new headquarters for the education center preserving the

Transcription

I SSN 1899- 4407
PEOPLE
CULTURE
OŚWIĘCIM
HISTORY
NEW HEADQUARTERS
FOR THE EDUCATION CENTER
PRESERVING THE AUTHENTICITY
OF THE MEMORIAL
AN INTERVIEW
WITH TERESA ŚWIEBOCKA
AMERICAN CADETS IN POLAND
no. 7
July 2009
Oś—Oświęcim, People, History, Culture magazine, no. 7, July 2009
EDITORIAL BOARD:
EDITORIAL
Oś—Oświęcim, People,
History, Culture magazine
In the July issue of Oś, we assign
a great deal of space to the question
of the conservation of the Auschwitz
Memorial. Many meetings over the
last month were devoted to this issue.
The International Auschwitz Council, a
consultative body to the Prime Minister
of the Polish Republic, met to consider
the protection and use of the site of the
Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi camp, and
also of other Holocaust Memorials. The
Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation Board
of Trustees also met for the first time.
The main task of the Foundation is to
raise funds for an overall, multi-year
plan for the conservation of the Memorial.
We especially recommend an interview
with Teresa Świebocka, the deputy
director of the Museum who recently
Editor:
Paweł Sawicki
Editorial secretary:
Agnieszka Juskowiak
Editorial board:
Bartosz Bartyzel
Wiktor Boberek
Jarek Mensfelt
Jadwiga Pinderska-Lech
Leszek Szuster
Artur Szyndler
Columnist:
Mirosław Ganobis
Design and layout:
Agnieszka Matuła, Grafikon
Translations:
William Brand
Proofreading:
Beata Kłos
Cover:
Projekt MCEAH – GRUPA 5
Photographer:
Tomasz Mól
retired after working here for 40 years.
“I can declare that forty years ago I
made the right decision, and they were
not lost years. I made a good decision,
even though I was very reluctant. This
is a mission, a responsibility. It is good
when you feel that you are doing something important, and not only signing
and shuffling papers. People leave here
after two or three years or stay on for
the rest of their lives,” she says.
In this issue of Oś, we also write about
the “Old Theater” building. After five
years of efforts, it is finally possible
to locate the International Center for
Education about Auschwitz and the
Holocaust there. This will make it possible for the Museum to carry out its
educational work in modern conditions, and more people will be able to
benefit from the Center’s broad range
of programs. This should have a carryover effect on a rise in the number of
groups who stay in Oświęcim longer
than a visit to the Museum lasting a
few hours.
In the July issue of Oś, you will also
find articles about visits to Poland by
American cadets as part of a program
at the Jewish Center, about a seminar
at the International Youth Meeting
Center on the migration and integration of Poles in the 20th century, about
the open house organized there by the
Oświęcim Youth House of Culture, and
about a stay at the Center for Dialogue
and Prayer by a meditation group.
Paweł Sawicki
Editor-in-chief
[email protected]
A GALLERY
OF THE 20TH CENTURY
In describing the cultural desert that
was Oświęcim in the 1950s, with the
exception of the movies and the circus,
I failed to mention two annual religious-artistic-entertainment events, the
nativity play and the passion play at
the Salesian Institute.
The plays were held in the theater at
the Institute, where there was a large
stage and a place for the orchestra. It
was in the basement on the Jagiełły
street side of the building. With excellent stage design, the plays had casts of
young people and adults who later distinguished themselves in other fields
in the life of the town. The special effects included hell fire that rose from
PUBLISHER:
Auschwitz-Birkenau
State Museum
www.auschwitz.org.pl
PARTNERS:
Jewish
Center
www.ajcf.pl
beneath the stage during King Herod’s
scene. There was only one limitation:
the cast was male-only!
The most moving moment in the nativity play came in the adoration scene,
when those who knelt before the infant
Jesus included not only the traditional
highlanders, Cracovians, and Three
Kings, but also an insurgent from the
Warsaw Uprising and a concentration-camp inmate in a striped uniform.
A moving accent in the passion play
was the presentation of Calvary amidst
thunder and lightning, followed by the
triumph of the resurrection.
The residents of the town knew the two
plays practically by heart, but neverthe-
less felt themselves obliged to attend
each year. In fact, people came from all
over Silesia in buses and passenger-carrying trucks.
At the height of Stalinism, this wing
of the Institute was taken away from
the Salesian fathers and assigned to
a nursing school. The plays were
banned. There was a modest, covert attempt at reviving them in the Institute
dining room and the corridor outside,
but it wasn’t the same. Now, the building has returned to its owners, but
the theater has not been reactivated.
All that remains is a small stage in the
new part of the church.
Andrzej Winogrodzki
Center for Dialogue
and Prayer
Foundation
www.centrum-dialogu.oswiecim.pl
International Youth
Meeting Center
www.mdsm.pl
IN COOPERATION
WITH:
Kasztelania
www.kasztelania.pl
State Higher
Vocational School
in Oświęcim
Editorial address:
„Oś – Oświęcim, Ludzie,
Historia, Kultura”
Państwowe Muzeum
Auschwitz-Birkenau
ul. Więźniów Oświęcimia 20
32-603 Oświęcim
e-mail: [email protected]
www.kasztelania.pl
www.pwsz-oswiecim.pl
Silesian Institute. Photograph from Mirosław Ganobis’s collection “A Gallery of the 20th Century”
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Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
EDUCATION CENTER
IN NEW HEADQUARTERS
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photo: Paweł Sawicki
fter almost five years of efforts, it will be possible to set up the headquarters of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust in the building known as the “Old
Theater.” From the moment in 2005 when it was called into existence by the Polish government, at
the urging of former prisoners, the ICEAH has been organizing educational programs at the AuschwitzBirkenau Memorial to make it possible for young people to learn in depth about the tragic history of this
place.
