News

Session of the Auschwitz Musem Council

On 7 May 2026, the Council of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum met in Oświęcim under the chairmanship of Prof. Barbara Engelking.

At the beginning of the meeting, the Museum Director, Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński, presented the official appointment to the Museum Council to Krzysztof Kosior, the great-grandson of Witold Pilecki. His candidacy had been submitted to the Minister of Culture and National Heritage following the previous meeting.

Director Cywiński presented a report on the activities of the Memorial in 2025 and the first months of 2026, as well as plans for the coming months. As he stated, it had been an exceptionally intensive period.

“This is connected with several aspects. It is certainly an aftermath of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, which was felt throughout the entire previous year. Secondly, the international situation has generated significant interest in topics such as genocide, dehumanization, or propaganda, as people seek various points of reference, and the history of Auschwitz is one of them,” he said.

He spoke, among other things, about visitor attendance, which is currently relatively stable, as the tense international situation no longer has a particularly limiting effect on visits to the Museum.

“We still do not have many visitors from African countries, South America, or Central Asia. This interest primarily reflects the democratic space of the Western world. The gradual development of online visits is also important for us, as a new group of participants is increasingly making use of them: representatives of large international companies,” added Director Cywiński.

Last year, participants in online visits included, among others, ministers responsible for culture from the German federal states, Members of the European Parliament, and, in an unprecedented single initiative, approximately 200,000 Italian students.

Among the most important events held at the Museum, the Director mentioned, among others, the 81st anniversary of the liberation of the camp, during which the decision to refrain from political speeches was upheld.

“We placed much greater emphasis on the stage production of this event, which audiences around the world can follow thanks to the professional broadcast by Polish Television. A long-term agreement with the TVP also includes the creation of a special commentary studio. For the first time, we invited an actor to participate in the commemorations, whose interpretation gave voice to the words of a witness to history. Michał Żebrowski read a fragment of the camp notes written by Załmen Gradowski,” said Piotr Cywiński.

The Director also spoke about other anniversary commemorations organized at the Memorial, including those marking the first transport of Poles on 14 June 1940, the liquidation of the Roma camp, and the March of the Living.

Speaking about educational activities, the Director emphasized the importance of the new headquarters of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust, supported infrastructurally by the building of the new volunteer hostel, which contributes to the development of volunteer programs.

“The Memorial must have an education center within its structure. Only now do we fully realize how essential the creation of the new headquarters of the ICEAH in the Old Theatre was for the functioning of the Museum. Several groups can simultaneously participate there in very different educational activities. Such a headquarters also strengthens our capacity to prepare large conferences. Last year, during the expert meeting organized every two years, we debated the state of memory and its role in the face of the challenges posed by the contemporary world,” he emphasized.

The Director also spoke about the Museum’s acquisition of an exceptional original document created by Auschwitz Survivor Alfred Kantor, who was deported to the camp from the Theresienstadt ghetto at the end of 1943. “The Diary of Alfred Kantor,” together with his drawings and notes created both in the camp and after the war, constitutes an extraordinary visual testimony concerning both the Holocaust and the experience of imprisonment.

In his report, the Director also discussed new Museum publications. In 2025, the Museum published 116 titles in 16 languages, including 15 completely new publications. Total sales exceeded 372,000 copies. The publications are available both on-site and through the online bookstore at books.auschwitz.org.

Piotr Cywiński also announced the next presentation of the traveling exhibition “Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away.”, organized together with the company Musealia, which from January 2027 will be presented for more than two years at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Describing the progress of conservation work, the Director spoke, among other things, about the conservation of brick buildings at the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp, including the completion of conservation work on the oldest camp bathhouse, the securing of retaining walls around the building of the first crematorium and gas chamber at the former Auschwitz I camp, as well as the development of the Building Information Modeling (BIM) project in conservation documentation. The implementation of this technology at the Museum received a distinction during the InfraBIM 2025 conference last year.

After reviewing the 2025 report and the plans for the current year, the Council of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum unanimously adopted a resolution that positively evaluated and approved these activities.

Before the meeting, members of the Museum Council visited the new exhibitions in Block 15: “Poles in KL Auschwitz” and “In the Shadow of Death – Oświęcim during the German Occupation 1939-1945,” two blocks of the New Main Exhibition, as well as the new conservation laboratories.

Council of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (term 2025-2029)

Prof. Barbara Engelking – Chair

Bogdan Bartnikowski

Prof. Tomasz Gąsowski

Piotr Hertig

Krzysztof Kosior

Anna Mirkes-Radziwon

Dr. Katarzyna Person

Jacek Purski

Dr. Joanna Talewicz

Piotr Wiślicki

The Museum Council is an advisory body appointed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage pursuant to the Museums Act. The Council “supervises the fulfillment by the museum of its obligations towards its collections and society, evaluates the museum’s activities on the basis of the annual report submitted by the museum director, and issues opinions on the annual activity plan submitted by the director.”