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“The Faces of Justice” — A Conference
On July 27-30, at the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust and at the International Youth Meeting Center, a conference was held, entitled, “Faces of Justice: The world against the Holocaust and Other Crimes of Genocide in the Twentieth Century”.
The goal of the three day session, which took place both in close proximity as well as at the Auschwitz Memorial Site and Museum, was the discussion on the continuation and consequences of genocide in the modern world, as well as a reflection on how they should be prosecuted and the kinds of effective education that lead in prevention of such crimes in the future.
— I am very pleased that we were able to meet for what is such an important conference for us — Krystyna Oleksy, director of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust told the participants – At the International Center for Education, the subject of our work is the history of Auschwitz and the history of the Holocaust, however, we do not want to limit ourselves to talking the past and separating ourselves from what has happened and what is currently taking place in the world after the Holocaust, after Auschwitz. That is why, with great pride we are working in this area with the International Youth Meeting Center. I have great hope that this second conference, conducted in cooperation and dealing with this subject will be an inspiration for all of us to do further work in this area.
The conference was divided into several sessions. The subject areas dealt with, among others: issues related to genocide, war criminals and their fates, pseudo-scientific medical experiments, as well as the post-War fate of the youngest prisoners of Auschwitz. The organizers made it possible for the participants to present their own research projects. At the end of the conference, a panel discussion took place that summarized the sessions, which included the invited guests that led them, experts in the areas of: law, history, as well as political science.
Attending the conference were nearly 80 participants, who work in historical education in schools, colleges and universities, non-governmental organizations, and at institutions that research the crimes of genocide.
In addition to the ICEAH, the organizers of this meeting were the Foundation for the International Youth Meeting Center in Oświęcim and the Oświęcim Academy, in cooperation with the History Institute of the Pedagogical University in Cracow and the Center for Holocaust Studies at the Jagiellonian University.