Future headquarters of the ICEAH
Already, there is a range
of activities directed to
school and university students, and teachers and
faculty, including courses,
seminars,
conferences,
study residencies, lectures,
and multimedia presentations. In 2008 alone, the
ICEAH organized seminars, thematic conferences,
and educational programs
that included 400 lectures
and workshops, in which a
total of almost 7 thousand
people participated.
Until now, the lack of lecture rooms and the appropriate
infrastructure
have made it impossible to
take full advantage of the
rich educational offerings
of the ICEAH. “In recent
years, we have observed
a rise in the need for indepth, specialist education
about Auschwitz and the
Holocaust. Thanks to the
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new headquarters for the
Center, it will be possible
to reach far more people
with knowledge about the
Holocaust, and the teaching can finally take place
in conditions appropriate
to the challenges of education in the 21st century,”
said Krystyna Oleksy, director of the ICEAH.
The new headquarters include a state-of-the–art auditorium, multimedia lecture rooms, display space,
a reading room, and workstations for independent
research and study.
The International Center for Education about
Auschwitz and the Holocaust is one of the most
important projects at the
Auschwitz-Birkenau State
Museum. “Today, when
the last former prisoners
are departing, only the
development of education
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offers hope that we will
understand the significance of the experience of
Auschwitz for all humanity. The world is different
today, and what we have
is worth protecting and
caring for. We all therefore
need the special prism and
reference point of the human fate in the face of the
Nazi German project of
the Third Reich,” said Museum Director Dr. Piotr M.
A. Cywiński.
The adaptation of the Old
Theater building could
have begun several years
ago. It was delayed, however, by the lack of a local
zoning ordinance, which
has still not been issued.
None of the versions presented by the mayor was
acceptable to the institutions responsible for the
interests of the Memorial.
The procedural delays led
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to the loss of a 2 million zloty donation that the American Grand Circle Foundation of Boston wanted to
make to help pay for the
new ICEAH premises. The
work on transforming the
Old Theater into a facility
so badly needed for educational work has only now
been made possible by the
designation of the project
as “for the public good.”
Also the International
Auschwitz Council urged
the Government of the Republic of Poland to grant
the
Auschwitz-Birkenau
State Museum the required
financial support to begin
and carry out the construction and investment in the
building. According to
Deputy Minister of Culture
and National Heritage Tomasz Merta, there is a high
chance for such support.
“This great news, that we
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have new headquarters for
the ICEAH will probably
follow a fast reaction which
will make opening of real
activities for the Center
possible. Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum is run by
the Minister of Culture
and National Heritage and
the minister is responsible
for this institution. That
is why apart from regular
financing that is necessary
for regular activities of the
Museum it is essential for
us to support realization of
important projects which
set the meaning of its work
for the future ,” said minister Merta.
For Oświęcim residents, the
new Center will mean not
only new jobs, but above
all a rise in the number of
large groups that stay for
periods longer than a visit
of a few hours.
Paweł Sawicki
PROTECT HERITAGE OF THE VICTIMS
INTERNATIONAL DEBATE ON PRESERVING
THE AUTHENTICITY OF AUSCHWITZ MEMORIAL
J
une was the month where a lot was said about the need to maintain and protect the authenticity of Auschwitz Memorial. This topic was on the agenda of the International Auschwitz Council Meeting and a special European Union
summit in Prague that was devoted to the problem of property plundered during the Holocaust and World War II.
Also in June members of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation Board of Trustees met for the first time. The main goal
for the foundation is to gather finances for preservation of Auschwitz Memorial.
that we could afford to do so.
Now, we are in the European
family. This is a part of the
history of Europe, not only
of Poland and not only of the
Jewish people. We expect that
Europe will also treat it as a
part of its history.”
The mission of the Foundation is to raise €120 million for
the Perpetual Fund, and the
annual interest of €4 to €5 million will make it possible to
plan and systematically carry
out the essential conservation
work. Thus, for the first time
DR. PIOTR M. A. CYWIŃSKI,
DIRECTOR OF THE AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU STATE MUSEUM
International Auschwitz Council session in Oświęcim
Oświęcim—International
Auschwitz Council
The International Auschwitz
Council convened by the
Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland was in session in
Oświęcim on June 15-16, 2009.
Prof. Władysław Bartoszewski chaired the session.
The Council expressed its satisfaction at news of the ruling
on the localization of the investment for the public good
in the form of the remodeling
of the so-called Old Theater
for the International Center
for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust. It
urged the Government of the
Republic of Poland to grant
the Auschwitz-Birkenau State
Museum the required financial support to begin and carry out the construction and
investment in the building.
The members of the Council returned once again to
the issue of the seven Roma
portraits painted by Dina
Gottlieb-Babbitt. The Council emphatically reiterated its
previous determination that
the transfer of the originals to
Mrs. Gottlieb-Babbitt, as she
demands, is out of the question.
