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MEMORIAL AND MUSEUM AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU FORMER GERMAN NAZI
CONCENTRATION AND EXTERMINATION CAMP

News

"To reach people in the most remote corners of the world". The launch of the online tours of the Auschwitz Memorial.

ps
29-12-2023

"Auschwitz in Front of Your Eyes" is an application through which millions of people from around the world gain access to education conducted directly from the authentic Memorial Site. It allows an online guided tour of the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. Reservations can be made through the visit.auschwitz.org system.

 

The online tour lasts about two hours and is divided into two parts – in Auschwitz I and Birkenau. The guide's narration is conducted live. Additionally, the educator will also use multimedia materials, archival photographs, artistic works, documents, and testimonies of Survivors. Thanks to the application, interaction with the guide and asking questions is also possible.

TOURS FOR GROUPS / SCHOOLS

The tour for groups is currently available in 7 languages (English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, and Spanish). Bookings can be made after logging in via a form available on visit.auschwitz.org.

TOURS FOR INDIVIDUAL VISITORS

Individual visitors can join guided tours starting at specific times of the day in English, German and Polish. Booking is also available at visit.auschwitz.org.

'This form of a visit differs from on-site tours primarily because, in the online version, we do not present the museum exhibitions. Technology allows us to somewhat transfer the content of the exhibition to the historical site, as many things can be additionally shown on the screen. In addition, during the online tour, it will be possible, thanks to video recordings, to enter several spaces that are either not accessible to visitors, such as Block 10 in the former Auschwitz I camp, or are located too far from the regular tour route, such as the Sauna building in the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp,' said Tomasz Michaldo, coordinating the project at the Museum.

'The Auschwitz Memorial and its resources must remain accessible to all who want to understand it. This is where we have the opportunity to confront and address the most important issues related to humanity, society, the threats of antisemitism, racial hatred, and contempt for others. These threats unfortunately become more relevant in today's world,' said Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński, the director of the Auschwitz Museum.

'Our mission is to commemorate the victims and preserve this universal memory, on which to a large extent we have built and continue to build our post-war identity. Although thousands of people visit the authentic site every day, thanks to this unique technology, we will be able to reach people in the most remote corners of the world. We hope that this will strengthen the memory that actually gives us the power to act responsibly for the repair of the world. Thanks to this, it will be a better place to live for our children and grandchildren,' emphasized director Cywiński.

This special online platform was created as a cooperation between the Museum, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, and the companies AppsFlyer and DISKIN.

‘This project creates opportunities and is also a great responsibility. Preserving the authenticity of the historical site will continue to play the main role in the work of the Foundation, but making this innovative educational format available to the world is a completely new activity for us. I am glad that, thanks to this, we can support the work of the guides of the Museum,’ said Wojciech Soczewica, Director General of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation.

'The most important thing for us was to learn and understand how we can connect history with technology. It was a long process, during which our friends from the Museum taught us as much as possible before we started thinking about technology and content. From the beginning, the main goal was to make the Auschwitz Memorial accessible all the time. Over time, we understood that we would create a unique educational tool,' said Liron Or from AppsFlyer.

'From the very beginning, it was clear that we would need many technologies from different fields. The main challenge was to build a platform, although we had no awareness of the technological challenge. But visitors don't have to know about technology; they have to experience the tour. From the guide's perspective, it was necessary to enable one-click control. We created a very flexible system that allows managing the tour but also creating new tools and experiences,' said Ran Diskin.

'By tailoring the guided tour, we can give information at the exact locations where the history happened. We can add layers of content that are only visible on the screen and that cannot be conveyed in physical form. Technology allows us to go beyond the exhibition space and tell the story of Auschwitz where it actually took place,' added Aya Feldman from AppsFlyer, responsible for the creative work in the project.

The creation of the online guided tour project is also possible thanks to the support of global companies such as Orange, which has provided stable and high-speed wireless internet access throughout the Memorial, as well as the producer of the devices through which the guides will connect with visitors to the Memorial.

'On behalf of the Foundation, which was responsible for raising funds, but also for building partnerships to support the project, I would like to thank all the donors, without whom the realisation of this unique project would not have been possible,' added Wojciech Soczewica.

At various stages of its creation we could count on the support of many private and corporate donors, foundations, but also memorial sites from all over the world, who donated to us pro bono, among other things, the rights to the recordings of Survivors' accounts. Most noteworthy is the decision of the first cities and countries to donate funds to test the technology and to enable visits for schools. I very much hope that the launch of the app will help us implement this digital education programme around the world,’ said Soczewica

In November of this year, AppsFlyer received this year's Global AWS Partner Award for the online tour project as the partner of the year in the field of social impact.

Donors of the "Auschwitz in Front of Your Eyes" project:

AppsFlyer
Bloomberg Philanthropies
Choose Love
General Atlantic
Hudson Bay
Marcy Greenglas and Joel Greenberg, Seed the Dream Foundation
Orange Polska
The Wasserman Foundation
The Kraft family Foundation
The Neubauer Family Foundation

as well as

Monaco
Malta
USA

City of Leeds

and

Toronto Holocaust Museum
USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Yad Vashem