News
Training for Guides
The annual seven-week-long course for guides at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim has begun. It is intended to enhance the guides’ techniques and command of the subject matter.
The writer Zofia Pomysz, a former Auschwitz prisoner who authored the screenplay for Andrzej Munk’s classic film The Passenger, made a personal appearance at the guides’ course. She was in Oświęcim to launch the new, third edition of her book on the experiences of women Auschwitz prisoners, Wakacje nad Adriatykiem [Vacation on the Adriatic], which is published by the Museum.
This year’s program ranges over such diverse subjects as issues in Roma identity and the problems of the contemporary Roma community, voice control and projection techniques for guides, and groundskeeping and care for the vegetation at the Museum.
The training will end in mid-March with a visit to the recently opened preservation workshops at the Museum.
Last year, citizens of 100 different countries visited the Museum. The largest proportion of visitors came from Poland, followed by the USA, Germany, Italy, the UK, Israel, Norway, France, South Korea, Sweden, and Spain.
Approximately 90 percent of visitors—427,662 persons, to be exact—benefited from guide services. Of the 155 guides who were active, 53 are Museum employees.
Museum guides work in English, Croatian, French, Hebrew, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, German, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovakian, Swedish, Hungarian, and Italian.
