News
“Auschwitz and the Holocaust against the background of crimes of genocide"
Over 100 people participated in the conference, "Auschwitz and the Holocaust against the background of crimes of genocide in the twentieth and twenty-first century", whose theme was "The entity against crimes." Among the participants were, among others: teachers, educators, lecturers and other people engaged in the dissemination of knowledge about the Holocaust, crimes of genocide and human rights.
In the third edition of the conference, the attention of participants was directed at the fate and motives of the actions of the perpetrators, victims and witnesses of the crimes. They delved, among others, into the nature of and consequences of crimes of genocide in the contemporary world and talked over education and actions aimed at preventing similar crimes in the future.
“In the Museum, for obvious reasons, we primarily focus on education concerning the history of the Auschwitz camp, pushing slightly to the background issues such as, inter alia, other crimes of genocide. But these things are very essential, because it is so important for us to co-organise such conferences. Through cooperation with our partners and outstanding guests, we can regard the history of Auschwitz as a starting point for deliberations in a much broader historical and social context,” said the director of the International Centre for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust Andrzej Kacorzyk.
“I believe that there is no better place where for human rights to be debated,” — said Professor Andrzej Zoll, a lawyer, during his speech. In his opinion, the proximity of these terrible crimes demonstrates that they are not detached from the reality of the debate, and the increasing problem of human rights and greater awareness of the threats to these rights have occurred, and they continues to have practical significance.
Among the speakers at the conference were: lecturers from the Jagiellonian University, Cracow Pedagogical University, the University of Silesia, staff of institutions involved in the dissemination of knowledge about the Holocaust and World War II (including the Polish Centre for Holocaust Research, Jewish Historical Institute, the Galicia Jewish Museum, the History Meeting House, House of the Wannsee Conference) and the staff the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the International Youth Meeting Centre.
During the conference, there was also the presentation of the book "Auschwitz and the Holocaust against the background of crimes of genocide in the twentieth century", which is a summary of the two previous conferences in 2010-2011. Seventeen texts encompass a wide spectrum of the issues of genocide in different contexts and historical circumstances, whose common denominator is the Holocaust — fully focusing on all the characteristics and phenomena that make up the concept of genocide.
The organisers of the conference were: the ICEAH at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, the Foundation for International Youth Meeting Centre and the Foundation for the Memory of the Victims of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp.