Members of the Council
stressed that, in this and all
similar cases, the overriding
consideration is the authenticity and completeness of the
Memorial, with all its movable and non-movable property. The portraits in question
were painted in the camp,
on orders from Dr. Josef
Mengele, as documentation
for his pseudoscientific racist research. Today, they are
among the very few remain-
ing vestiges of the murdered
Roma, and cannot be replaced
by any copies. Respect for this
principle makes it possible to
avoid any sort of doubts that
could be cynically exploited
in the future by deniers. It
must be stressed once again
that the International Auschwitz Council has already expressed its position on these
paintings. On a motion by
Rabbi Andrew Baker, the issue was voted on once again.
Members of the Council acquainted themselves with
the report by the Director
of the Auschwitz-Birkenau
State Museum, Dr. Piotr M.A.
Cywiński, on the work of the
Museum in the months since
the last session, and the procedures for establishing the
Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, the role of which will be
to service the Perpetual Fund
for the conservation of the
authenticity of the Memorial.
Members of the Council attached great hope to the creation of the Foundation and expressed their expectation that
support from many countries
will make it possible to establish the Fund quickly.
Tomasz Merta, Deputy Minister of Culture and National
Heritage, was a guest at the
meeting and presented information about new legislation on Memorial Sites. The
legislation, which will soon
be submitted to parliament,
makes a precise definition
of such concepts as “commemoration” and “Memorial
Site.” Deputy Minister Merta
expressed his conviction that
the new legislation will come
into force on January 1, 2010.
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Other guests at the Council
session were the heads of institutions located at the sites
of other death camps: Lech
Stefaniak (Kulmhof), Marek
Bem (Sobibor), and Edward
Kopówka (Treblinka), who
informed the Council about
the state of affairs at those
three sites.
The next session of the International Auschwitz Council
is scheduled for November
17, 2009, in Warsaw.
Warsaw—The Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation Board
of Trustees Meeting
The 14-member Board of
Trustees of the AuschwitzBirkenau Foundation convened for the first time at the
Chancellery of the Chairman
of the Council of Ministers in
Warsaw on June 17.
The founder, Prof. Władysław
Bartoszewski, was unanimously elected chairman of
the Foundation Board. “Our
work is voluntary,” he said.
“We do not profit in any
way. We all share an identical
motivation—to ensure that
the Memorial Institute will
always be able to function,
because this is a matter of
preserving the world’s largest cemetery without graves.
Over a million people visit
Auschwitz each year, people
from all over the world. This
places us under an obligation.”
“Since 1947,” Prof. Bartoszewski continued, “Poland has
done as much as it could.
We have collected material
and accounts, amassed documentation, and preserved
the buildings to the degree
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For me, the International Auschwitz Council is incredibly
helpful in administering the Memorial. This is a body of
outstanding specialists from many countries who are respected internationally not only regarding to the topic of
Auschwitz but also to other memorials. One of the items on
the agenda during this session of the Council was the creation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, which will be
a tool financing the preservation of the Auschwitz Memorial. The Council accepted this project very positively and
warmly. I hope that the support given by the members of
the Council in their countries will give fruits in near future.
AVNER SHALEV,
CHAIRMAN OF THE DIRECTORATE
OF THE YAD VASHEM INSTITUTE
IN JERUSALEM
Deliberations of this Council were specifically important
and efficient. I think that the initiative that has been taken
by Prof. Bartoszewski, and the director Piotr Cywiński, and
others to establish this kind of international and European
foundation is outstanding and of significant importance.
I think that the idea to have money that will be allocated
to the purpose of preservation in the coming years is very
important. If we want to protect the authenticity of all parts
of the former camp and all its remains, and it should be preserved for future generations. And for this sake we should
establish an international effort so that we could tell young
people all around the world the truth about the history and
significance of remembrance about Auschwitz .
PROF. JONATHAN WEBBER,
OXFORD UNIVERSITY
It is essential to have a forum, where difficult questions
can be discussed in an open and free way, where people
who have got genuine concerns, genuine questions, genuine anxieties about this very complicated place can discuss
them in a relaxed and yet dignified way to reach proper
conclusions and the Council was founded for that purpose.
The biggest challenges today are how Auschwitz can move
successfully into the 21st century with enough money, how
to maintain a dignified and proper memorial, suitable to
keep the memory of what happened here for the next generations, how to conserve all the movable and immovable
objects in the museum and how to prepare new exhibitions
which will meet new concerns of the 21st century. But the
Museum has got a wonderful director, wonderful staff,
very committed and loyal people to work here, and I have
every confidence they will meet all those challenges.
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legislation. This is the first
time that two fundamental
values in the commemoration
of the victims, the preservation of the authenticity and
integrity of the Memorial,
have been acknowledged on
such a wide scale. The representatives of 46 states have accepted this provision, and it is
a very strong reference point
in the face of all unwelcome
actions intended to fragment
the remaining original items
not only from Auschwitz, but
from all similar memorials. At
a time when our civilization is
characterized by increasingly
frequent and pointed restitution demands, the European
and international consensus
that Polish diplomacy has
managed to achieve on the
integrity of Memorials has
fundamental significance,”
said Cywiński, adding that
the summit was also an excellent occasion to promote the
Polish proposal for maintain-
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation Board of Trustees
million in immediate funding, with a much larger sum
to follow next year.
