The Work of the Education Center

The further we get from the times of the Second World War, the greater the significance of education at memorial sites. This is especially important for the younger generation, whose knowledge and sensitivity are taking shape. For the succeeding generations born after the war, the history of half a century ago is so distant that younger people cannot identify with it the way their parents or grandparents did. Auschwitz is a special symbol for various ethnic and religious groups; as at all memorial sites, education here makes an important contribution to contemporary society. Visits to the site and accompanying educational efforts have great potential for shaping the attitudes of young people. They can teach tolerance and show how it is possible to stand up to and say no to xenophobia, prejudice, stereotypes, and racial discrimination. Humanity will never be free of such negative phenomena, and such attitudes can lead, if not resisted in time, to unimaginable barbarity - even in the center of the civilized world.

Continual close cooperation between educators at the Museum and teachers in the schools is a prerequisite for the universal meaning and moral import of visits by young people to have the fullest possible impact. At the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum Educational Center, teachers can obtain factual information, carefully prepared sets of teaching aids including historical materials, and plans for lesson cycles that prepare young people for visits to the Museum and follow up on such visits. Teachers also have the chance to improve their own knowledge through training courses and workshops. They are free to use the library, reading rooms, and seminar rooms to conduct museum lessons on their own or in cooperation with Education Center staff members.

Training for Teachers

The postgraduate course in "Totalitarianism-Nazism-The Holocaust" is organized in cooperation with the Pedagogical Academy in Cracow. It is intended for teachers in the humanities and consists of 180 hours of lectures and seminars, spread over two semesters. Course participants write diploma papers and, after passing the final examination, receive certificates for completion of the course.

The course program includes the following subjects:

Totalitarianism-Fascism-Racism: sociological aspects of the origins of prejudice and stereotypes
The Nazi movement and Nazi rule in Germany and Occupied Europe
Nazi concentration camps with particular emphasis on Auschwitz
The history and culture of the Jewish people
The persecution and extermination of the Jewish people under Nazi rule
The Holocaust and the concentration camps in literature and art
The Holocaust and the concentration camps in feature films and documentaries
After Auschwitz and the Holocaust: overcoming the past and its prejudices
Poles and Jews during the Second World War and in the postwar period
The Jewish people after the war: the founding of the state of Israel, its domestic issues, and its place in international politics
Totalitarianism, Nazism, and the Holocaust in school curricula.

Four- and six-day seminars for teachers are also held. Recent sessions have been devoted to:

1. Two-day specialist tours of the Museum
2. The fate of the largest groups of Auschwitz victims
3. Opportunities for self-study and guided activities by young people in the Museum Collections, Archive, and Library
4. How to prepare for and follow up on a visit to the Auschwitz Museum: making lesson plans before and after a visit to the Museum (participants receive educational packets containing lesson plans and sets of teaching aids)
5. Using documentary and feature films dealing with the tragedy of Auschwitz
6. The functions of and opportunities for cooperation with other educational centers in Oswiecim, including the Dialogue Center, Youth Meeting House, and St. Maksymilian Center.

Special subjects are prepared for individual groups, such as:

medical experiments, the fate of children in Auschwitz, the life of the prisoners, etc.
Lessons are conducted in the form of lectures, seminars, and workshops. four-day seminars include 40 hours of classes, and six-day seminars include 60 hours.
These seminars are classified as professional enrichment courses.

Educational opportunities for secondary-school and university students:

Four- and six-day seminars for university students with the same contents as for teachers
One- and two-day seminars for secondary-school students, in which specialized visits to the grounds of the former concentration camp are supplemented by meetings with eyewitnesses, screenings of documentary films, lectures, and workshops. Subjects are arranged in advance with teachers.

Museum lessons for secondary-school students, including:

1. Prisoners' fates
2. Camp art
3. How could you live here? - residents of Auschwitz, during the war and today
4. Love in hell
5. A crematorium stoker