Information Bulletin July-December 2000.

Contents:

1. ATTENDANCE
2. VISITORS SERVICES SECTION
3. THE ARCHIVES
4. COLLECTIONS
5. PRESERVATION
6. HISTORICAL RESEARCH DEPARTMENT
7. FORMER AUSCHWITZ PRISONERS SECTION
8. OFFICE FOR INFORMATION ON FORMER PRISONERS
9. PUBLICATIONS
10. EXHIBITIONS
11. EDUCATIONAL CENTER
12. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTION

In 2000, 434,000 people visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. There were citizens of 104 countries among the visitors. In comparison with the preceding year, the breakdown of visitors from Poland and other countries looks like this:

The decline in attendance occurred mostly among young people from Poland and was a result of reforms to the educational system.

The ten countries accounting for the largest numbers of visitors for the year 2000:

1. Poland 224 996
2. USA 46 838
3. Germany 34 671
4. UK 19 169
5. Italy 17 705
6. Israel 17 315
7. France 16 289
8. Norway 13 861
9. Sweden 10 690
10. The Netherlands 7 566

(For details, see Attendance)

In 2000, over 367,000 visitors - that is, some 85% of the total - had guided tours. They were led by 163 guides, 70 of whom worked in languages other than Polish. Of these guides, 58 were full-time Museum employees, while 105 worked on a part-time basis.

In the second half of the year, 31 film and television crews worked at the Museum. Seven crews came from Poland and the rest from other countries.

Political figures who visited the Museum included:

• Italian president Carlo Azelio - March 15, 2000.
• Lithuanian president Valdas Adamkus - April 6.
• Belgian foreign minister Louis Michel - July 13.
• European parliament speaker Nicole Fontaine - August 29.
• North-Rhine Westphalia prime minister Wolfgang Clement - September 2.

• The section received approximately 450,000 visitors from Poland and other countries, and provided guide services to most of them. The Museum offers a standard tour that includes the main exhibition buildings in Auschwitz I, as well as the Birkenau site. There are also one- and two-day specialist tours that often include sessions in the Archives and the Collections Department. The documentary film Oświęcim-Auschwitz may also be viewed during the tour. On request, documentary films may be screened for groups of young visitors.
• Groups were shown around the Museum by 163 licensed Museum guides, of whom 70 work in languages other than Polish (English, German, French, Italian, Hungarian, Slovak, Russian, Japanese, Serbian, Spanish, and Dutch).
• A second reception area was opened for individual visitors in order to provide them with better access to information and to permit the greatest possible number of visitors to benefit from the services of Museum guides. This has resulted in improved services and in a higher percentage of visitors taking guided tours.
• Current statistics were kept on numbers of visitors from Poland and from other countries, and of young people and adults, as well as of the Museum's educational activities.
• From January to April 2000, members of the Section staff carried out the annual cycle of training sessions for guides. The program featured lectures on The Issue of the Manipulation of Human Consciousness; Auschwitz Concentration Camp in the Polish Social Consciousness Today; Police Prisoners in Auschwitz Concentration Camp; and Inscriptions, Drawings, and Signs Made by Prisoners on the Walls of the Buildings of Auschwitz Concentration Camp;
• The guides were observed at work with a view to factual accuracy and methods of guiding visitors, and mistakes and suggestions for improvement were discussed in individual feedback sessions;
• In the second half of the year, several dozen film crews from fifteen countries visited the Museum grounds. Section staff members were responsible for arranging all the formalities connected with the work of these film crews in the Museum, including informational and technical services, as well as correspondence;
• The Section organized visits by high-profile guests from Poland and other countries, and maintained the Guest Book;
• Interested persons and students from Poland and other countries were provided with information on the Museum's educational work and on the number of visitors;
• The Section cooperated with the International Youth Meeting House and the Center for Dialogue and Prayer in Oświęcim in organizing residencies at the Museum for study groups.

- Staff member Wanda Hutny:

- participated in a July seminar at Buchenwald on violence among young people;

- gave a lecture on Education at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum to lecturers from the USA in August;

- gave the same lecture to schoolteachers in Thuringia as part of a November conference at the Buchenwald Museum on "Memorial Sites as Education Centers" (Gedenkstätte als Lernorte).

- In July, the Section organized a two-week seminar on "The Collective Awareness of Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland and the World." The seminar was attended by 18 employees and historians from Yad Vashem in Israel and 3 persons from the Holocaust Museum in Washington. As part of the seminar, Museum staff members and guests gave a series of lectures on such subjects as The Conflict over Polish and Jewish Memory, The German and Soviet Occupation of Poland from 1939, Jews in Auschwitz Concentration Camp, Jews in Poland after the Second World War, The Political and Social Situation in Poland after 1989, Poles in Auschwitz Concentration Camp, and Attitudes of Poles towards Auschwitz during the Occupation. Participants in the seminar also had a chance to become familiar with Polish history and culture through tourist excursions. The seminar was organized by Section staff members Wanda Hutny and Danuta Bzduła, who looked after the needs of the guests.

The archival collections were enriched through the following acquisitions:

• 74 original camp documents (camp letters, camp postcards, notifications of the death of prisoners);
• 118 photocopies of camp documents (camp letters, camp postcards, notifications of the death of prisoners);
• 26 accounts by former prisoners;
• 14 memoirs by former prisoners;
• 68 questionnaires on the fate of prisoners ain Poland and in other countries;
• 196 photographs (mainly photographs of former prisoners deported to Auschwitz Concentration Camp after the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising made available by themselves or their families);
• 75 video cassettes with documentary and feature films and accounts by former prisoners in various languages, obtained in Poland or abroad, or recorded by the Archives;
• 12 audio cassettes with accounts by former prisoners.

During this period, the photographic studio made 8,172 photographic prints for the Museum and on commission, and 2,500 frames of microfilms of various documents. Preservation work also continued on the original negatives of camp photographs of prisoners (including 2,750 copies of negatives and 6,500 prints).

In the second half of 2000, Archives staff members gave over 20 lectures and talks to groups of young people and teachers (a total of more than 200 persons) from Israel, Japan, Canada, Germany, Poland, and the USA. The lectures dealt with the resources of the Archives and the potential for using the Archives for scholarly research and teaching (Wojciech Płosa, Helena Śliż), as well as "Bureaucracy in Auschwitz Concentration Camp" and the history of the Jewish community in Oświęcim during the period between the First and Second World Wars (Lucyna Filip).

• Archives director Barbara Jarosz took part in an international conference on the issue of the tasks and role in the twenty-first century of museums dedicated to recent history, held in Banska Bystryca (Slovakia) in November. While there, she held talks on cooperation between the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising and the Auschwitz Museum. One of the subjects discussed was assistance to the museum in Banska Bystryca in organizing a permanent exhibition in Oświęcim on the fate of prisoners deported from Slovakia to Auschwitz Concentration Camp
• From October 16-20, Helena Śliż carried out a search of the archives of the Stutthof State Museum in Sztutowo for documentation related directly or indirectly to Auschwitz Concentration Camp. She made 1,148 copies of documents for the Auschwitz Archives (transport lists of men and women prisoners sent from Auschwitz Concentration Camp to Stutthof Concentration Camp, prisoners' personal information cards, the registry book for newly arrived prisoners, and orders issued by the commandant's office).