“Jürgen Rüttgers, prime minister of the federal state of
North Rhine-Westphalia, who
is also a member of the Foundation Board of Trustees, announced the coordination of
aid from the German states,
for which I am very grateful,
because it demonstrates a real
will to help on the part of German society,” said Cywiński.
“Positive declarations have
come in from various countries, and continue to come
in. A great deal will depend
on the coming year. I hope
that we will be able to begin
the first projects within three
years. The later we begin, the
more expensive and risky
the conservation work,” he
added.
“I would like to thank you for
the trust that allows me, as a
German citizen, to sit down
in such company,” said Jürgen Rüttgers. “I think that the
work of this Foundation will
be effective because it has to
do with such an important
place. I have three sons, and I
follow the way in which they
are confronted with the subject of the Holocaust at their
schools in Germany. It is hard
for them to understand these
events. I know from talking
with young people that many
of them did not understand
this history until someone
who had been a victim of the
Holocaust told them about
what happened then. The
majority of those responsible
are dead, but the responsibility remains. Maintaining the
memory of crimes against
humanity is especially im-
portant. We need to consider
how to pass the history on to
the coming generations, and
we also need to pass on the
task of protecting the memory. As Germans, we are aware
of our responsibility, and this
is why we are taking part in
this task.”
clared that:
As the era is approaching
when eye witnesses of the Holocaust (Shoah) will no longer
be with us and when the sites
of former Nazi concentration
and extermination camps,
will be the most important
and undeniable evidence of
the tragedy of the Holocaust
Prague—EU Summit
(Shoah), the significance and
A European Union summit integrity of these sites includof delegations from 46 counties, including non-members,
has been held in Prague as
part of the Czech presidency.
The conference was devoted
to the problem of property
plundered during the Holocaust and World War II.
The final declaration, as approved, took particular note
of the integrity and authenticity of Memorials. The Polish
delegation included the director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Dr. Piotr
M. A. Cywiński.
In his opening remarks, Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel
said that “the 20th century
will not be remembered for
all the technological progress,
the trip to the moon, or even
for Hiroshima. If it is remembered at all, it will be for
Auschwitz.”
The delegations from 46
countries met in order to
reach a common position on
Prof. Władysław Bartoszewski at the EU Summit
the subject of property stolen from victims of the Third ing all their movable and im- ing the authenticity of the site
Reich. The final declaration movable remnants, will con- of the camps through the new
acknowledges the need to stitute a fundamental value Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundaregulate the ownership of regarding all the actions con- tion.
property that was national- cerning these sites, and will The passage in the Prague decized or formally confiscated become especially important laration about the fundamenby the Third Reich or postwar for our civilization including, tal value of the authenticity
administrative decisions, as in particular, the education and integrity of the “movable
well as during the common of future generations. We, and immovable remnants” of
plundering that accompanied therefore, appeal for broad the camps is consonant with
military action, by restitution support of all conservation the position of the Internaor compensation. In the case efforts in order to save those tional Auschwitz Council. The
of Holocaust victims or other remnants as the testimony of wording of the declaration
victims of the German camps, the crimes committed there to indicates that claims and the
the principle of restitution the memory and warning for restitution process cannot be
could, however, threaten the generations to come and allowed to call into question
the integrity of Memorials where appropriate to consid- the integrity of the Memorial
founded on the ruins of the er declaring these as national and all the items in its invencamps. In connection with monuments under national tory. As the head of the Polish
delegation, Prof. Władysław
this, the final declaration, on legislation.
an initiative from Poland, in- Museum Director Dr. Piotr Bartoszewski, noted in his
cluded a paragraph strongly M.A. Cywiński participated remarks, “concern for the
reinforcing the protection of in the preparations and work victims does not consist only
the authenticity and integrity of the Polish delegation at the of the provision of material
of Memorials connected with summit. “Previously, the in- aid. This concern also extends
the Holocaust and concentra- tegrity of the original items to the preservation of their
tion camps. The countries in from Auschwitz has featured heritage.”
Paweł Sawicki
attendance at the summit de- almost exclusively in Polish
in its history, the AuschwitzBirkenau Memorial will have
a real chance to set up a permanent, overall, long-term
conservation program that
makes it possible to safeguard
the remains of the camp for
future generations.
Rafał Pióro, the deputy director of the Museum and deputy chairman of the Board of
Directors, informed the trustees about the most urgent
conservation tasks facing the
Auschwitz Memorial.
“The most important problem to be solved is, of course,
the scale of the whole undertaking, because we are talking
about very extensive grounds
and an enormous number of
buildings. We will base our
decisions above all on the
condition of the structures.
I would like to draw special
attention to the grounds of
Auschwitz-Birkenau. That is
where we have the greatest
number of buildings that are
authentic vestiges of history.
At this moment, one of our
most important challenges
is to control the action of the
ground water, which is having a detrimental effect on the
condition of 45 brick barracks
at the site of the women’s
camp. We will have to use all
available expertise in order
to carry out this task without deforming the historical
landscape of the site, since the
overriding value for us is the
preservation of authenticity,”
Pióro explained.
“In terms of the priorities at
the Auschwitz I site,” he added, “we must remember that,
aside from the buildings and
ruins, the grounds of the Memorial also contain movable
items and archives, which are
in fairly comfortable shape at
the moment, because we are
able to keep them under optimal conditions in the storage
areas.”
