during Russia’s war against Ukraine. He is the founder and leader of the platform “Burgos con Ucrania,” an initiative aimed at raising funds for humanitarian aid for those affected by the war in Ukraine.
He organizes study trips to Poland and to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum.
Director of the Chair of Human Rights and Democratic Culture at the Auschwitz Institute at the University of Burgos, established in cooperation with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Institute and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. The educational routes developed within the National Auschwitz-Birkenau Institute and the European Cultural Route Románico XXI have been recognized by the University of Burgos (Spain) as academic courses, delivered by the INABE–UBU Chair.
Serves as Honorary Consul of the Republic of Poland in Burgos since July 2021.
Contact: , phone: +34 603557589, www.auschwitz.online
United States of America - Ted Kempinski
Ted Kempinski is a history teacher at Haverhill High School in Massachusetts, with over 25 years of experience. At this school—the first in the United States—online visits to the Auschwitz Memorial were launched through the platform “Auschwitz. In Front of Your Eyes,” in cooperation with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation.
He is a leader in civic activism aimed at improving public support for education across the state of Massachusetts. He works on building and strengthening relationships with organizations dedicated to Holocaust education. He collaborates with Facing History and Ourselves, which develops educational materials for teachers, as well as Echoes & Reflections, an organization that works with 145,000 teachers and educators across the United States. In cooperation with these organizations, he strives to promote Holocaust education and online visits to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial.
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United States of America - Maria Zalewska-Glezer
Maria Zalewska conducts academic research on media and memory. She is the Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation. She serves as a faculty member in the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, in the Department of Cinema and Media Studies. Her scholarly work focuses on the intersection of new visual technologies, Holocaust memory, and media theory. She also serves as a senior advisor to the digital project “Faces of Auschwitz,” developed in cooperation with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum. In addition, she is an affiliated researcher at the USC Shoah Foundation.
Zalewska teaches courses on Holocaust memory in the digital age, the history of propaganda in the media (media history of propaganda), and the relationship between sites of memory and digital memory spaces. She has written extensively on Holocaust memory, and her articles have appeared in Memoria, Digital Icons, and Spectator. The topic of her doctoral dissertation was: “Holocaust: Re-examining the Relationship Between Memory Spaces and Sites of Memory in the Digital Age.”
