News

European Council Seminar

For the forth time, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum has hosted participants of the European Seminar: Auschwitz and the Holocaust in the context of teaching about memory in Europe.

Taking part in the seminar organized 20-26 September were 24 individuals. Among them there were educators and teachers from the Council of Europe states, representatives of the Polish Ministry of Education, and experts from Pedagogical University in Cracow.

The seminar program at the Museum, prepared by the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust, included: a tour of the former concentration camp, meeting with a former prisoner, lectures on the political and racist principles of the Nazi policy of extermination and the meaning of Auschwitz as a Memorial Site, as well as workshops dealing with the function and meaning of art-work created illegally in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Participants also visited the Synagogue and Jewish Center, Center for Dialogue and Prayer, and the International Youth Meeting Center. To conclude, participants saw the former Jawischowitz camp and the former resort SS-Solahuette in Międzybrodzie.

Previously, participants of the seminar were hosted in Krakow, where they attended lectures at the Pedagogical University about, among others, the Holocaust in Poland and Holocaust Remembrance Day. Guests also visited Wawel Castle, Krakow’s Old Town and Kazimierz.

The Council of Europe Seminar is the realization of a commitment made by the Polish Minister of Education, Miroslaw Sawicki, during a meeting of European Education Ministers of the Council of Europe that was held in Cracow and Oświęcim on 4-6 May 2005. The topics and program of the seminar are to reflect teaching about memory in the context of Holocaust Remembrance Day and preventing crimes against humanity. Most European countries chose 27 January for this commemoration – anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkanau Concentration Camp.
Organizers are the Polish Ministry of Education, Council of Europe, International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust at the Auschwitz-Birkenau and Pedagogical University in Cracow.