The session also considered
the work of the Foundation
so far, and the response to
the letter that Polish Prime
Minister Donald Tusk sent
to the leaders of numerous
countries, asking them to
support the Foundation. The
first binding commitment
came from the German government, which pledged €1
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation Board of Trustees
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International Youth Meeting Center
AUSCHWITZ AND THE HOLOCAUST
FROM A HISTORICAL
AND CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVE
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photo: IYMC
ccording to the journalist Adam Krzemiński, in the course of the last fifty years—from “October 1956” and the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961; after the fall of communism in 1989 and the entrance of Poland into NATO and the
European Union—the Polish-German conflict has turned into a union of mutual interests. Today, when we are allies
and neighbors, the Polish-German language of dialogue, which at one time was the most difficult language in the world,
is no longer so difficult. It does demand, however, good will and empathy, without the notorious presumption of bad will.
Participants of the Polih-German seminar
The project of an institution
dedicated to the escape and
forced displacement of the
Germans after World War
II (the so-called visible sign)
has recently raised lively discussions. Between the Poles
and the Germans, myths
and hostilities were rekindled, weighing on PolishGerman relations. In answer
to the public debate around
this issue the IYMC in co-operation with the Pedagogical University in Krakow,
the University of Rostock,
the Polish-German Center
in Krakow, and the European Center in Waren M-V,
prepared a two-part PolishGerman seminar for the history students in Krakow and
Rostock titled: The migration
and integration of Poles and
Germans in Europe in the
20 century. Memory for the
future: Auschwitz and the
Holocaust from a historical
and contemporary perspective.
The objective of the seminar
was to examine the process of forced displacements
and resettlements, escapes
and expulsions, integration
and assimilation of Poles
on the regained eastern territories and Germans from
their former eastern lands
(during World War II and
shortly after the war ended).
The students had already
done research before the beginning of the seminar and
they presented the results
of their inquiries during
the first half of the seminar
at the European Academy
in Waren—the aim being
to determine the similarities and differences in the
experiences of these historical processes by Poles and
the Germans. The presentations included, among other
things, the subjects: Forced
REPORT OF POLISH EXILES
ON THE FORMER TERRAIN
OF THE SOVIET UNION:
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REPORT OF A GERMAN WOMAN’S
EXPERIENCE DURING HER ESCAPE
BEFORE THE RED ARMY:
January 20, 1945 with the threat of the approaching Soviet front,
I tried to flee from where I lived in Eastern Prussia. The last train
leaving had an accident and could not go any further. I tried to
get to the German border by foot. I did not make it. On the way
I encountered the first Soviet troops. From one of the farms the
owner was evicted and both he and his wife were executed in the
horse stable with a shot in the back of the head. I tried to get to my
mother. During the three weeks of wandering, I was dependent on
the will of the Soviet soldiers. In the meadow, I lived through the
most horrible night of my life. The Soviets got drunk and robbed
the warehouse of all the food supplies. Almost all the men in the
village were shot and the women brutally raped. I was raped
twenty times that night. {…}. In mid February when I reached
my parent’s farm, I saw that the Soviets were acting in the same
brutal way {…}. The rapes were repeated without end. A neighboring woman, who had just given birth three days earlier, was
not spared, nor was my 56-year-old mother. My acquaintance,
Emma Stamer from the neighboring village of Silberbach and her
husband committed suicide; Emma was not able to stand being
raped anymore in the presence of her husband {…}.
countries. The participants
took part in a special visit to
the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and spoke to former
inmates Wilhelm Brasse and
Kazimierz Smoleń; they also
“The evil that we experienced, even the worst,
cannot become a justification or presumption
for us to commit evil unto those wronged us.”
Jan Józef Lipski
in their new homeland and
were they accepted? Were
they able to integrate, or
were they assimilated with
the use of some kind of
force? How do things look
today? Do the witnesses of
the events share their experiences? Is this subject
present in public debate?
How is politics adjusting to
the situation? In looking for
the answers to these questions we were assisted be
the following experts: Prof.
Dr. Marek Wilczyński, Prof.
Dr. Bodo von Borries, Dr.
Anna Zapalec and Dr. Günter Kosche.
The second half of the seminar, which was held in May
at the IYMC, concentrated
on the history and the contemporary perception of
Auschwitz and the Holocaust from a Polish and German perspective, as well as
in the historiography of both
delivered prepared, in-depth
presentations on the subject,
which were analyzed from
a didactic aspect, that is on
how to apply the material
to be used in schools, where
these students were practicing teaching or would be
teaching in the future: The
planning and execution of the
Holocaust in Europe in the
20th century; Perpetrators, victims, observers—the analysis of
chosen biographies (place of action, motivation, consequences); Postwar trials against the
crimes of national socialism.
The students of the Pedagogical University in Krakow
also prepared a tour of the
Old City, the Jewish Quarter—Kazimierz, and Nowa
Huta. During the lecture by
Prof. Dr. Marek Wilczyński,
we discussed history that
divides and that unites, we
discovered stereotypes and
myths, traces of which could
be found in textbooks for
teaching history in Poland
and Germany, of which
future teachers should be
aware.