Lucyna Filip published the article "Powrót po latach" [A Return Years Later] in Pro Memoria 12 and "Wszystkie modlitwy świata" [All the Prayers in the World] in Dziennik Zachodny (100).

419 people, 257 of them from outside Poland, visited the Archive for scholarly, research, and educational purposes in the second half of 2000.

From June to December 2000, the Museum acquired 63 items for its collections:

• 13 items are artistic museum exhibits including paintings, artistic crafts, stamps, coins, posters, plans, and models;
• 50 items are historical museum exhibits from the "plundered property," "textiles," "footwear," "camp equipment," and "instruments of terror" categories.

These items were acquired by donation or transfer.

Valuable acquisitions include:

1. Men's camp clothing - the striped camp uniform (blouse and trousers) of Marian Kostuch, a Polish political prisoner at Auschwitz Concentration Camp, camp number 21124;

2. A child's dress sewn from a camp blanket by a woman Auschwitz Concentration Camp prisoner for her daughter, who was also in the camp, with the vestiges of a "Streif" visible on the back (Streifen - German for "stripe" or "streak" ; in camp jargon, the markings painted on the backs of civilian garments worn by prisoners);

3. Three fragments of the label from a can of Zyklon B, found on the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. A yellow label with a German-language text printed in red and a drawing of a skull;

4. A folded, decorated sachet, hand made by Auschwitz Concentration Camp prisoner Wanda Marossanyi, camp number 7524, during her incarceration in the prison in Tarnów;

5. A ring made of horse-hair by Auschwitz Concentration Camp prisoner Waldemar Rowiński in 1942, engraved with the initials "SF" i and the date "6.VI.42";

6. Two French gold coins found on the site of the Birkenau camp:

- a 20-franc coin inscribed "Napoleon III Empereur", "Empire Français" and dated "1864";

- a 100-franc coin inscribed "Republique Française", "Liberté Egalité Fraternité" and dated "1886";

7. A painting by contemporary painter Tadeusz Kinowski, titled Birkenau?the Pyres, painted ca. 1988 and signed "Kwant";

8. A contemporary painting by Eiji Yamamura, titled Joy in the Future, painted in 2000 and singed "Eiji...";

9. Four postcards with reproductions of camp correspondence forms, bearing a commemorative stamp on the reverse reading "60th anniversary of the deportation of the first transport of Polish political prisoners to Auschwitz Concentration Camp," issued by the Christian Association of Auschwitz Families in 2000;

10. Three posters reading "Christian Association of Auschwitz Families, Batory Municipal House of Culture, two-day seminar for students - Chorzów Municipal Government invites you to an evening of reminiscences titled 'Chorzów residents in Auschwitz Concentration Camp' - a meeting between the generations with former prisoners of Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp";

11. Part of a design for a monument to the former concentration camp in Monowice'a relief with the outlines of a figure lying on its side, by Tadeusz Kinowski.

These acquisitions were noted in the inventory books, on 35 cards in the research catalogue, and in 13 auxiliary file catalogues.

In the second half of 2000, Section staffers Jolanta Kupiec, Janina Cygan, and Jan Kapłon gave almost 30 lectures on Art in Auschwitz Concentration Camp, mostly for young people and teachers from Brazil, Denmark, Israel, Canada, Germany, Poland, South Africa, and the USA; 313 of the listeners came from Poland, and 365 from other countries.

In November 2000, Section staff member Jan Kapłon took part in an international conference on "Memorial Sites as Education Centers" (Gedenkstätte als Lernorte), organized by the Thüringen Institut für Lehrerfortbildung at the Buchenwald Museum, and gave a lecture on the use of art works in education at the Auschwitz Museum.

Research and documentation work included:

• The publication of two articles in Pro Memoria 12:
  - "Opowieść w obrazach" [A Story in Pictures] (Jolanta Kupiec );
  - "Mecenas obozowej sztuki. Franciszek Targosz" [Franciszek Targosz, the Maecenas of Camp Art.] (Jolanta Kupiec);
• Work began on approximately 80 exhibits consisting of crematorium components, in connection with which archival searches and examinations were carried out in the Majdanek and Sztutowo museums (Igor Bartosik);
• 35 catalogue cards were completed for newly acquired exhibits (Janina Cygan, Jolanta Kupiec);
• Approximately 300 items of information were acquired for the documentary dossiers for historical and artistic exhibits and for authorial dossiers;

The Collections Department had 874 visitors, 533 of whom came from outside Poland (from Austria, Brazil, Denmark, Israel, Japan, Canada, Germany, South Africa, Slovakia, and the USA). They included employees of similar museums, former prisoners, students, teachers, and journalists and television crews, who were given access to the exhibits and documentation.

• Preservation procedures were applied to 37 paintings, drawings, and graphics from the Museum collections;
• The collection of 5,011 toothbrushes was deteriorating, and was therefore sent off for preservation.
• A group of 21 students from the School of Preservation in Cologne, under the direction of Professor Friedemann Hellwig, spent two weeks at the Museum. The Cologne institution of higher education and the Museum are in their eighth year of cooperation. The students came from the departments of wood, masonry/stone, painting/sculpture, graphics, and paper. They carried out partial preservation and protective work on 161 museum items, including sculptures, metal- and woodworking tools, suitcases, banknotes, paintings, drawings, and designs for monuments. Working under the supervision of qualified preservationists, the students documented their work fully, including photographs.

Three Polish women studying at the Fine Arts Academy in Warsaw and five other women studying at the Preservation Schools in Hildesheim and Potsdam also took part in the workshops.

• A total of 5,080 exhibits were loaned for various purposes (exhibitions, preservation, filming).
• Searches of the collection, consultations, and documentation were provided for various institutions and private individuals, including:
  - Verein Museum Arbeitswelt in Steyr, Austria, for the exhibition Auschwitz;
  - Employees of "exCepC" in Osnabrück (Germany) for a planned series of exhibitions on On the Edge?Art in Auschwitz;
  - Anita Tomanek of Katowice, as material for a master's thesis on the history of postcards;
  - Jerzy Hłond of Sławków, who is writing a biography of the priest and painter, Father Marcin Dubiel;
  - the GBA Film Studio of Siemianowice Śląskie for use in a film commissioned by the Polish ministry of culture and national heritage;
  - Mahn und Gedenkstätte Ravensbrück for a study of the origin of prisoners' clothing in Auschwitz Concentration Camp
  - suitcases belonging to Jews from Nuremberg to Museen der Stadt Nürmberg,
  - works by camp artists from Slovakia, to the staff of the Museum in Banska Bystryca
  - occupation-era metal identification insignia, known as "marks," to the archaeologist Martinus A. Hauglid of Norway;
  - drugs produced by Bayer to Rüdiger Borstel of Cologne;
  - Jason M. Farlane, for a study of the painter and architect Henri Pica, who was a prisoner of Buchenwald;
  - camp portraits by former prisoner Franciszek Jaźwiecki, to Wanda Jaźwiecka Fiszer of Cracow.

