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Guide trainings at the Auschwitz Memorial Site
Specialised training began for a few weeks for guides at the Auschwitz Memorial Site, organised by the International Centre for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust. The goal of the trainings is to improve the merit and methodological qualifications of more that 270 licenced Museum guides, who guide in nearly 20 languages.
“Training is a part of the educational mission of the Museum, part of the comprehensive programme of supervision and mentoring that is covered by the guides. During the course, participants will be taught how to work with groups. They will also learn how to sensitise young people to the sufferings of other people and nations in the context of Auschwitz and other cases of genocide and how to shape the moral values and positive attitudes in interpersonal relations,” said Alice Białecka, head of the ICEAH Program Section.
An important element of the training will be a meeting with a witness to the history of Auschwitz, the former prisoner, Zbigniew Kączkowski. In addition to issues directly relating to the history of Auschwitz, the programme also includes special lectures on, e.g. the genocide in Cambodia, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the activities of Jan Karski, and a screening of the feature film The Last Stage. There will also be a course devoted to the technique and aesthetics of speech and voice projection.
In 2011, a record 1.4 million people visited the Auschwitz Memorial Site. Almost all of them chose the opportunity to learn about the largest former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp under the care of Museum guides.
Antoni Stańczyk, coordinator of the project, emphasised the essence of the training: “Work as a Museum guide, in this authentic Memorial Site, entails a huge range of activities that allow visitors, especially young people, who represent a vast majority of the visitors, to see what the Auschwitz concentration camp was, as well as to prompt them to reflect upon and preserve the memory of its victims.”
