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Prof. Marina Pignatelli appointed Honorary Consul of the Auschwitz Memorial in Portugal
Prof. Marina Pignatelli has been appointed Honorary Consul of the Auschwitz Memorial in Portugal. She will support the actions undertaken by the Diplomacy of Remembrance of the Auschwitz Museum in this country.
The appointment was presented to her by the Museum director, Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński, during the Colloquium "Research and lived experiences in Portugal during the Holocaust” which took place on February 9 at the Historical Society of Independence in Lisbon, and was organised by Prof. Marina Pignatelli in cooperation with Institute for Social and Political Sciences at the University of Lisbon, Centre for Research in Anthropology and with the Jewish Study Laboratory.
The event was also attended Maria Ossolińska, who heads the Diplomacy of Remembrance at the Auschwitz Museum.
“Memory is becoming increasingly important in today’s world, both in human and social terms. That is why I am honored and committed to this invitation to deeper cooperation with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial,” said Prof. Marina Pignatelli.
“Memory is like experience. In fact, in every sentence in which we reflect on experience, we can replace that word with the word memory. We can deal with experience and consider it a positive phenomenon. Memory is more difficult. Meanwhile, today's world forces us to find the right, positive role for memory, because everything is changing faster and faster," said Director Piotr Cywiński.
Honorary Consuls of the Auschwitz Memorial operate within the framework of the Diplomacy of remembrance of the Museum. Its goal is to build a network of individuals engaged in preserving the memory of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz and the Holocaust worldwide, as a warning to the contemporary world. The Museum assists them in initiating and implementing various educational and social projects that support the Museum mission and can reach people to counteract racism and intolerance together and to participate in building responsible, committed and sensitive societies.
During the war, hundreds of Polish families, mainly Jewish, found refuge in neutral Portugal, from where they could emigrate to other countries, including: Canada, South Africa, Brazil, or Australia.
In 2025, the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum was visited by over 9,000 visitors from Portugal.
Prof. Marina Pignatelli is a Cultural Anthropologist and Associate Professor at the Social and Political Sciences Institute – University of Lisbon. Her research focuses on Portuguese Jews and Judaism, since 1990, and the Portuguese intangible cultural heritage.
She is the author namely of Crypto-Jewish Prayers Notebook and Ethnographic Notes on the Jews and New-Christians of Braganza (2019); Jews and New Christians in the Lusophone World (2017); The Origins and Religious Practices and Identities of the Honen Dalim Jewish Community in Mozambique (2015); Interiorities and Exteriorities of the Jews of Lisbon (2008); and The Jewish Community of Lisbon: Past and Present in the Construction of Ethnicity (2000).
She is the executive coordinator of the Jewish Studies Laboratory at the University of Lisbon since 2015, co-coordinator of the Religions in Multiple Modernity’s Researchers Network and the Genalogias de Sefarad Researchers Network and researcher at CRIA – Centre for Research in Anthropology, where she also coordinates the Anthropology of Religion Network.