Preservation work funded by the German Federal Länder, the Polish ministry of culture and national heritage, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp Victims Memorial Foundation, and the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation of the USA continued on the grounds of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum in the second half of 2000.

German Federal Länder funding

Funding appropriated by the German Federal Länder was used for the following purposes:

• The ground was hardened around the "Sauna" building;
  cost ca. 162,000 zł.;
• The surface of the road in front of the Sauna B-392 building was repaired;
  cost ca. 15,000 zł.;
• As part of the "technical furnishing" of the "Sauna" building, work continued in connection with the putting into operation of a containerized public toilet and the conversion of one of the rooms inside the building as a toilet for staff;
  cost ca. 769,000 zł.;
• Additional electrical installations to serve the exhibition inside the "Sauna" building;
  cost ca. 3,000 zł.;
• After the taking of bids and selection of a contractor, work began on the first stage ("Stage A") of the preservation of the camp fencing. Renovation was carried out on some of the fence posts on the Birkenau site. In 2000, the fencing around the grounds of Sector BIIg ("Kanada") was carried out. "Stage A" will be completed in 2001.
• The prefabricated concrete spans of the fencing along ulica Legionów were also preserved and repaired.

Ministry of Culture and National Heritage Funding

The following repair and preservation projects were carried out in 2000 with funding from the Polish ministry of culture and national heritage:

1. Waterproofing of the elevation block A-13 was completed;
cost ca. 34,000 zł.;

2. In connection with the planned opening of a permanent exhibition on the destruction of the Gypsies (Roma) in Auschwitz Concentration Camp, construction work continued on the second floor of block no. 13 (Auschwitz I). The cost of this work in the second half of 2000 amounted to approximately 70,000 zł.;

Costs associated with the exhibition are covered by the Center for the Documentation of the Sinti and Roma in Heidelberg, Germany;

3. Gutters were replaced on block 16 (Auschwitz I);
cost ca. 22,000 zł.;

4. Damage caused to the fire-alarm system in camp buildings at the Auschwitz I site by a lightning strike was repaired;
cost ca. 41,000 zł.;

5. The air-conditioning piping in block no. 19 (Auschwitz I) was renovated;
cost ca. 6 200 zł.;

6. Fire-alarm systems were installed in block no. 29 and the Blockführerstube (guardhouse) at Auschwitz I, following the renovation of those buildings;
cost ca. 5 200 zł.;

7. The carpeting in the office for information on former prisoners in block no. 24 (Auschwitz I) was replaced by a composition-stone floor;
cost ca. 10,000 zł.;

8. Construction and preservation work began on the original washroom in block no. 12 (Auschwitz I);
cost ca. 11,000 zł.;

9. A partial renovation was carried out on the interior plumbing in the building that houses the visitors services center;
cost ca. 80,000 zł.;

10. Approximately 70,000 zł was spent on the purchase of weed-killer and the overall care of the lawns, and the trimming of hedges. Work continues on care for the trees on the grounds of the Auschwitz Museum;
the projected cost is approximately 25,000 zł.

Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp Victims Memorial Foundation funding

Funding from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp Victims Memorial Fund paid for the following preservation projects:

- Renovation of the elevation of block no. 25 and laying of sewers between this building and the parcel barracks;
cost ca. 80,000 zł.;

- Continuing renovation of the film-screening room in block no. 11. Through the end of December 2000, planned expenditure for this purpose is approximately 40,000 zł. Lighting equipment was purchased for a sum of approximately 17,000 zł and amplification and audio-video equipment for approximately 28,000 zł.;

Work began on commemorating the site of the first provisional gas chamber, the "Little Red House."

Ronald S. Lauder Foundation funding

The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation (USA) is financing work begun earlier in 2000 on the adaptation of the other part of building no. 50 (which now holds the visitors reception center) for use as preservation workshops and studios.

The roof rafters were impregnated against fire. Work began on central heating, plumbing, and electrical installations. General construction work is also continuing;
cost ca. 2,000,000 zł.

Scholarly studies published in the second half of 2000.

• Księga Pamięci. Transporty Polaków do KL Auschwitz 1940-1944 [Memorial Book: Transports of Poles to Auschwitz Concentration Camp]. Warszawa-Oświęcim, 2000 (Franciszek Piper, Irena Strzelecka, eds.);
  The Historical Research Department was responsible for the concept and graphic layout, coordinated and checked the preparation, evaluation, and verification of the introductory texts, lists of names, descriptions of transports, and selection of illustrative materials. Additionally, Department staff members prepared historical studies of some of the transports, lists of names, and illustrations.
• Department staff members Franciszek Piper and Irena Strzelecka also wrote two introductory essays. The 1,660 pages of the three volumes commemorate 26,000 Polish prisoners from Warsaw and the Warsaw District who were deported to Auschwitz Concentration Camp from 1940-1944. Half of these people were prisoners who had already been incarcerated in the Pawiak Gestapo prison, and the other half were Warsaw residents deported to Auschwitz Concentration Camp during the Uprising, by way of the Pruszków transit camp (see also Księga Pamięci in the Publications section);
• Ochotnik do Auschwitz. Witold Pilecki 1901-1948 [Volunteer for Auschwitz: Witold Pilecki 1901-1948]. Oświęcim, 2000 (author: Adam Cyra).
  The author's doctoral dissertation, the book is a biography of one of the principal founders of the resistance movement in Auschwitz Concentration Camp. The work is based on a wealth of source material including material from the Museum archives and records from the post-war trial of Pilecki by the security organs in connection with his activities in opposition to the Polish communist authorities of the day. The book also includes the report in which Pilecki described the work of the resistance movement in Auschwitz Concentration Camp;
• "Transport radomski do KL Auschwitz 25 lutego 1941 roku. Geneza i przebieg aresztowań. Więźniowie i ich losy" [The February 25, 1941 Radom Transport to Auschwitz: Origins and Course of the Arrests; The Prisoners and their Fate], in: Lata wojny i okupacji (1939-1945), Biuletyn Kwartalny Radomskiego Towarzystwa Naukowego, tom XXX.IV (1999), 3-4 (authors: Adam Cyra and Sebastian Piątkowski);
• "Rola więzienia Pawiak w deportacji Polaków do KL Auschwitz" [The Role of Pawiak Prison in the Deportation of Poles to Auschwitz Concentratrion Camp], in: Księga Pamięci. Transporty Polaków do KL Auschwitz 1940-1944, Warszawa-Oświęcim 2000 (author: Franciszek Piper);
• "Baza źródłowa" [The Sources], in: Księgi Pamięci i Transporty z Warszawy do KL Auschwitz 1940-1944, (author: Irena Strzelecka);
• "Die bisherige Forschung und die Möglichkeiten ihrer Weiterführung zum Thema: Todesmarsche von Auschwitz", in: Evakuierung und Befreiung - das Museum des Todesmarsches (Belower Wald/Wittstock). 32. bundesweites Gedenkstättenseminar vom 3.-6. Juni 1999 in Flecken Zechlin (author: Andrzej Strzelecki).

