News

The Museum Council for the term of 2012 – 2016 held its session in the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. The Council, appointed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, supervises the statutory operation of the Museum, and also expresses opinions on the Museum’s plans of operation. An important issue discussed at the meeting were more and more realistic threats related to the freezing of wages.

The government of the Swiss Confederation has announced an increase of their support to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation up to 1 million euro. The decision was announced on May 3 by the Swiss Ambassador to Poland, Lukas Beglinger. Switzerland was one of the first countries which responded to the appeal of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and declared in 2010 their donation of 100 thousand CHF to the Perpetual Fund of the Foundation.

Dozens of clergy, the major Superiors of the Order of St. Augustine from throughout Europe, visited the Auschwitz Memorial Site. A visit to the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp was a part of a day of recollection organised during the conference of the European provincial Augustinians in Kraków.

On 20 April, the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz visited the site of the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. The guest was guided around the Memorial Site by the deputy director of the Museum, Andrzej Kacorzyk.

The “Auschwitz — Concentration and Extermination Camp“ online lesson, which focuses on the most important topics in the history of the Nazi German camp, is available in English on the Museum's website. The Auschwitz Memorial is a pioneer of e-learning in institutions of this kind in Poland.

The subject of Auschwitz and the Holocaust in school and out of school in the face of changes in the core curriculum was the main theme of the “Auschwitz and the Holocaust — education in school and at the Memorial Site,” which was held on the 12-14 April in Oświęcim. It was attended by 80 school teachers and academics from Poland.