Ela Pasternak
photo: IYMC
For most of the exiles work in the forest was a completely new experience and was full of difficulties. Our five-man brigade had to
struggle with many varied hardships. The tools were not always
sharp and the right ones, and the way we had to carry out the work
seemed foreign to us and not comprehensible. The efficiency was
low. The frost and snow hindered our movements and ate up the
lion’s share of our energy {…}. To cut down a pine tree, you first
had to get to the tree, struggle through the snow up to your armpits
or crawl over the snow on all fours like a dog. The sanitation was
tragic in the special settlements. There, where medical stations were
installed, they did not have the proper equipment or basic medicines. The lack of washing and laundry agents, clothes, extreme
living conditions, a harsh climate, exhausting work and insufficient nourishment turned out to worsen the exile’s state of health.
As a result, epidemic diseases began: skin and digestive ailments
and worst of all, typhus. Sickness, undernourishment, and exhausting labor caused a high mortality rate among the deportees.
migration after World War
II: political aims, claims,
grounds and legal agreements; Loss of homeland: the
forced displacements in the
years 1945 -1950—the organization, how they were carried
out and how they transpired;
The road into the unknown
—compulsory migration of
the German minority from
Eastern and Southern Europe during World War II
and after World War II.
During the preliminary research on the subject, the
students took into consideration the “spoken history”
—they analyzed the reports
of the witnesses, and placed
their subjective recollections
in a wider historical context.
The students in their work
on the subject discussed the
questions: What proof still
exists today? What is the
condition of the studies done
on the subject by historians?
How did the communist authorities treat this matter in
Poland, in the former East
Germany and former USSR?
How did the people adjust
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Participants of the seminar touring Krakow
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International Youth Meeting Center
IYMC—A PLACE FOR EVERYONE
photo: IYMC
photo: IYMC
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photo: IYMC
prize draw was not everything the participants waited for. A very important
element of the program was
the awarding of honorary
distinctions: Friends of the
YCH, which were received
by: Katarzyna Kuk, Janina
Koźbiał, Anna Stryszewska
and Beata Karkoszka. Selected children were also
distinguished. Gold medals were won, from the art
photo: IYMC
and the child’s imagination.
One could see the exhibited
works of the sections: Embroidering,
Modeling-works
and the History of Art. The
teachers of the sports section
arranged contests and fitness games. One could play
chess, table tennis, and basketball. There was also an
opportunity to prove oneself on the obstacle course.
All this took place in an atmosphere of good fun and
treats were prepared for the
participants. The computer
sections also prepared an
engaging presentation. The
visitors had an occasion to
test their memories, perception, logical and creative
thinking. Members of the
Young Journalist Club and
Mind Games sections arranged numerous games,
riddles, puzzles, and mental
exercises.
All those that undertook
the challenge and succeeded anxiously awaited the
second half of the event. A
prize draw was planned.
Ten lucky persons received
challenging board games
from the Young Journalist
Club and Mind Games sections. One could also win
a mascot, which the participants of the sport games
obtained by draw. All the
prizes were funded by the
Parents Association of the
Youth Cultural House. The
photo: IYMC
The event was the culmination of the year’s work of
the organization, which has
been functioning since 1955,
professionally
organizing
the free time of children
and youth. In the last school
year, 795 children participated in 51 groups in 24 permanent sections. Almost half
of them, as high as 47%, attended junior high and high
school; 327 children lived
beyond Oświęcim. Lessons
were held in 16 different
places, in 6 locations in the
district: Oświęcim, Babice,
Bobruk, Chełm, Gorzów and
Polanka Wielka. Aside from
the regular activities of the
section, the Youth Cultural
House organizes yearly 170
events and meetings for
children and youth. Those
attending the school win numerous awards and distinctions in contests, on various
levels, both on a national
and international scale. Each
year the number of awards
and distinctions is around
two hundred.
During the event one could
admire the work of the different sections. The teachers
along with their students
prepared interesting presentations. The Academy of 5-6
year olds, the Clay Modeling
Studio, Art, Graphics and
Artistic Ceramics, invited all
those visiting the exhibition
to a fascinating world of art
photo: IYMC
O
n Saturday, June 6, 2009, the International Youth Meeting Center greeted at its hospitable doorstep teachers, alumni, and sympathizers of the Youth Cultural House in Oświęcim. It was the fourth time that the
event under the motto “IYMC—A Place for Everyone” was held there.
section, which was led by
the teacher, Władysława
Kapcińska: by Julia Matejko, Małgorzata Rochowiak,
Elżbieta Rochowiak, Karolina Kuczek, Aleksandra
Zajdel, Krzysztof Kłoda, and
David Śliwiński; from the
Young Journalist Club, led by
the teacher Patrycja Więcek:
by Agnieszka Guzdek and
Justyna Momot; from the
badminton section led by the
teacher, Tomasz Kantyka: by
Rafał Szwagrzyk. The Director of the YCH, Aleksandra
Stawicka, presented gold
medals to those active in the
self-government of the YCH.
The Director handed out
medals to Anna Augustyn,
Anna Paluch and Sylwia
Mazurkiewicz.
Many emotions were stirred
up by the stage performances, which were rewarded
by enthusiastic applause,
especially for the sections:
Language games – English language, Guitars and the Vocal
Ensemble. The Children’s Theatre section invited the audience to mutual fun in which
everyone had to repeat difficult tongue twisters. All
those present were in awe of
the Dance section. Within the
program of this section, we
were able to enjoy the performances of three groups:
Cats, Trick, and Wow. Watching them just made one want
to dance. And there was
an opportunity to do so. In
concluding their program,
the Social Dancing section
invited everyone to join in.