Adam Cyra

• "Cichociemny z Babic" [The Secret Parachute Agent from Babice], Głos Ziemi Oświęcimskiej, 15 (2000);
• "Z historii pewnego transportu" [From the History of a Certain Transport], in: Przechodniu powiedz Polsce... 60. rocznica pierwszej masowej egzekucji Polaków w Auschwitz Concentration Camp, Oświęcim 2000;
• "W sprawie pobytu Józefa Cyrankiewicza w KL Auschwitz" [The Question of Jozef Cyrankiewicz's Time in Auschwitz Concentration Camp], in: Biuletyn Towarzystwa Opieki nad Oświęcimiem, 37 (1999);
• "Skazani za jednego uciekiniera" [Sentenced for a Single Escaper], Pro Memoria, 12 (2000);

Piotr Setkiewicz

• "Niemcy w okupowanym Oświęcimiu" [Germans in Occupied Oświęcim], Pro Memoria, 12 (Piotr Setkiewicz);
• "Miasto Auschwitz - wzór niemieckiego osadnictwa na wschodzie" [The City of Auschwitz: A Pattern for German Colonization in the East], Pro Memoria, 12;
• "Niemieccy żołnierze o zbrodniach w KL Auschwitz" [German Soldiers on the Crimes in Auschwitz Concentration Camp], Pro Memoria, 13;

Andrzej Strzelecki

• "Gorzki smak wolności" [The Bitter Taste of Freedom], Pro Memoria, 12 (Andrzej Strzelecki);
• "Rozmowy na rampie" [A Conversation on the Ramp], Pro Memoria, nr 13 (Andrzej Strzelecki);

Adam Cyra

• "The Resistance Movement in and Around Auschwitz Concentration Camp"; lecture at the People's House in Malec;
• "Witold Pilecki"; lecture; at W. Pilecki Secondary and Vocational School Complex No. 5 in Katowice;
• "Piotr Szewczyk"; talk; at Major P. Szewczk Intermediate School No. 2 in Rakjsko;

Franciszek Piper

• "The Origins of the Nazi Concentration Camps and Their Place in the Structure of the Nazi Repression Apparatus"; October, lecture; post-graduate course;
• "The Founding of the Camp, Its Spatial and Organizational Growth, Its Functions, and Prisoner Labor"; November, lecture; post-graduate course;
• "Methods of Extermination in Auschwitz Concentration Camp"; November, lecture; post-graduate course;

Piotr Setkiewicz

• "Jewish Prisoners in Auschwitz Concentration Camp"; July, lecture for staff members from Yad Vashem;
• "The History of the IG Farben Werk Auschwitz and Monowitz Concentration Camp"; July, lecture for staff members from Yad Vashem;
• "The Polish Resistance Movement in the Second World War"; October, talk; conference on "The Participation of Christians and the Anti-Fascist Resistance Movement in Europe, 1939-1945", Bratislava;
• "Plans for the Rebuilding of Oświęcim According to the Urban Concepts of Hans Stosberg"; November, lecture, at a Polish-German seminar on "The Topography of Auschwitz" for students of architecture from Gliwice and Stuttgart, organized by the International Youth Meeting House in Oświęcim;
• "The IG Farben Construction Bureau in Oświęcimiu: Tasks and Their Realization"; lecture, November, at a Polish-German seminar on "The Topography of Auschwitz" for students of architecture from Gliwice and Stuttgartu, organized by the International Youth Meeting House in Oświęcim;

Andrzej Strzelecki

• "The Death March of Auschwitz Concentration Camp Prisoners in January 1945"; July, lecture for a group of employees of Yad Vashem, delivered along the evacuation routes;
• "Jews in Auschwitz Concentration Camp"; July, lecture for a group of German students from Greifswald;
• "Jews in Auschwitz Concentration Camp"; December, lecture for teachers as part of a seminar organized by the Education Center at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum;
• "Warsaw Jews in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries"; December, participation in a conference organized by the Jewish Historical Institute;

Irena Strzelecka

• "Camp Hospitals and Medical Experiments," lecture for a group of young people from Poland;

Work continued on the collection of data on Auschwitz Concentration Camp prisoners and members of the resistance movement. A total of 1,031 personal information forms were filled out and filed. 670 personal information forms and index entries for fourteen volumes of Statements were entered into the data base. 13 searches were carried out, 17 accounts recorded on audio tape, and one account recorded on video tape. 111 original documents (mostly letters sent from the camp, but also including secret messages and telegraphic notifications of the death of prisoners) and 77 photocopies were received and turned over to the Archives, and two artistic-historic museum exhibits (a horsehair ring and a girl's dress, both made secretly in camp) were turned over to the Collections Department.

Henryk Świebocki gave two lectures in July for participants in a seminar for staff members of the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem and one talk for secondary-school students from Italy, while Jadwiga Dąbrowska took part in a panel discussion in Nuremberg on the question: "Is History Only Narration (Storytelling) or Is It Still a Science?" organized by Wydawnictwo Literackie of Cracow.

Jadwiga Dąbrowska published three articles on the subject of transports of men from Warsaw to Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Księga Pamięci. Transporty Polaków z Warszawy do KL Auschwitz 1940-1944 [Memorial Book: Transports of Poles from Warsaw to Auschwitz Concentration Camp](for a full description see Księga Pamięci).

Henryk Świebocki made two trips to the Czech Republic, in September and October, to record accounts by former prisoners of Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

>From June to December 2000, the staff of the Office for Information on Former Prisoners prepared and sent 1,789 certificates to former prisoners, their families, and allied institutions. 1,273 of the certificates were sent outside Poland (to Ukraine, Germany, Israel, the USA, and France). Furthermore, information was delivered orally to 989 persons (including 385 from abroad) who made inquiries in person at the office.

Museum publishing in 2000 was dependent both on financial appropriations to the Museum from the budget of the ministry of culture and national heritage, and on whether or not authors and translators submitted works in time for scheduled publication.

Because of changes in the financing of the Museum and the necessity of introducing economy measures, the Museum administration and the publishing department modified their plans and shifted the publication of some planned titles to 2001.

Vital assistance in the realization of publishing plans was extended to the Museum by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp Victims Memorial Foundation , which decided to subsidize the publication of some titles. Because the financial resources of the foundation are limited, a decision was made to underwrite the printing of the titles that are of the most fundamental importance (such as Museum information booklets), and of those that will most probably sell well. For this reason, the number of Polish-language titles was reduced.

