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Israeli educators at the Memorial Site
A group of 25 educators from Israel participated in a specialist seminar entitled “Auschwitz in the collective consciousness in Poland and around the world. The role and significance of the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial for Jews and Poles,” which was held from 21st July to 1st August. It was organised by the International Centre for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in close cooperation with the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem.
“Among the participants of the seminar were mainly groups of Israeli leaders who come to Poland as well as the Auschwitz Memorial Site with different groups of visitors,” said Alicja Wójcik, the ICEAH coordinator of the seminar ICEAH. “In this year’s group, there were teachers as well as a psychologist who work with people who can not cope with the trauma of the Holocaust. When creating the programme of this year's seminar, we found a place for the presentation of projects that were completed in the year, i.e. presentation of the new Russian exhibition in block 14, the Jewish exhibition in block 27, as well as the presentation of the objectives of the Global Conservation Plan,” she added.
The group spent seven days in Oświęcim. Besides specialised tours of the areas of the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz, the guests from Israel also had the opportunity to see the former sub-camp in Jawiszowice as well as the remains of the Auschwitz III-Monowitz camp. The group also became familiar with the pre-war history of Oświęcim Jews during visits to the Chevra Lomdei Misznajot synagogue and the Jewish cemetery. An important part of the seminar was a participation in the ceremony of unveiling a monument commemorating the victims of the March of Death in Miedźna near Oświęcim, and an excursion along one of the trails of the so-called March of Death from Oświęcim to Gliwice, during which the group learned about the commemoration of the victims of the post-war evacuation of the camp.
Within the programme of the seminar, there were also lectures on such topics as the fates of the various groups of victims of Auschwitz, the role of the camp in the Nazi programme for extermination of the European Jews, the SS in KL Auschwitz, but also the education provided today at the Memorial Site or teaching about the Holocaust in Poland.
The educators also spent a day at the Jagiellonian University, where they listened to lectures devoted to the common Polish-Jewish social and political history and contemporary Polish-Jewish contacts. Within the programme of a visit to Kraków, there were also visits to the museum of the Schindler Factory, Collegium Maius, the Cloth Hall as well as the ghetto in Podgórze.
At the end of the seminar, the participants visited places directly related to both Jewish history and the Holocaust as well as places associated with the history of Poland. The educator also had the chance to visit such places as the former concentration camp of Gross-Rosenand, to learn about the Jewish history of Wrocław and to become acquainted with the activities of the Cukerman’s Gate Foundation in Będzin. The seminar concluded in Warsaw, where the guests visited the areas of the former ghettos, the Jewish cemetery and the Jewish Historical Institute.
