News
Inauguration of the exhibition and temporary seat of the National Auschwitz-Birkenau Institute in Spain
In the San Salvador monastery in Oña, in the Spanish Burgos region, temporary seat of the National Auschwitz-Birkenau Institute in Spain was inaugurated. Three exhibitions are presented there: “German Nazi Death Camp Konzentrationslager Auschwitz”, “Oświęcim 1920-1930” and “Poland under occupation”.
Among those who took part in the ceremonial inauguration of the exhibition and the seat on May 26th 2021 there were: Cesar Rico, President of the Burgos Province, Roberto Saiz, Director of the Department of Education in Castile and León, José Antonio Antón Quirce, Director of the Department of Education the Burgos Province, Priest Andrés Picón, Director of the Department of Education in the Archbishopric in Burgos, Ernest Kowalczyk, representative of the Polish Institute and Polish Embassy in Spain as well as the representatives of several foundations, city mayors and city authorities.
Enrique de Villamor y Soraluce, Honorary Consul of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and President of the National Auschwitz-Birkenau Institute in Spain, expressed his willingness for further cooperation with provincial authorities in Burgos and emphasized that the search for permanent seat of the Institute is still in progress.
“The motivation for establishing the seat and for the activity of the Institute consists in the inauguration of a research project and the construction of the centre dedicated to 20th century totalitarian regimes. These tools are necessary for educating young people and spreading universal democratic values and human rights”, Enrique de Villamor y Soraluce emphasized.
President of the Provincial Authority of Burgos highlighted that this exhibition constitutes the beginning of a big educational project in the region.
“National Auschwitz-Birkenau Institute in Spain is developing very fast, it organizes educational exhibitions and workshops for students and teachers and is on the right track to find its permanent seat. It constitutes for us an important signal manifesting the real need for establishing national Institutes and the confirmation of the necessity to undertake the activities in the field of education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust in local communities all over the world”, said the President of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Institute.
Permanent seat of the Institute in Oña, together with its exhibitions, is going to be available to visitors until the end of 2021. What is more, educational workshops for students are planned in the institution together with film cycles devoted to WW2.
Spanish version of the Exhibition “German Nazi Death Camp Konzentrationslager Auschwitz” was already presented in the years 2019 and 2020 in Guernica and Logroño.