Some of the titles scheduled for publication only in 2001 have nevertheless been prepared, edited, and typeset, and are now in the process of final correction. Two titles connected with the planned new exhibition in the camp "Sauna" building at Birkenau have been edited, translated, and readied for printing.

Of the 26 titles slated for publication in 2000, seven were moved back to publication dates in 2001.

The greatest amount of authorial and editorial work went into two titles, Auschwitz 1940-1945. Central Issues in the History of the Camp (the English version of Auschwitz 1940-1945.Węzłowe zagadnienia z dziejów obozu) and Księga pamięci. Transporty Polaków z Warszawy do KL Auschwitz [Memorial Book: Transports of Poles from Warsaw to Auschwitz Concentration Camp].

New titles or reissues published in the second half of 2000 included:

• Scholarly studies and works for a general readership
• Auschwitz 1940-1945. Central Issues in the History of the Camp:
  The book is made up of five volumes including a total of over 1,800 pages of text and 68 pages of illustrations. It was published thanks to international cooperation with The United States Commission for the Preservation of America?s Heritage Abroad. The commission helped raise funds to cover the cost of translation.
  (For details see Publications)
• Księga pamięci. Transporty Polaków z Warszawy do KL Auschwitz 1940-1944 [Memorial Book: Transports of Poles to Auschwitz Concentration Camp 1940-1944]. The Memorial Book consists of three volumes with a total of 1,660 pages. It is dedicated to the memory of the 26,000 Poles arrested in Warsaw and deported to the camp. It is a joint publication with the Auschwitz Preservation Association, co-sponsored by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp Victims Memorial Foundation (Details in Publications)
• Hefte von Auschwitz no. 21 (German version of Zeszyty Oświęcimskie), a collective work in German, dealing with subjects including the plunder of the victims of Auschwitz Concentration Camp, the exploitation of the corpses of the victims, and the pursuit, trial, and punishment of members of the Auschwitz SS garrison.
• Bohdan Rymaszewski, Pamiętać będą pokolenia [Generations Will Remember];
• Auschwitz. Nationalsozialistisches Vernichtungslager (German version of Auschwitz. Nazistowski obóz śmierci (reissue).
  (For details see Publications)
• Pro Memoria 13 in Polish.
  Contents include information about the new members of the International Auschwitz Council and conclusions from the international forum on the Holocaust held in January 2000 in Stockholm. Noteworthy articles include "Niemieccy żołnierze o zbrodniach w KL Auschwitz" [German Soldiers on the Crimes in Auschwitz Concentration Camp] by Piotr Setkiewicz, "Polska perspektywa nauczania o Holocauście" [A Polish Perspective on Teaching about the Holocaust] by Józef Brynkus, and "Miejsca Pamięci czy pamięć miejsc" [Memorial Sites or the Memory of the Sites] by Tomasz Kranz, on the role of museums in commemoration;
• Pro Memoria no. 10 in English, on the fate of Gypsies/Roma in Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

• Erich Hackl, Pożegnanie z Sydonią [Farewell to Sydonia]
  The protagonist of "Pożegnania z Sydonią" is a ten-year-old Gypsy girl who is taken away from the foster parents who have raised her since infancy, and deported to the "Zigeunerlager" in Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, where she becomes one of the victims. Erich Hackl has recounted her life on the basis of eyewitness accounts and archival searches. The fate of little Sydonia is one example of the tragic fate of the Roma, who were regarded by the Nazis as "subhuman" and an "asocial" element.
  (For details see Publications)
• Halina Birenbaum, Hope is the last to die (reissue).
  (For details, see Halina Birenbaum, Hope... in the "Publications" section)

• Władysław Siwek, Kiedyś to namaluję [I Will Paint It Someday]
  Kiedyś to namaluję is dedicated to the paintings of former Auschwitz Concentration Camp prisoner Władysław Siwek. He was one of many painters who were imprisoned in the camp. He painted and sketched in the camp and after the war. His painting in the camp, legal and illegal, allowed him to keep going and to forget for at least a moment about the reality of the camp around him.
  (For details see Władysław Siwek, Kiedyś... in the "Publications" section)
• Auschwitz. A History in Photographs, English version (reissue).
  (For details see Auschwitz. A History... in the "Publications" section)
• Auschwitz.Voices from the Ground (reissue).
  (For details see Auschwitz. Głosy z otchłani... in the "Publications" section)

• Auschwitz 1940-1945, Agnieszka Sowińska, first prize in the nationwide Polish contest for posters on camp themes;
• Muzeum i Miejsce Pamięci [Museum and Memorial], Wojciech Gorgolewski and Piotr Kutryba (reissue);
• Druty obozowe [Camp Fence], Wiesław Zieliński (reissue)

Information booklets were published as needed in 17 languages: English, Czech, Danish, Finnish, French, Hebrew, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, Korean, German, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Swedish, Hungarian, and Italian.

• The film Auschwitz in English, German, and French versions on videocassette (reissue);
• Works forthcoming from the printers'
• Scholarly studies and works for a general readership
• A monograph on the Birkenau "Sauna" building in Polish and German versions;
• Andrzej Strzelecki, Ewakuacja, likwidacja i wyzwolenie Auschwitz Concentration Camp [The Evacuation, Liquidation, and Liberation of Auschwitz Concentration Camp] in English;
• Józef Musiał, Sędzia i kat [Judge and Executioner] in English;

• Zanim odeszli... [Before They Perished], in Polish, English, and German (the working title was Zapamiętajcie ich twarze [Remember Their Faces]).

• A two-volume anthology of Auschwitz poetry, in German.

• Department director Teresa Świebocka was a member of the Polish delegation that took part in the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research. In 2000, she took part in two working sessions of this group in Germany.
• As part of joint activities conducted with museums and organizations with similar interests, she was invited to several conferences where she presented the history and work of the Museum and the influence of the many-layered symbolism of Auschwitz on the Museum's long-term plans. She gave the following lectures:
• July, a lecture in Oświęcim for participants in a two-week seminar (with guests from Yad Vashem and the Holocaust Museum in Washington),
• September, a lecture for an international group in the Center for Dialogue in Oświęcim.
• October, a lecture at Beth Shalom in Nottingham, UK,
• November, a lecture at the Polish embassy in London,

Additionally, Teresa Świebocka took part in several strategic planning sessions organized by the Office of the Polish Prime Minister on forecasts for the development of the city in connection with the existence within the city limits of the Museum and Memorial, in sessions of the Oświęcim municipal council, and in the ceremonial opening of the new permanent exhibition on the Holocaust at the Imperial War Museum.

