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The Second World War and Auschwitz in the Memory of the Younger Generation in the Land of Oświęcim
The deadline has passed for the submission of entries to the Withered Rose Competition, organized by the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust. The young entrants submitted 26 works. The results will be announced on January 12, 2007.
The majority of the works submitted to the Museum are directly connected with the history of Auschwitz Concentration Camp and its sub-camps. Some document the wartime fate of the relatives of present-day residents of Oświęcim and the surrounding area.
Entries include documents, photographs, memoirs, signet rings, medallions, paintings, firearm components, a gas mask, and a wooden barrel. Under the rules of the competition, each of these objects dates from the time of the Second World War and includes photographic documentation and a certificate of authenticity describing its history.
Entrants were students of intermediate and secondary schools in Małopolska and Silesia. “In the first stage of the competition, the young people attended a three-day seminar at the Museum,” said Dr. Maria Martyniak of the Center. “During the seminar, they had a chance to learn more about the camp and familiarize themselves with the work of the Conservation and Collections Department and the Museum Archives. A meeting with an Oświęcim woman who was a prisoner in the camp, Wanda Sawkiewicz, made a big impression on them.”
The competition was the brainchild of Center organizational director Andrzej Kacorzyk. He said that the main idea was to stimulate and deepen the students’ historical awareness and inspire them to learn more about the history of their home region. “We realize how important it is for young people to have unconventional, emotional encounters with history that go beyond normal classroom lessons,” he said.
