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Students from the State Higher Vocational School Reflect on their Internships at the Museum
The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the State Higher Vocational School (SHVS) in Oświęcim have signed a contract enabling students to hold internships at the Museum. The new agreement is permanent and not, like the previous ones, limited to one academic year at a time. This significantly facilitates cooperation between the institutions. Last year, 23 SHVS students held internships at the Museum.
Museum Director Piotr M.A. Cywiński, Ph. D. said at the signing that the Memorial, which plays such an important role in shaping the attitudes of young people around the world, has also, in a special way, become a valuable space for education and professional experience for young people from the Land of Oświęcim. “The development of various types of internships, work-study experiences, and volunteerships opens opportunities for SHVS students that their peers at other schools have not had and will not have,” said Cywiński. “Cooperation with the rector of the School, Professor Lucjan Suchanek, will soon make it possible to expand the range of offerings that permit the young people to acquire unique experience at the very start of their professional lives.”
The student internships last at least two weeks and involve work in various parts of the Museum, such as the Research Department, the Visitor Service Section, Information on Former Prisoners, and the Bureau for cooperation with former prisoners, as well as the projects put on by the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust. The interns’ tasks include transcribing and studying accounts by former prisoners, cataloguing, and help in data entry. The interns also take part in meetings with former prisoners who visit the camp.
During their internships, the students tour the grounds of the former camp with a guide, and also have a chance to see places that are normally off-limits to visitors, such as the storage areas for works of art and the preservation workshop. They learn about the Museum structure and the work of the various departments in special workshops. All of the interns have an opportunity to make use of the museum library and film library.
In the near future, the Museum and the SHVS also plan to begin an internship program for students from the Journalism Department at the school.
Excerpts from the reports that SHVS students wrote after the conclusion of their internships at the Museum
Anna Bartuś, student of English philology at the SHVS:
The work-study experience at the State Museum in Oświęcim was a big challenge for me. It was a very valuable experience to be able to meet people from different countries. I especially concentrated on improving my practical command of English, which I am studying. My work-study experience at the Museum taught me the importance of responsibility and time management at work. Hundreds, and sometimes thousands of tourists visit the Museum each day. In order to deal with this crowd, I had to be very disciplined and controlled. I was able to test myself in stressful situations similar to the ones I will encounter later in my professional career.
Ewa Otręba, student of Russian philology at the SHVS:
The opportunity for contact with Museum staff and tourists of various nationalities, from various social, cultural, and religious backgrounds, is interesting and inspiring for my further work and plans, and helps me to see myself in the proper light so that I can learn about my own abilities and limitations. Contact with the staff makes it possible to see the world through their experiences and sensibility, and perhaps to understand the world better.
Wojciech Pieczka, student of Russian philology at the SHVS:
The work-study experience at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum in Oświęcim significantly broadened my horizons, deepened my historical knowledge, focused my interests, and gave me the opportunity for direct contact with the Russian language in use. The dedication, professionalism, and true enthusiasm of the people I had the opportunity to meet during my work-study experience, and also the wide range of knowledge that I acquired and the tasks that I performed make the Memorial seem like a place worth dedicating my professional life to. Additionally, it offers opportunities for making a range of international contacts and making use of my knowledge and command of the Russian language.
