News

Forbidden Art is the title of a new exhibition at the Auschwitz Memorial, featuring twenty works of art made illegally and under the threat of death by prisoners in German Nazi concentration camps. Each of the photographs shown in the exhibition is accompanied by a historical commentary and excerpts from archival accounts. The time when the exhibition at the Museum is available for viewing was prolonged until 20 November. Afterwards, it will be shown to audiences in other countries, including the United States.

The last five years at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum have been a period of considerable changes: attendance has constantly grown to new record highs, a new main exhibition is under construction, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation has been created for funding maintenance of the authentic Memorial Site, and a new visitors center is being created. In this edition of Oś we publish an extensive interview with Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński, who has directed the Museum for the last five years.

The making of illegal art by prisoners in German Nazi concentration camps was the subject of an international conference titled Forbidden Art at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

The Museum has published the memoirs of Józef Matynia, a former Auschwitz prisoner, radio journalist, editor, and historian. The memoirs titled Młodość utracona za drutami (A youth lost behind the barbed wire) consist of five chapters describing his arrest by the Germans for underground activity and imprisonment in Pułtusk and Działdowo, the years he spent in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps, the forced evacuation from Buchenwald, and liberation in Dachau.

In this edition there are many pages devoted to the subject of historical maintenance and, importantly, the commemorations that have taken place on August 2, 2011, to mark the Sinti and Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day. Published in this issue, among others, is an article written by British students, who are doing their professional training at the Conservation Workshops of the Memorial Site.

“Teaching about the Holocaust: Integration of Site Visits in the pedagogical work” – is the title of this years seminar for educators and teachers from countries belonging to the Council of Europe, signatories to the European Cultural Convention, which had its place in Kraków and Oświęcim on October 8-14, 2011.