News
Educators from Israel in Poland
From the 15th to the 26th of July, a group of educators from Israel took part in the seminar "Auschwitz in the Collective Consciousness in Poland and around the World. The Role and Significance of the Memory about Auschwitz-Birkenau for Jews and Poles," which was organised by the International Centre for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
Among the participants were employees of the Yad Vashem Memorial Institute and guides who come with Israeli youth to Poland.
The group spent four days in Oświęcim. In addition to a specialised visit with a guide at the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz, the guests from Israel also had the opportunity to see the site of the sub-camp in Jawiszowice, as well as the remains of Auschwitz III-Monowitz. The group also became familiar with the pre-war history of the Oświęcim Jews during a visit to the Chevra Lomdei Mishnayot synagogue and the Jewish cemetery. An important part of the seminar was a journey along one of the routes known as the Death March from Oświęcim to Gliwice, during which the group became acquainted with the post-war remembrances of the victims of the evacuation of the camp.
Within the programme of the seminar, there were also lectures on such topics as the fate of the different groups of victims of Auschwitz, the role of the camp in the Nazi programme of extermination of European Jews, the members of the SS in Auschwitz, as well as discussions on the education provided today at the Memorial Site and teaching about the Holocaust in Poland. During the seminar, a meeting was also held with former Auschwitz prisoner prof. Zbigniew Kączkowski.
The participants could also take a look at what it is like working in the Museum Archives, Collections Department or the conservation workshops, as well as discuss and share their experiences with the Polish Museum guides.
“I decided once that I did not want to go back to Auschwitz. However, this seminar is something different. The chance to learn about the history of Auschwitz, as well as Poland, for an entire two weeks is something really special. For me, of particular interest were both the lectures as well as the opportunity to see places that are closed to visitors, such as the Collections Department, conservation workshops and block 10. This is such a metaphorical entrance to the vault. This to me is really an exceptional, and personal, experience,” said Nora Gaon.
“The last 10 years has shown me that we are constantly learning. And this was the main reason for my coming to the seminar - I wanted to know more,” said Judith Bitton. “Right now, I look at the Museum very differently. I understand much better the changes that must occur to such a place to appeal to new generations. Also of interest were the lectures on such things as the fate of Poles and Soviet prisoners of war. This is something that I knew of, but here they were explained in depth,” she added.
Several of the lectures were devoted to the joint Polish-Jewish social and political history and contemporary Polish-Jewish contacts. The day which the Israeli educators spent at the Jagiellonian University was devoted to these issues. In the programme’s visit to Kraków, there were also excursions to the museum of the Schindler Factory, Collegium Maius, Sukiennice (the Cloth Hall), and the area of the ghetto in Podgórze.
At the closing of the seminar, the participants visited places both directly related to the history of the Jews and the Holocaust and places connected with Polish history, such as the former concentration camp of Gross-Rosen and a visit to the castle Książ. They also had the chance to become acquainted with the history of the Jews in Wrocław as well as the activities of the "Krzyżowa" Foundation for Mutual Understanding in Europe. The seminar ended in Warsaw, where the guests visited such places as the Warsaw Uprising Museum and the Jewish Historical Institute, and they got to take part in a meeting with the creators of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