A Belgian dance was chosen.
During the Saturday event
there was no end of attractions. Certainly no one was
bored. Everyone could find
something, and everyone
could find his own place.
Therefore, the Youth Cultural House is A Place For
Everyone. Remember this!
P.W.
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YOU CAN’T JUST BE A BUREAUCRAT
AT AN INSTITUTION LIKE THIS
O
n June 15, 2009, the Deputy Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Teresa Świebocka, retired.
She began work at the Memorial in September 1967—at first in the research department and later on in publications, becoming the Museum’s Deputy Director in 2006. She co-authored several permanent exhibitions
at the Museum, as well as the design of the information and description system, exhibitions in the largest original
camp building, the Sauna at the former Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, and the project to commemorate the so-called
Altejudenrampe. She authored numerous articles, and co-authored and edited dozens of books and albums.
Did you want to work
here from the beginning?
My being hired by the
Museum was accidental.
My professor at the Jagiellonian University, Prof.
Józef Buszko, offered me
a job at the Silesian Institute in Katowice, since the
university did not have
a place. I went to apply,
but was told that I would
have to wait six to eight
months for a vacancy. I
told this to my professor
and he then proposed
that I temporarily work
for his colleague, Danuta
Czech, at the Museum in
Oświecim. As I slowly
began to get acquainted
with the materials, a day
came when there was a
telephone call from Katowice offering me an immediate work contract.
At the time, I was completing work on some
materials and we agreed
that I would call back in
two months. I never answered, because another
interesting subject came
up. Again, I received a
phone call from the Institute in Katowice, but I
could not have stopped
working because I was
completely absorbed by
US Senator E.S. Muskie (1979)
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the subject. It was only
after two years of work at
the Memorial that I found
out that my father’s two
brothers were in Auschwitz and were later
transferred to Gusen. My
father had no idea what
happened to them after
their arrest. It was only
here, after many years,
that I accidentally found
the documents. This is
supposedly the past, but
it is very much tied to our
present lives, over several
generations. This is a mission, a responsibility. It is
good when you feel that
you are doing something
important, and not only
signing and shuffling papers. People leave here
after two or three years
or stay on for the rest of
their lives.
photo: A-BSM
stand on the shelf. It was
life, all the time. It was
not only history, but also
work with the living. That
was the main reason why
I decided to stay here.
photo: A-BSM
A question that many
visitors ask is, “How can
one work here?” You
have worked here over
40 years.
Auschwitz has several
levels of information and
reception. These are not
only the grounds of the
former camp and a cemetery, but also a place of
remembrance, which has
a very important role to
play. We have always
said that Auschwitz is
something that should
have a message to pass on,
like a mini-UN. You meet
people here from all over
the world. We simultaneously speak of the past
and the future. When
creating exhibitions, we
often heard that history
is one part of Auschwitz,
but the present is another. Moreover, meeting
with the former prisoners
and their families, a person physically felt that
this was an important
place. When we helped
in finding important
documents, when someone came and said that
he did not know where
his father disappeared,
but that it was probably
in Auschwitz. When we
were able to find the required document, you
could see the change in
his face. You saw then
how necessary this work
was; that we are not only
working so that the next
book or pamphlet would
Is that what kept you
here?
Yes, I came to the conclusion that work here
is incredibly engaging
and interesting. New
subjects and documents
were constantly coming
up. Only recently, during conservation work,
a small ceramic cat was
found; even perfume bottles, probably from the
Hungarian
transports,
brought by women who
were completely unaware of their fate.
But all this is a very intimate human history…
I like the philosophy
that has been introduced
at the Memorial over
the last several years.
Many years ago the victims were referred to as
“people” without nationalities. After 1989, the
beginning of the nineties,
they were already Jews,
Poles, or Gypsies. Now,
for some time, we have
been telling who these
people were. At the exhibition in blocks 6 and 7
there is a certain positive
element—photographs of
the prisoners along with
some basic information:
first and last name, profession and date of death.
Maybe this is a truism,
but maybe if the biogra-
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Hillary Clinton and Jolanta Kwaśniewska (1996)
phies of these people are
mentioned, they will in a
certain sense be brought
back to life. They do not
completely
disappear,
nor do they completely
fade away.
It is said that the family memory lasts as long
as one remembers one’s
aunt, grandmother or uncle. As long as memory
endures, cultural continuity endures. It was the
same with Helena Kubica’s children’s album.
Despite the fact that they
died in Auschwitz at the
ages of three, four, and
five, they are still alive.
This is an exceptional
place, where one can
meet interesting people
who have something
to convey. That is why
I liked to take groups
on tour. I believed that
I learned something new
from each group: various
expectations and various
interpretations. How differently this place could
be understood and how
varied the sensitivity can
be. It is very important
that many things, which
often provoked heated
discussions in the world,
resulted from a lack of
knowledge about the
sensitivity of the other
side. One day, some
young people from Warsaw were cleaning up
the area around the ruins of the so-called white
house. and in good faith
they put crosses and stars
of David there, not considering that they were
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doing anything wrong.
We know how that affair
ended, and from that moment on we forbade the
deliberate placing of any
symbols on the grounds
of the Memorial. Once,
a German remarked in
passing that we are working in a minefield without
ever knowing when the
next one will go off.
