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Call for participants. International conference - new technologies in education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust (June 27-29)
The International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust at the Auschwitz Memorial begins the call for participants in the international educational conference “The Tools of «Here and Now» in Teaching about «Then» – New Technologies in Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust” that will take place on June 27-29, 2023 in Oświęcim.
The conference is part of a series of biennial meetings devoted to reflection on the methodology of teaching about the history of Auschwitz and the Holocaust. Professionals involved in education at Memorial Sites and other similar museums and institutions are invited to attend.
It has been 78 years since the liberation of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz. With each passing year, the numbers of witnesses of history living amongst us are dwindling, leaving ever fewer survivors able to recount their atrocious World War II experiences to the young generation. The contemporary world is not free from armed conflict, either. The brutal war in Ukraine once again confronts us with the question whether there is anything that can be done to avoid making the same mistakes again.
Furthermore, the experience of the pandemics has shown us how rapidly the world that we live in can change and how quickly the methods and means that we use in our educational activity can become insufficient. For the young generation brought up in the era of new technologies and the Internet, focused on the ”here and now”, the history that happened 80 years ago is something remarkably distant. Learning dates and numbers without cause-and-effect relationships or individual fates makes the extremely crucial experience in the history of humankind, as was World War II, lose its role as a moral reference point for young people. Yet, without the understanding and drawing conclusions from what happened “then”, it is difficult to avoid making the same mistakes “here and now”.
Hence, addressing the challenges posed by the education of the young generation, we would like to dedicate this year’s International Educational Conference to the new technologies used in teaching about the crimes of World War II, which are increasingly present in museums and memorials. We are committed to covering the issue as broadly as possible, taking into account the psychological and sociological perspective, including the opportunities and threats arising from the use of new media in education. Therefore, the conference programme includes both panel discussions and presentations of solutions and projects implemented by museums and educational institutions in recent years.
We hope that joint discussions, debates and an exchange of experience can help us answer the following questions: Are there any limitations in using new technologies in teaching about genocides? How can we safely use them in education about the Holocaust and the crimes of World War II? What should education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust look like “here and now”?
In order to apply please fill in and send the online form.
The applications should be submitted until May 22, 2023. Recruitment results will be sent until May 29, 2023. The participants will be selected according to the possibility of using of the knowledge acquired during the conference in their own projects.
The organizer will pay for accommodation (twin rooms) and board. The participant should cover the cost of travel. The languages of the conference are English and Polish (simultaneous translation). The maximum number of participants is 150.
In any questions, please contact us at the following e-mail address:
