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Seminar for Israeli educators at the Auschwitz Memorial
17 educators from Israel participated in the seminar entitled “Auschwitz in the collective consciousness in Poland and around the world. The role and significance of the memory of Auschwitz-Birkenau for Jews and Poles,” organized by the International Centre for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust. Among the participants there were the Yad Vashem Institute guides, employees of the Yad Vashem Archive as well as the employees of Beit Ha-Edut and Lochamei Hagetaot.
“Seminar participants had the opportunity to learn in details about the history of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz, including the unique opportunity to see the reservation premises, inaccessible for the visitors”, said Tomasz Kobylański, ICEAH seminar coordinator. “The meeting with former Auschwitz prisoner Bogdan Bartnikowski, who shared his camp memories with the participants, constituted another exceptionally important part of the stay at the Auschwitz Memorial. Bartnikowski was transported by the Germans to Auschwitz as a 12 years old boy from Warsaw during the Rising”, added Kobylański.
Within the program 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 program for extermination of the European Jews or the SS in KL Auschwitz. The participants also took part in study visits to Monowice and Jaszowice, where Auschwitz subcamps were located during the war. As part of the travel along one of the routes of so called Death Marches from Oświęcim to Gliwice, they saw postwar acts of commemoration of the victims of the camp evacuation as well as paid tribute to the victims.
“It was very interesting to listen to a different perspective. In general the history is the same, but presented in a different way. It is very good, because we had the opportunity to learn about many topics which are not covered during our studies and guide’s training. It includes in particular the experience of Polish prisoners, crucial if we want to get a deep understanding of what happened during the Second World War. This is what I talk about at work, but here I expanded my knowledge and understanding of the situation”, said Ilona Angert, Yad Vashem seminar coordinator, Yad Vashem guide.
“I took part in the seminar in particular to develop a new perspective of the subjects that I already know connected with the history of the Holocaust, the history of Auschwitz and the history of Jews. All my expectations were satisfied. It was also interesting for me to discover the subjects which were less familiar to me, such as the SS structures, the fate of the Sinti and the Roma, or Soviet prisoners of war in the camp”, said Niv Zonis, seminar participant, Yad Vashem guide.
On the day before the last day of the seminar, the educational mission of the Auschwitz Memorial was highlighted. For seminar participants, the majority of whom were Yad Vashem Institute guides, a meeting with Museum educators-guides was organized, which constituted a chance to exchange experiences and opinions on good practices.
The program of the seminar included also a visit to the Jewish Museum, the Chevra Lomdei Misznajot synagogue and the Jewish cemetery in Oświęcim. The participants visited also the premises of the Warsaw ghetto, the Jewish cemetery, the Warsaw Rising Museum and POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, as well as Cracow districts of Kazimierz and Podgórze, Schindler’s Factory and the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, where they listened to lectures by Dr. Edyta Gawron and Dr. Marek Kucia, associate professor.
The program of the seminar included for the first time a visit to the Marek Edelman Dialogue Center and Survivors Park, the participants visited former ghetto premises and the Jewish cemetery in Łódź.
