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Honours for educational activity at the Auschwitz Memorial
Medal of the National Education Commission received two representatives of the International Centre for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust. From the hands of the Deputy Minister of Education, Tadeusz Sławecki, the awards received Andrzej Kacorzyk, deputy director of the Museum, who directs the work of the Centre, and Alicja Białecka, the head of the ICEAH Program Section.
Awards were given for their educational activities at the Auschwitz Memorial, primarily in recognition of work to promote knowledge about the Holocaust, as well as involvement in the Polish-Israeli co-operation. The ceremony took place during a meeting with the resident at a seminar group of educators of the Museum of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
“Speaking of the Holocaust is not an easy thing,” said the Minister Tadeusz Sławecki. “It is necessary to see not only spectacular actions but also very devoted educational work. Let my visit will be seen as evidence that the Ministry is very interested in the subject about which you say here,” he added.
The National Education Committee Medal is the highest honour accorded by the Minister of Education for outstanding contribution to education. The patron of medal is the National Education Commission – the first in Poland and Europe, central educational authority, appointed by the Parliament on October 14, 1773 at the request of Polish King Stanislaus Poniatowski.
Andrzej Kacorzyk
He graduated from the Pedagogical University of Opole, College of Foreign Languages in Bielsko-Biala and postgraduate studies in history and museum studies at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.
He started working at the Museum in 1997. Initially, he was a guide, and in February 1998 he started working in the Department of Education. In September 2001 he was appointed the head of the Education Centre. He was co-founder of the International Centre for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust, and was its organizational director. Since March 2010, he was Head of Visitor Services Section. In February 2012 he was appointed the acting Deputy Director of the Museum. Since July 2012 he was deputy director of the Museum. At the memorial he is responsible, among others for the International Centre for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust, Exhibition Department as well as for the Visitors Services Section.
Alicja Białecka
She is a philologist and English teacher, a graduate of postgraduate studies in history and museology. Before joining the Museum she was a teacher at the Stanisław Konarski High School in Oswiecim. She completed internships and abroad training in the United Kingdom, United States of America, Israel and South Africa.
She is a doctoral student at the Institute of European Studies at the Faculty of International and Political Studies at the Jagiellonian University.At the Memorial she has been working since 1992. Initially, she was a guide, and then successively was employed in the interpreters section, Department of Education and Education Centre. She is currently the curator at the International Centre for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust and since January 2006 the head of the Program Section.