• Museum publications were presented at the Frankfurt International Book Fair in October 2000. During the Fair, there was a public discussion and presentation of Museum titles, with participation by Museum vice-director Krystyna Oleksy, Publishing Department director Teresa Świebocka, and Professor Adam Zych, one of the authors of the collections of Auschwitz poetry. Museum publications were also presented at the History Book Fair in Warsaw (November 30 - December 4) and at tourist fairs in Warsaw, Poznań, and London.
• A ceremonial launching of the Księga Pamięci [Memorial Book] was held at the Royal Castle in Warsaw on November 17. Invitations were issued by minister of culture and national heritage Kazimierz Michał Ujazdowski, Warsaw mayor Paweł Piskorski, Auschwitz Preservation Association chairman Kazimierz Albin, Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp Victims Memorial Foundation president Krystyna Marszałek-Młyńczyk, and the director of the Museum. Many former prisoners and their families were in attendance. Official words of congratulation and acknowledgement for the publication of such an important work were conveyed from the president of the Polish Republic, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, and the prime minister of the Polish government, Jerzy Buzek. The guest of honor was Professor Władysław Bartoszewski, author of one of the introductory essays, who recounted his experiences in occupied Warsaw and in the Auschwitz camp.
• In 2000, the Publications Department expanded its informational activity on both historical and contemporary aspects of Auschwitz. Such issues had previously been discussed both in historical studies and in publications for a general readership, such as Pro Memoria. In 2000, the Museum introduced its website with information in Polish and English. The site has attracted numerous interested visitors from all over the world. The website includes information about the Museum and Memorial, the most important remaining vestiges of the sub-camps, information of practical value to visitors and pilgrims, and a calendar of the most important events in the everyday life of the Museum. It also features a catalogue of publications and information on ordering books.
• Young Austrians doing their military service in Oświęcim have been a great help in the editing of foreign-language publications, mostly in German but also in English. They are sent to Poland under the auspices of the Niemals Vergessen organization and the cost of their stay at the Museum is covered by the Austrian government. Cooperation with young people makes it possible to increase the impact of these issues on the younger generation and also arouses their interest, both historical and emotional. One example of such activity was the involvement of young Swedes from a printing school in the preparation of a Museum information booklet. A similar project was also carried out in 2000. Young people from Finland cooperated with the Museum in typesetting and printing at their school an information booklet in Finnish. During a visit to the Museum, they officially presented us with the first print run of their publication.
• Staff members from the Publications and Information Department maintain ongoing contact with authors, translators, artists, and media people in Poland and abroad, as well as with booksellers and distributors.

Exhibitions

I. Permanent exhibitions

• Department staff members were involved in the new information system, "A Historical and Commemorative Description of the Site of Auschwitz Concentration Camp," which is being installed on the grounds of the Auschwitz I-Main Camp. They made necessary corrections and cooperated with the designers and builders of the exhibition;
• Work continued on the new permanent exhibition in the "Sauna" at the Birkenau site. The date for the opening of the exhibition was set for 2001. Staff members cooperated with the designers and builders, and organized and took part in meetings of working groups;
• Preparatory work continued on the permanent exhibition on the destruction of the Roma and Sinti. Staff members took part in organizational meetings on the exhibition in Oświęcim and Heidelberg, in preliminary work on customs tariffs and the operation of the exhibition, and in correcting texts for the exhibition. The organizers, the Center for Sinti and Roma Culture in Heidelberg, have scheduled the opening of the exhibition for May 2001;
• Staff members cooperated with the organizers of the Czech, Slovak, Russian, and Hungarian national exhibitions;
• Staff members cooperated with the GOK (Community Cultural Center) in Pawłowice, Poland, in mounting an exhibition on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Concentration Camp;
• Staff members carried out updates, corrections, and additions to all the permanent exhibitions on the grounds of the Museum.

II. Special exhibitions shown at the Museum

• An exhibition titled June 14?the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Incarceration of the First Transport of Prisoners in Auschwitz Concentration Camp was presented in the lobby of the Tourist Service Center from June 14 to July 31. It was based on archival material from the Museum collections (concept: Teresa Zbrzeska; scenario and documentation: Teresa Zbrzeska, Robert Płaczek, Mirosław Obstarczyk; artistic design and execution: Museum artistic studio);
• From September 15 to the end of the year, the same lobby featured an exhibition titled Aerial Photographs of the Site of Auschwitz Concentration Camp by Wojciech Gorgolewski (arrangement and execution: Museum artistic studio).

III. Touring exhibitions

• In January 2000, in connection with the approaching 55th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Concentration Camp, the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum organized a competition for students in artistic secondary schools from around Poland. They were asked to submit a poster titled The Memory of Auschwitz. The entries were shown at an exhibition in the Oświęcim Cultural Center from June 15 to July 20, 2000. The exhibition was viewed by some 1,500 people.

• Department director Teresa Zbrzeska took part in an international conference in Banska Bystryca, where she gave a lecture on the aims and tasks of the Auschwitz Museum.

• The department cooperated with the Education Center in its training sessions and seminars;
• Consultations were provided to persons writing about the operations of the Museum;
• Department staff took part in preparing and organizing a trip to Yad Vashem by a seminar group. The leader of the Polish group during its two weeks in Israel was Mirosław Obstarczyk;
• Ewa Pasterak and Robert Płaczek took part in official ceremonies marking Majdanek Days;
• Teresa Zbrzeska prepared training sessions for groups from the Auschwitz in Our Hearts Peace Museum in Japan. She gave several talks and lectures on the history of Auschwitz Concentration Camp, and on issues in exhibitions and museum operations.

Postgraduate studies

The final session and official closing of the second year-long course for humanities teachers on Totalitarianism-Nazism-the Holocaust (for details see Education Center) took place in July 2000. Diplomas were presented to 40 graduates by officials from the National Education Commission Pedagogical Academy in Cracow and the Museum. Over the two semesters, they attended 180 hours of classes, all of which were taught at the Museum. These included lectures, discussions, and seminars conducted by faculty members from many institutions of higher education. Each student wrote a diploma paper containing suggested lesson plans for intermediate- and secondary-school classes, as well as a proposal for an interdisciplinary teaching-educational program. 52 participants were accepted for the third annual course, which began in October. Growing interest by teachers in this sort of post-graduate education confirms the accuracy of the decision by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the Pedagogical Academy in Cracow to launch the first such course in Poland. The opening of the new academic year featured an address by the Polish foreign minister, Prof. Władysław Bartoszewski, Ph.D., Hab. As in previous years, our courses are intended for teachers in the humanities who wish to enrich their knowledge; the courses are a method for obtaining a thorough understanding of the history of Nazism and the German death camps, the history of the persecution of the Jewish population of the Third Reich, the history of the Polish Jews, and the history of mutual relations between the Polish and Jewish populations. The first three-day residential session in the new academic year took place in October and the second in November; further sessions are planned for the second semester.

There were also sociology lectures on the origins, formation, and perpetuation of prejudices and stereotypes, as well as the issue of dialogue between Judaism and Christianity.

Aside from the post-graduate course held in cooperation with the Pedagogical Academy in Cracow, the State Museum began cooperating with the Jagiellonian University on its post-graduate courses in Holocaust studies, which began in the new academic year.

There are 92 participants in the courses.

