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70th Anniversary of Liberation in Media Converage
Media activities connected with the 70th anniversary of the liberation of KL Auschwitz, which fell on January 27 2015, were summarized in the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. Nearly 300 former prisoners from Poland and many other countries of the world were the most important participants of the commemorative event. The representatives of Polish authorities as well as the leaders of over 50 countries and international organizations listened to the words of the witnesses.
Delegates of the Jewish diaspora with Ronald Lauder at the head, were also present on that day at the Auschwitz Memorial. Numerous representatives of institutions involved throughout the world in the activities devoted to preserving the memory of the Holocaust and German concentration camps also took part in the commemoration.
“We wanted this anniversary to resound strongly in the media coverage in order for the reflection on the tragedy of the victims to reach also those people who are not involved in the memory on a daily basis, do not possess sufficient historical knowledge, do not feel the shadow of Auschwitz in their everyday life”, said Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywiński, Director of the Museum. “It was the last round anniversary during which we could listen to the words of a large group of survivors. We wanted to be as well prepared as possible”, added Cywiński.
Many months before January 27 2015, the Museum launched special website devoted to the anniversary, on which nearly two hundred events connected with the commemoration of the history of Auschwitz on all continents were recorded. The program of many of them included the broadcast of main commemorative events from Birkenau. Special website was also prepared for journalists, including the explanation of basic terms and facts related to the history of the camp in order to avoid historical or semantic mistakes connected with the history of Auschwitz.
Commemorative events of the 70th anniversary of the liberation were organized under a giant tent constructed over the Gate of Death of the Birkenau camp. Official TV signal, broadcasted live to the entire world, was produced by the Polish Televison (TVP S.A). Over 250 TV stations from different countries used the broadcast. According to the collected data, over five hundred million people watched the commemoration live. Moreover, the broadcast was available in the HD version on the YouTube Internet channel.
At the request of the Museum, the company Edelman PR, having its branches in nearly 50 countries of the world, summarized the presence of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of KL Auschwitz in the printed press. The content published in connection with this event, as well as the coverage of the commemorative event itself, reached over one billion 752 million recipients.
“Six months before the anniversary we started very active cooperation with several dozen most important news agencies as well as most important media centres throughout the world. We did not want to wait until they contact us and ask for news, materials or interviews, but we wanted to be able to meet their requirements, present the offer of cooperation well in advance, encourage to very active reporting of the anniversary”, said Bartosz Bartyzel, spokesman of the Museum.
The premiere of a 15-minute film about the history of Auschwitz produced especially for this occasion by Steven Spielberg constituted another special event included in the program of commemoration.
On January 27 2015, a dozen TV stations and news agencies set up their studios in the immediate vicinity of the Memorial Site. Special posts for live broadcasts were created for them and the authentic camp remains in the background were lit up so that even the news broadcasted very late could be transmitted from Auschwitz. Over a thousand journalists from all over the world worked in the Press Centre. All necessary facilities were created in order to meet their needs, optical fibber was among others installed between Auschwitz I and Birkenau grounds in order to provide Internet connection.
“We would like to thank the journalists, cameramen, sound engineers, photographers as well as all persons involved in transmitting our collective warning message from Auschwitz to the public throughout the world for their active participation in this difficult mission which is, however, essential in the modern reality”, emphasized Director Cywiński.
