News

Training for Auschwitz Museum Guides. Record Numbers of Guides and Record Numbers of Visitors

As is the case every year, this winter is a training period for over 170 Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum guides. Aimed at enhancing the guides’ qualifications, the program for this winter was developed by the staff of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust, which opened in 2005.

Krystyna Oleksy, the director of the Center, hosted the opening meeting. Summing up the previous twelve months, she announced that 2005 was a record-setting year, with almost a million people visiting the Museum grounds, buildings, and exhibitions.

The visitors benefited from the expert services of Museum guides who led tours in English, Croatian, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, and Swedish.

The 2006 guide training program covers a traditionally wide range of subjects. Historians with specialist knowledge will discuss the fate of people deported to Auschwitz from Warsaw during the Uprising there, transports of Soviet POWs to Auschwitz, and the Ringelblum Archive.

There are sure to be emotional moments during meetings with two former Auschwitz prisoners, Maria Kosk and Bogdan Bartnikowski, as well as with Bishop Albin Małysiak and Janina Rościszowska-Krawczyk, both of whom were awarded the Righteous among the Nations of the World Medal for aiding Jews during the German occupation.

A Record Number of Visitors

Almost a million people visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum in 2005, compared to attendance figures that fluctuated between 500 and 700 thousand in previous years. Last year’s attendance was the highest since the early 1970s.

Citizens of 106 countries visited the Museum last year. The largest numbers came from Poland, the USA, Germany, the UK, Israel, Italy, France, North Korea, Norway, Spain, and the Czech Republic. The majority of the visitors benefited from the expert services of 177 local guides.

154 film and TV crews worked at the Museum, including 34 crews from Poland and 120 from other countries. They received informational and organizational help. Films shot at the site included the 90-minute documentary Holocaust: A Music Memorial Film from Auschwitz, which won a prestigious Emmy award.

Training Program Schedule

• February 2, 2006

  “The Fate of Warsaw Residents Deported to Auschwitz during the Warsaw Uprisiing” – Lecture by Helena Kubica of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. Meeting with former prisoners Maria Kosk and Bogdan Bartnikowski;

• February 9, 2006

  “Transports of Soviet POWs to Auschwitz” – Lecture by Dr. Violetta Rezler-Wasilewska, Renata Kobylarz, and Roman Ciasnocha of the Central POW Museum in Łambinowice-Opole. Showing of the film Łambinowice/Lamsdorf: The History of the Camps, the Museum, and the Memorial;

• March 2, 2006

  “The Righteous among the Nations of the World” – Lecture by Dr. Michał Sobelman of the Embassy of Israel in Warsaw. Meeting with Bishop Albin Małysiak and Janina Rościszowska-Krawczyk, both awarded the Righteous among the Nations of the World Medal for aiding Jews during the German occupation

• March 9, 2006

  “The Ringenblum Archive” – Lecture by Dr. Eleonora Bergman of the Jewish Historical Institute;

• March 14-23, 2006

  Training in groups on modifications to the procedures for guided tours.