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Warning arises from memory. Auschwitz Memorial Report 2021
English-Polish report summarizing the year 2021 at the Auschwitz Museum and Memorial was published. In his introduction, Director Piotr M. A. Cywiński: "Warning is the child of wisdom. And this warning arises from memory."
"Never before were people as powerful and skilful as they are today. Yet we all care more about our own convenience in our world than for creating a better world for the children and the entire future," we read in the introduction.
"The future is not what will come someday, later, on its own! It is already here, already alive and developing in our intentions, in our choices and in our indifference," emphasized Piotr Cywiński.
80 pages of this publication include the information on the most important events which took place last year at the Museum, the analysis of attendance of the Memorial, which was last year visited by over 563 thousand people.
"Despite the difficulties caused by the pandemic, it was possible to organise more than 200 different types of educational activities at the Memorial, including workshops, presentations, talks and lectures. One of the responses to the challenge of the pandemic era has been the visible development of additional online activities," we read.
"A new way of disseminating knowledge about the history of Auschwitz is the series of bilingual podcasts available on all major global websites," emphasize the authors.
The most important educational event of the year was the international online methodological conference "If This Is a Man. Exclusions In the Modern World" that addressed issues of different forms of contemporary discriminations.
A special place in the report has been devoted to new technologies that will support the educational activities of the Museum.
"While nothing can supplant the personal experience of the Memorial’s authenticity, the pandemic triggered the search for new ways to reach schools and communities that temporarily could not visit the Museum," we read.
The Israeli company AppsFlyer is creating innovative tools to give millions of people the opportunity to visit the Memorial with an educator via the Internet. The Israeli company Diskin is responsible for the creative component of the project.
The Polish company Real Invented Studio is the author of a detailed reconstruction of the Birkenau campsite in digital 3D technology, working closely with Museum historians and educators. The resulting tool will provide visitors with the opportunity to experience the May-June 1944 camp space both on-screen and using VR goggles.
This area of the Museum’s development activities has been made possible with the support of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, which - in addition to building a fund to preserve the authenticity of the Memorial - has begun to raise additional funds for education.
Other subjects treated in the publication are conservation works conducted at the Memorial Site, new publications, directions of scientific works, new exhibitions and exhibitions which are being developed as well as new items in Museum Archives and Collections.
Financial statement and the list of donors who supported the Museum constitute another crucial element. The texts are accompanied by photographs presenting the most important events at the Memorial Site together with the reproductions of artefacts and archival documents.
The report is published a day before the 77th anniversary of the liberation of German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz.