Seminars for teachers from Poland

The cyclical meetings with humanities teachers, homeroom teachers, and religion teachers from intermediate and secondary schools are part of a larger educational program developed by the Educational Center at the end of 1995, aimed at better preparation of school students for visits to the Museum. There are lectures on the fates of particular ethnic and religious groups in Auschwitz Concentration Camp, showings of documentary films on Auschwitz themes, work in the Archives and Collections Department, and specialist tours of the site of the camp. Teachers also take part in methodological workshops, during which they obtain sets of historical and methodological materials developed by the Education Center staff and in cooperation with other Museum departments. These materials can be used by the teachers for self-study purposes. They can also be used in lessons preparing students for visits to the site of Auschwitz Concentration Camp, and contain ready-to-use lesson plans.

Events organized in the second half of 2000:

• On the basis of an agreement between the Polish and Israeli ministries of education, and as part of the cooperation and exchange program underway since 1993 with the Yad Vashem Memorial Institute, a three-part seminar titled "Judaism, the History and Culture of the Polish Jews, and the Holocaust" was carried out. It involved 32 teachers from all over Poland: history, Polish, and religion teachers, as well as Museum guides. The program involved 110 hours of classes and seminars, divided into three segments:
  1. October: a preparatory session before leaving for Israel;
  2. November/December: a two-week course at the International School of Holocaust Teaching at Yad Vashem;
  3. December: a session to summarize the seminar;
• December: seminar on "Auschwitz - History and Symbolism" for teachers of history and Polish from Silesia province, (recruitment by the Provincial Methodological Center in Bielsko Biała). 19 people took part;

Seminars and study residencies for students from Poland

The Center organized and conducted a two-day seminar for students with other Museum departments as well as several one- and two-day seminars and study residencies for secondary-school students, mostly those in their senior years. Subjects were agreed beforehand with group leaders and usually included tours of the camp site supplemented by documentary films on camp themes, meetings with former prisoners or lectures on selected topics from the history of Auschwitz Concentration Camp, talks in the Archives or Collections Department, or a visit to an exhibition of works by a former Auschwitz Concentration Camp prisoner titled Klisze Pamięci, Labirynty Mariana Kołodzieja [Images from Memory: The Labyrinths of Marian Kołodziej] in the Franciscan monastery in Harmęże. When possible, the program also included a visit to one of the educational centers in the vicinity of the Auschwitz Memorial, such as the International Youth Meeting House or the Jewish Education Center [od ?Jewish Education Center? link do http://www.ajcf.org/] przy synagodze Chewra Lomdei Misznajot w Oświęcimiu.

The Education Center also organized longer seminars and study residencies for university students from the Wrocław and Jagiellonian Universities and Collegium Civitas in Warsaw. Although this type of cooperation with universities remains underdeveloped, it provides particular satisfaction because the participating students are unusually well-informed and highly involved in studies of and reflections upon the difficult questions associated with the history and symbolism of Auschwitz.

In the second half of 2000:

September: two-week workshop for participants in post-graduate studies in "Journalism-Reportage School" at the Collegium Civitas in Warsaw;

• October: study residency for students of the Wyspiański VIII secondary school in Cracow;
• November: two-day seminar for students in their senior year at the I secondary school in Skarżysko Kamienne;
• November: two-day seminar for students in their senior year at Adam Asnyk II secondary school in Bielsko Biała;
• November: study residency for students of the Wyspiański VIII secondary school in Cracow;
• December: study residency for students of the Wyspiański VIII secondary school in Cracow;
• December: study residency for students at the Elementary Economics-Gastronomy School in Żywiec;
• December: study residency for students at the Wyspiański VIII secondary school in Cracow.

It should be emphasized that almost all the leaders of the youth groups with whom we cooperate are graduates of our training and education programs for teachers at the Education Center. This indicates the usefulness and necessity of this sort of educational work on the part of the Museum.

A total of 700 Polish secondary-school and university students took part in the seminars.

Seminars and study residencies for teachers and students from outside Poland

The Education Center cooperates with many foreign institutions (mainly in Israel, Germany, the USA, the UK, and Scandinavia) that are active in fields related to the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum. These institutions organize excursions around Poland and Central Europe for teachers, the staff of museums and memorial sites, university faculty members and students, and secondary-school students. The educational and informational programs carried out at the Auschwitz site and the Museum are among the most important items on the itineraries of such groups in Poland. Education Center staff members take into account the preparation, age, and expectations of the participants in such study residencies and prepare an individual program for each group. This usually includes tours of the camp site supplemented by documentary films on camp themes, meetings with former prisoners, lectures, workshops in the Archives or Collections Department, discussions with members of the Museum staff on the educational and moral values of the Auschwitz Memorial and the significance of Auschwitz for various national and religious groups.

In the second half of 2000:

• July: a one-day study residency for participants in "The 3rd World Conference on Lesbian & Gay Culture";
• July: a two-day seminar for students from the Holocaust Human Rights Centre of Maine, and a one-day study residency for American teachers;
• August: a two-day seminar for students from the Espace et Service de prevention. Ville de Seraing in Belgium, and a three-day study residency for young people from Belgium, France, Poland, and Finland;
• August: a three-day study residency for memorial site staff members from institutions at the sites of the Gusen and Mauthausen concentration camps in Austria;
• September: a two-day seminar for students at the International Youth Meeting House, and a one-day study residency for the PTI Kassel Gedenkstätte Breitenau;
• October: a two-day seminar for students from the Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and a one-day seminar for students and teacher-methodologists from Denmark.

A total of approximately 300 people took part in these seminars and residencies.

Education Center staff members delivered a range of lectures and held museum lessons for secondary-school students, university students, pilgrims, and members of local groups from Poland, Israel, Germany, and the United States. They main themes were the work, goals, and operation of the Museum; the symbolism of Auschwitz for various national and religious groups; the biographies and underground activities of resistance-movement heroes; education at the Auschwitz Museum; selected issues in the history of the camp; and the life of Oświęcim residents during and after the war.

Events organized in the second half of 2000:

• July: lecture at a meeting with teachers and youth-group leaders from Israel titled The Operation and Educational Role of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (Alicja Białecka);
• July: lecture at a seminar for Israeli teachers and employees of Yad Vashem and the Holocaust Museum in Washington on The Symbolism and Significance of Auschwitz for Various Ethnic and Religious Groups and The Operation and Educational Role of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (Alicja Białecka);
• September: lecture for a group from the MDSM - PTI Kassel Gedenkstätte Breitenau on The Symbolism and Significance of Auschwitz for Various Ethnic and Religious Groups (Alicja Białecka);
• October: museum lesson in the Archives reading room for history students, titled "Tracing the Fate in Camp of Wanda Sawkiewicz," ZSME school in Kęty (Grażyna Ferenc, history teacher);
• October: lecture at a seminar for students and teacher-methodologists from Denmark, titled The Symbolism and Significance of Auschwitz for Various Ethnic and Religious Groups and The Operation and Educational Role of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (Alicja Białecka);
• October 22: as part of seminar for students of international relations at Wrocław University, a lecture titled The Symbolism and Significance of Auschwitz for Various Ethnic and Religious Groups and The Operation and Educational Role of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (Alicja Białecka);
• December 5: lecture at a seminar for Polish teachers, titled Auschwitz in Documentary Films and Film Etudes (Alicja Białecka);
• December 12: lecture and screening of documentary films on camp themes for the ZSEG school in Żywiec (Alicja Białecka).

