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17 thousand inmates participated in the ICEAH courses
„Auschwitz — History — Civic Education” is a multidimensional educational project addressed to correction officers and other employees of the Prison Service as well as to the prison inmates. In the educational process carried out in penitentiaries teaching about what happened in Auschwitz serves in particular the history of Auschwitz and the memory of those who suffered or died there, but it also shows what contempt and hatred can lead to.
During 5 years, 17 065 of the inmates from all the penitentiaries and detention centres of Lesser Poland and Silesia joined the project. In this period, 877 inmates from 27 penitentiaries participated in study visits at the Memorial Site.
“The education about the tragedy of the camps and drama of victims of the Holocaust may raise awareness of the suffering and degrading of other people and real consequences of the passive acceptance of evil. Thus, the understanding of history, also throughout empathy, may support the forming of a positive social attitude,” said Dr Piotr M.A Cywiński, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
“The sixth year of the cooperation between the Prison Service of Cracow and International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust gives us possibility to formulate conclusions about what is the project itself for the prison personnel,” said mjr Tomasz Wacławek, the spokesman of the Prison Service in Cracow. “Undoubtedly, the cooperation is now a part of a daily life of our penitentiaries and detention centres. The officials and employees of the Prison Service participate in seminars organised by the Museum. They appear as the coordinators of the civic education. Mutual meetings of inmates and the Museum employees cause that nowadays we know much more about our work and tasks of the Service,” added mjr Tomasz Wacławek.
Agreement regarding the cooperation in the area of the civic education between the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the Regional Inspectorate of the Prison Service in Warsaw was signed by the heads of both institutions — director of the Museum, Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywiński and colonel Anna Osowska-Rembecka, the director of the RIPS in Warsaw. It means expanding the present, highly rated, long-term cooperation by educational projects between the Museum and the Prison Service with the inspectorates in Cracow and Katowice. The document was signed during a seminar for the directors of the Masovian Prison Service which took place at the Memorial Site.
Two two-day seminars for the officers of the Masovian Prison Service, conducted at the Auschwitz Memoriale, aim to prepare further educational activities that have been conducted for the inmates. “The people who are serving time in our prisons often have no education. They have never learnt about the horrible story that happened here and we, the prison staff, are obliged to show them what violence and intolerance lead to,” said colonel Anna Osowska-Rembecka. “This project is to educate them. So that they are able to live better lives and to learn from this story,” she emphasized.
“The project ‘Auschwitz — History — Civic Education’ has been carried out together with the Prison Service Inspectorate in Cracow since 2009, and since 2010 with the Inspectorate of Katowice” reminded Antoni Stańczyk from the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust, who coordinates the project on behalf of the Museum. “The main part of our activities is constituted by lectures and seminars conducted by the educators of the Museum in detention centres and penitentiaries. As part of the meetings exhibitions are also presented, movies are shown, and discussions are conducted. Also very important and full of emotions are the meetings with witnesses of the history — former Auschwitz prisoners,” he added.
Where it's possible, study visits at the Auschwitz Memorial are organised. Each of the annual project cycles was dedicated to another topic, e.g. women and children in Auschwitz, Righteous Among the Nations (together with Galicja Museum in Cracow) or the person of rotmistrz (cavalry captain) Witold Pilecki.
“We can notice a significant change of attitude of the participants in reference to other nationalities and cultures,” said mjr Waldemar Radziszewski, chief of the project in Tarnów Mościce Penitentiary. “The reason for that is the that during the course they start to realise, what hatred to other people and racism can lead to, which influences their further relations with others,” he added.
In 2014, during the celebration of the Prison Service Day, the director of the Museum, Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywiński was awarded the gold medal „for services in penitentiary work”, awarded by the Polish Minister of Justice, which was presented to him by the General Director of the Prison Service general Jacek Włodarski.
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Correction officers from prisons and detention centres on seminars in the Museum of Auschwitz
Fragments of reports written by the inmates of the penitentiary in Cracow, after visiting the Auschwitz Museum
Andrzej:
Thanks to Ewa, our guide, we learned how inhumanly were the prisoners of various nationalities treated by the Nazi Germany during the World War 2. I learned about the events that seemed to be impossible.[…] I was sad and pensive.
Bogusław:
I have been there [Auschwitz Museum] as a child, but only now, as an adult, I am able to understand the magnitude of the tragedy which took place there in the years of WW2. I am serving my time in prison now, but the conditions that I saw there exceeded my concepts — both about the treatment of the prisoners and their numbers. What I remember the most were e.g. the piles of personal items (boots, glasses, etc.) taken from the prisoners during their first and at the same time last selection before death.
Tadeusz from Łodzi:
As a visitor of the Auschwitz Museum, I could […] experience the emotions connected with the tragedy and death of people of various nations in the camp. I want to thank a lot to everybody who helped organise that event.
Jarek, age 41:
The crime of genocide committed by the Nazis is horrible. But the most horrible is the way in which hundreds of thousands of innocent people were murdered. It is hard to imagine how this little percentage of liberated people could survive such horrible treatment and conditions. Reflections that come to your mind after staying at the place of torture and ordeal of millions of people may only be described as sadness and despondency. At the same time we ask ourselves: how could have people been so cruel to other people and what layers of hate could exist in a man.
Jarosław, age 36:
[…] I have been in Auschwitz and what made me upset was the amount of children that died there. It made me upset, because I also have little children and I can only imagine, what those parents felt when they have seen it...
Andrzej:
As I walked among the barracks and other places, I felt fear and anxiety that something like this could have ever happened.
Andrzej:
[…] Those condemned to Auschwitz suffered hell for committing no crime. Only because they represented a different race...
J. S. age 46:
Staying at the Auschwitz death camp, I reminded myself, when I was there for the first time, almost 35 years ago (in primary school). I imagined the fear of those, who were incarcerated by the Nazis. How much did they live through, the conditions they were kept in, how many tortures were they suffering — just to be allowed to die at the end. After I will be released from the arrest, I will try to go there once again. And to convince somebody who is close to me to visit this place...
Jurek, age 47:
On the day of 28 October 2007, we were in the camp in Auschwitz. I have seen the camp on the TV — now I could have seen how cruel can people be and what degree of suffering was taking place here. It was hard for me not to cry... Even now I can still see them — a mother and a daughter, murdered by Germans in the camp. The mother was killed earlier and her daughter a month later. Their photos were hanging on the wall in one of the buildings. The furnaces in which the dead bodies have been burned are making a horrible impression. After leaving the Museum, I pray to God to never allow such things anymore.
Kazimierz, age 23:
It’s hard to imagine, how many human beings were dying here in horrible suffering. It is unbelievable, what could one man do to another. During my return to prison, I was deep in sorrow and pensiveness. For my whole life I will remember these horrible pictures in the scenery of the camp. It is message and a horrible monument of the war.
PS. I cordially thank our guide, Ms. Ewa, who had shown us the camp and presented a great deal of knowledge of the topic.
Robert:
After visiting the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, I am still deeply moved by this place. The story told by our guide and visible signs of the millions of tragedies, which took place in that camp during the WW2 really moved me. I am a citizen of Oświęcim and have been at KL Auschwitz-Birkenau more than once, but now, as an adult and in my current situation, the magnitude of suffering, pain and death in that place gets through to me. I want to thank every person, who made it possible for us to visit, especially our Guide. Thanks to her knowledge and skills to present it I am able to think about this place and those who lived and died here.
