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International Summer Academy: History, Remembrance, and Education at the Auschwitz Memorial
The first International Summer Academy: History, Remembrance, and Education concluded at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. More than twenty participants of various ages and occupations from around the world took part in the project.
Alicja Białecka, head of the program section at the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust and the co-organizer of the project, stated that the Academy was a new direction in the work of the Center, which has previously concentrated more on training specific groups of educators as part of its cooperation with institutions like the Council of Europe or the Yad Vashem Memorial Institute in Israel. “The seminar is something completely new in our educational work. It is targeted at English-speaking individuals. Until now, these people have not had the option of being taught directly by us at the Education Center on the grounds of the Memorial,” said Białecka.
José Velasco of Arizona is on his third trip to the Auschwitz Museum. He said that he came the first time as an ordinary tourist and the second time in a student group. This time, he came to prepare himself better for imparting the history of Auschwitz to new groups of young people with whom he plans to return in the near future.
“My first trip to Auschwitz was like gazing into the past. However, I also learned that we cannot limit ourselves to this. What once happened here can also make us able to prevent similar events now. The roots of Auschwitz lie in intolerance and we really should teach our young people, in particular, to be tolerant of others. In Arizona we have similar cases where particular groups are stigmatized, for example immigrants from Mexico who come to Arizona and become scapegoats. The scale is different, of course, but the principles at work are the same,” said Velasco.
For Nora Fischbach-Hirshbein of Venezuela, the Academy was a powerful experience. During the Holocaust, the German Nazis murdered many members of her family, who came from Kalisz and Koźminek, Poland. Her grandfather, a former Auschwitz prisoner, never talked with her about his wartime experiences. “Even as a small child I saw the number that he had tattooed on his arm. That’s why it was so important for me to take part in this seminar, in order to understand the origins of my own family history better and learn about what happened here,” she said. While noting the high standard of the lectures and the commitment of the organizers, she also stressed that attending the Academy helped her overcome the negative feelings about Poles that she acquired in her family home. “Now I’m a different person. All of you here are Poles and I see the effort you put into maintaining this place and preserving the memory. I am very grateful to you for this. I want to cry when I utter this,” she said with emotion. “I want to thank you all and I do not have the words to express what I feel.”
Aside from in-depth tours of the former German Nazi concentration camp, the Academy schedule also included a series of lectures and discussions on subjects connected with Auschwitz and its postwar history, Polish-German relations during the war, and the educational challenges facing the Auschwitz Museum, the world’s best known Memorial site and the symbol of the Holocaust, in the future.
Alicja Białecka confirmed that the program will be continued. “This first International Summer Academy is only the beginning,” she said. “What is happening at this moment demonstrates the necessity of continuing this kind of work. We will try to organize the Summer Academy each year. The positive reactions by the participants seem to indicate that the program we put together is optimal: a well balanced combination of an encounter with the original historical place, with the memorial, and with the Museum as an institution, along with the knowledge shared by the staff of this institution and the invited guests.”
