News
A Meeting Devoted to the Idea of Erecting a Mound of Remembrance and Reconciliation
Museum Director Piotr Cywiński met with former Auschwitz prisoners Józef Hordyński and Józef Stós, and veteran Henryk Łagodzki (a soldier in Warsaw Uprising in the battalion commanded by Captain Witold Pilecki), who requested the meeting in the context of plans to erect a Mound of Remembrance and Reconciliation. The Mound is the brainchild of another former Auschwitz prisoner, Professor Józef Szajna.
Director Cywiński listened attentively to his guests, and reminded them that he knows Professor Szajna personally and holds him in great respect. He also pointed out that the International Auschwitz Council has already taken a stand on the issue, stating that it “supports the idea of building the Mound,” while “expressing a negative opinion on the proposal by the city of Oświęcim to locate the Mound on ul. Leszczyńska.”
The Mound is a concept developed by the artist Józef Szajna, who first advanced the idea in the 1990s. The International Auschwitz Council expressed its support for the Mound in 2002, but did not definitively specify a location at the time. Professor Szajna reported to the Council that he felt that visitors could add lumps of earth and stones to the mound in a civic gesture; the mound would thus grow in a collective gesture of remembrance.
Today, the plans have diverged significantly from the original concept. While the idea is supported by Roma, Jewish, and Christian groups, the site proposed last year, between the Gravel Pit and the former SS kitchen, raises serious misgivings for reasons that include preservation considerations. Other locations would be possible, but it is up to the proponents of the Mound to specify them.
The director assured his guests that, should the Museum receive correspondence requesting it to take a position on a specific plan for the location of the Mound, it will treat a reply as a matter of priority. Cywiński pointed out that no one has so far communicated officially with the Museum on this matter. He explained that it is difficult for the Museum itself to propose a location lying outside the Museum grounds, since doing so would constitute interference in a decision-making process that belongs to the local and voivodship authorities. However, the Museum counts on being able to issue an opinion in regard to any plans that arise.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the former prisoners affixed their signatures to the Foundation Act of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust. By doing so, they joined several hundred other Auschwitz survivors who have expressed their support for the idea of the Center in a similar way.
The most recent project carried out with the participation of Center staff was a trip to the Yad Vashem Memorial Institute in Israel by a group of Polish priests, who learned in Jerusalem about the history of the Holocaust, as well as the history of the Jews in Poland and Europe.
Although the Education Center has been in existence since 2005, it still faces serious problems in regard to its premises. Due to the lack of a special utilization plan (zoning ordinance), work has been blocked for more than two years on adaptation work on the future headquarters of the Center, in the building known as the Theatergebäude.
On January 27, Minister Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka, Undersecretary of State in the Chancellery of the President of Poland, referred to this matter. “With the utmost commitment,” she stated, “the office of the President of the Polish Republic is counting on the promptest possible resolution of this situation, and on removing all the obstacles blocking the way to the creation of this Center. May this educational work constitute Poland’s gift to all humanity.”
The mayor of Oświęcim also attended the meeting.
