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Awards for Auschwitz Memorial volunteers: If not for those ten…”
During the international educational conference “(Re)member. Is Memory Enough in the 21st Century?”, on 1 July, the “ If not for those ten…” award was presented. The recognition is given to volunteers and representatives of institutions that support volunteer work at the Memorial.
“At one of the training sessions, I heard the words: ‘A volunteer crosses their own boundaries.’ And every year, seeing those who decide to volunteer or do internships at the Memorial, I see how much it means to them. Visiting the Museum and learning the history is one thing, but dedicating part of your life to engaging and helping is something else entirely,” said Katarzyna Marcak, Head of the Volunteering and Interships at the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust, during the award ceremony.
She said that volunteering is not only about “learning the history of the former camp, getting to know the Museum as an institution, or understanding more and more facts, but also about growing responsibility. It is about developing empathy, sensitivity, facing one’s own emotions, and also building friendships.”
While presenting the awards, the Director of the Museum, Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński, emphasized how important the opening last year of the Museum hostel, intended mainly for volunteer needs, was for the development of volunteering:
“Now we can accommodate about 100 people at one time. I mention this to show that sometimes it is worth properly identifying a bottleneck in education, which may relate to things seemingly unrelated to educational work itself. In this case, it was precisely accommodation. Creating the hostel has truly changed our capacity to receive and cooperate with enthusiastic people from all over the world.”
“There is no better way for personal growth and formation than to become involved in concrete actions. This is what gives people the most and what we can offer them,” emphasized Dr. Cywiński.
Each laureate received a symbolic keepsake—a replica of the tiny shoes that belonged to Auschwitz Survivor Batsheva Dagan. In the inhuman conditions of the camp, her friend and fellow prisoner, wanting to give her a gift, managed to get some material and sew her tiny shoes, not even two centimeters long. Batsheva kept this object for 20 months in the camp, risking her life.
“Dear Volunteers: your presence and help are as selfless as this gift given to Batsheva by her friend. Like her, you find the will, the time, and the means to give something good. Every day, you accompany us, the staff and custodians of the Memorial. Volunteering at the Auschwitz Museum is sometimes an emotional and moving challenge for you, as you face the difficult history of this place, but above all, it is an understanding that your presence here means caring for the legacy of the Survivors. Thank you for being here and for lending a helping hand. It is a true honor to work with you,” said Katarzyna Marcak, addressing the award recipients.
In 2024, the Memorial was supported by nearly 500 volunteers and interns, both on-site and remotely. These individuals came from Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Malaysia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the USA.
Among the largest groups were volunteers from institutions that have been cooperating with the Museum for many years: German and Polish schools connected to the Volkswagen Group, the Forestry and Ecological School Complex in Brynek, as well as deaf youth from the Lower Silesian Educational Center in Wrocław.
Laureates of the “ If not for those ten…” award
Paweł Bolek
Volunteer (Volunteering and Internships) in 2024. After completing his on-site volunteering, he continues to help remotely with translations and proofreading. He also supported the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
Kayla Curtis
Intern from January to April 2024 (Archival Analysis and Information); collaborated on indexing and transcribing documents. She also participated in preparing index cards from postwar surveys in the Archive collection.
Christoph Heinemann
Since 2021, coordinator of Polish-German volunteer groups on behalf of the Volkswagen Group.
Kristina Kaufman
Intern from September to December 2024 (Archival Analysis and Information); worked on indexing and transcribing documents and checking them. She also helped prepare index cards from postwar survey materials.
Johanna Kessler
Intern from September to December 2024 (Archival Analysis and Information); worked on indexing and transcribing documents and checking them. She also helped prepare index cards from postwar survey materials.
Zofia Myśliwiec
Volunteer since 2022, initially as part of cooperation with the ZSZTS school in Oświęcim; helped during anniversary commemorations on June 14, subsequent liberation anniversaries, and educational conferences. She was also present at the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
Hanna Smalcerz
Intern July–August 2024 (Archival Analysis and Information); during her student internship, she worked on translations published on the victims.auschwitz.org website. After her internship, she continues to volunteer with translations.
Harumi Shimura
Volunteer in the Conservation Laboratories from August 2024 to February 2025. Participated in work related to the conservation of children’s shoes belonging to Auschwitz victims, as well as the railway wagon located on the ramp of the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp.
Kamila Sus
Volunteer (Volunteering and Internships; Archival Analysis and Information) since the end of 2021. Works remotely doing transcriptions and proofreading.
Stefania Zlate
Volunteer since March 2024 (Archival Analysis and Information); works on transcriptions and indexing scans of documents obtained as part of the project “Restoring the Identity of Deportees and Prisoners in KL Auschwitz on the Basis of Archival Data from the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