A total of some 500 people attended these lectures.

• The annual four-day review of documentary films and film etudes for secondary-school students from Żywiec was held in November. The films shown were Noc i mgła [Night and Fog], Oświęcim ? Auschwitz, Patrzę na twoją fotografię [I Am Looking at Your Photograph], Ambulans [The Ambulance], Dzieci z rampy [Children from the Ramp], Scena zbiorowa ze świętym [Group Portrait with a Saint], Raport położnej [The Midwife's Report], Testament [The Testament], Wizja lokalna [At the Crime Scene] and Archeologia [Archaeology]. The screenings were preceded by a lecture on Auschwitz Themes in Film.

600 people attended the film review.

Alicja Białecka

• Prepared talks and took part in two panel discussions: "Commemorating the Shoah: Museums and Memorial Sites" in London and "Memory, Representation, and Education: Museums and Memorial Sites" in Oxford; July, international conference of educators on Remembering for the Future 2000, UK;

Andrzej Kacorzyk

• participation in a conference for educators at Buchenwald; September;
• participation in a conference on ?Memory and Commemoration" in Berlin; October.

The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum commissioned Dr. Marek Kucia of the Jagiellonian University to carry out sociological research among Polish school students visiting the site of the Auschwitz camp, and among the accompanying teachers. Studies of the students and teachers, titled "Opinions of Polish School Students on the Auschwitz Camp A.D. 2000" and "Opinions of Polish Teachers on the Auschwitz Camp A.D. 2000" were prepared by Dr. Kucia as part of his broader research program titled "Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Polish Public Opinion Today."

The research is aimed at identifying knowledge of, opinions about, and attitudes towards the Auschwitz Camp and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, and the way these elements of public opinion change after a visit to the Museum in the case of the Polish students who make up the largest segment of visitors o the Museum, and the teachers who accompany those young people on their visits. This is, therefore, a way of identifying the consciousness and expectations of the largest group of visitors, and the group that is most important to the Museum?as well as the teachers who help to shape the opinions of that group.

The research on students and teachers visiting the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum in 2000 was a continuation of Kucia's January 2000 research throughout Poland on public attitudes towards Auschwitz Concentration Camp, and his research in 1998 and 1999 on students and teachers visiting the Museum.

As part of the preparation of educational materials for teachers readying their classes for visits to Memorial sites?and in view of the great interest shown by teachers and guides in obtaining such material?work continued on new thematic classroom sets (The Fate of Poles and the Fate of Jews in Auschwitz Concentration Camp was published in January 2000). Materials have been selected and preliminary editorial work done on the following classroom sets:

• "Janusz Korczak - Henryk Goldszmit";
• "SS Officials";
• "Pregnant Women and Children Born in Auschwitz Concentration Camp";
• "The Major Aspects of the Nazi Occupation of Poland'A Museum Lesson in the Polish Block";
• "Human Beings in Auschwitz - A Prisoner's Fate on the Basis of Camp Documents."

• Cooperation with the Preservation Department on the adaptation of a small auditorium and film theatre in Block no. 12 for use by the Education Center;
• Center staff members carried out a range of discussions on the subject of education at memorial sites and offered consultations to students from Poland and abroad who were working on their master's theses or doctoral dissertations. Staff members also supervised students from various institutions of higher education in Poland and other countries who were doing internships at the Museum;
• Center staff members took part in the official opening of the Jewish Education Center and the Chewra Lomdei Misznajot synagogue [od 'Chewra Lomdei Misznajot' link do: http://www.ajcf.org/ ] in Oświęcim. They began cooperating closely with the new institution;
• Cooperation continued with the school TONO circle at the Powiat General School Complex in Oświęcim. Students helped with the printing and typesetting of didactic materials;
• Cooperation continued with the Program Department of the International Youth Meeting House, the Dialogue Center in Oświęcim, the St. Maximilian Center in Harmęże, the History Teaching Institute at the Pedagogical Academy in Cracow, the Institute for the History and Culture of the Polish Jews at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, the Jewish Culture Centre in Cracow, the Provincial Methodology Center in Bielsko-Biała, and other related institutions;
• November: as part of a three-part seminar on Judaism - the History and Culture of the Polish Jews - the Holocaust," Alicja Białecka participated as an interpreter and co-organizer in a two-week course at the International School for Teaching about the Holocaust at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem dedicated to the history of the Jews, the Holocaust, and contemporary problems of the state of Israel;
• On November 27 and December 22, Andrzej Kacorzyk took part in a language course organized by the Goethe Institute in Bonn.

The Information Technology (IT) Section employs eight staff members: 3 historians, two IT specialists, and three persons engaged in data entry from original documents. The Section coordinates all the ongoing IT work in the various departments and sections of the Museum (hardware, programming, technical assistance). It maintains all the computers in operation in the Museum, as well as peripheral equipment such as printers and scanners, and programming and the functioning of networks.

IT section staff members work as administrators for the Local Area Networks in the Museum. Artur Miserek is administrator for the LANs in the IT Section, the Archives, the Collections Department, and the Visitor Services Section. Ryszard Domasik is administrator of the LANs and PCs in the Education Department, Former Prisoners Section, Administration, Publishing Department, Exhibitions Department, and Head Preservationist's Department.

Results:

Work on new documents:

• Block 20 hospital book, contagious diseases ward (Alicja Kuszaj) - completed;
• Block 20 hospital book, ward 8 (Alicja Kuszaj) - begun;
• Block 22a book (Małgorzata Gryska) - completed;
• Labor assignment cards (Małgorzata Gryska) - begun;
• X-Ray book, vol. IV, (Halina Jastrzębska) - completed;
• X-Ray book, vol. V (Halina Jastrzębska) - begun;
• X-Ray book, vol. II (Ewa Bielańska) - completed;
• X-Ray book, vol. I (Ewa Bielańska) - begun;
• Punishment reports (Artur Misterek, Krzysztof Antończyk, Halina Jastrzębska) - begun;
• Lists of transports from Auschwitz Concentration Camp to other camps (Małgorzata Tabiś) - begun.

Services for Museum staff and external researchers:

• 8 detailed searches for external researchers;
• 6 detailed searches in the data base for staff members from various departments;
• work on the integration of records from all the archival data bases.

Hardware - acquisitions:

• A server for the local network in block 23;
• Two PCs (for the Collections Department and the Preservation Department); 3 printers.

Programming:

• Work has been underway since May on the development of specialized programming for the Preservation Department;
• The Netstore company made a donation to the Museum of programming for the statistical analysis of visitors to the Museum website. The donation, worth 1,400 DEM, was acquired by Ryszard Domasik.