Work here, in reality,
means navigating between numerous symbols. But it is extraordinary how many threads
of the present this place
draws together.
One has to remember
not only history, but
also today’s sensitivity.
I remember the controversy that arose over the
question of the hair. At a
conference on the subject
of Auschwitz’s past, diametrically opposed opinions arose: either to bury
the hair, or not to bury
it and save it. The whole
discussion began at the
Holocaust Museum in
Washington, D.C. For the
opening of that Museum,
some hair was borrowed
from us. Attacks began
in the States, that you
cannot exhibit it publicly. From that moment
on, we made the decision that we do not lend
out hair. However, if the
Auschwitz Memorial is a
cemetery, then only here
do we have the full moral
right to show that hair. A
similar discussion took
place over the ashes of the
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You spoke of meeting
with people. Did you often have occasion to take
people from the front
pages of the newspapers on tour? When telling them the history of
Auschwitz, did you feel
that you could in some
way influence their decisions, that you could
change something in
them?
I admit that I had hopes.
First, perhaps, I will talk
about Aktion Sühnezeichen, whose representatives traveled here
and worked as volunteers back in the 1960s.
When in Berlin, especially West Berlin, protests took place against
Neo-Nazism and the
cover-up of war crimes,
I observed this and was
convinced, that among
them were those people
who worked with us,
because they felt responsible. It is an important
thing—what to do so that
people feel responsible.
This is the main dilemma
we face in creating a new
exhibition. We must gen-
A group of Orthodox Jews from Israel (1983)
their priorities, but the
fact that they came and
signed into our visitor’s
book made the interest
in this place around the
world greater. I remember that, three days after
the visit of John Paul II in
1979, a group of students
from Mexico arrived, who
were in Paris when they
watched the Mass held on
the grounds of Birkenau.
They bought tickets and
came to Poland, and I accidentally met them. They
came because of the Pope
and spent the whole day
here.
It is good that the possibility of visiting Birkenau is
much better today. In the
past we were accused of
hiding Birkenau. This, of
course, is not true, since
from the very beginning
the Museum carried the
name Oświęcim-Brzezinka. Of course, it should
have been as it is now
—Auschwitz-Birkenau—
but Brzezinka was always
there. Another thing is
that the majority of people have cars, and groups
come by bus. Between
Birkenau and Auschwitz
I, it is very simple. Back in
the 1950s and 60s, the majority of visitors came by
train. Often, they had to
travel from the station to
the Museum on foot, and
then had to hurry back to
President Aleksander Kwaśniewski (2002)
unable to depict the way
death hung over everything, and how you
met it at every step, or
tell about the barracks,
where one sometimes lay
next to a dead body for
twelve hours. This, only
the prisoners can do.
catch their train and did
not see Birkenau, which
was, of course, a great
loss.
However, all the government delegations, kings,
and presidents were always taken to Birkenau.
Birkenau is the most important evidence, because
even ruins are evidence.
Crematoria and gas chambers, which were blown
up, are proof of the Extermination on the one hand,
but also of the anxiety and
fear of the SS, which tried
to cover all the evidence.
In any case, the members
of delegations were well
versed as to where they
were going, in knowledge
and behavior, if for no
other reason than the fact
that they were constantly
being photographed. Of
course, there were those
that only paid attention
to the background against
which they were standing, a guard tower or the
“Arbeit Macht Frei” gate,
in order to have a good
picture. For most, the reactions were deep. When,
for example, President
George W. Bush came,
I considered what to say so
that it would not be a routine tour. When we stood
on the unloading ramp in
Birkenau, I remembered
Elie Wiesel, whom the
President knew well. Wie-
photo: A-BSM
erate such a narrative that
it is not only a lecture, but
also a certain interaction,
so as to even provoke a
discussion between the
tour guide and the group.
As far as delegations are
concerned, politicians are
politicians—they
have
photo: A-BSM
In any case, the authenticity of the place
adequately speaks for
itself.
Beyond that, we have the
remarkable testimonies
of the prisoners. Now I
have a little more time,
so I reach for literature,
even the older one. In the
years 1946-48 the prisoners wrote everything
first hand. For example,
Pelagia Lewińska in her
exceptional book gave
such a description of the
interior of the prisoners’
barracks as rarely can be
found—perhaps also in
Zofia Kossak-Szczucka.
They are horrifying descriptions. And this is
very important, since
there are those that assert that the documents
are most important and
we only believe in the
documents. In the case of
the Nazi documents, one
has to be careful in their
interpretation, because
there the issue of falsification and concealing
was very developed. I always say that we should
combine the two. If we
have one shocking testimony, we should then,
of course, look further.
The prisoners could mistake dates or names—it
is their right, since it was
written many years later
—but no one can impart
the atmosphere of the
camp the way they can.
Not even the best historian can describe it. He is
photo: A-BSM
murdered. People constantly wrote to us that
they want ashes: if it was
not a Jewish community,
it was a church. There
came a moment when
we said “no”—the ashes
cannot be disturbed. A
few days ago, I was at a
conference in Oslo, and
having some free time,
I stepped into the National Museum, where
Egyptian sarcophaguses
with skulls lay open. It
really offended me; we
should not display the
human skulls of those
who died. Before we
introduced any kind of
description in Birkenau,
a large discussion also
took place about whether there should be any at
all, or whether it should
speak for itself through
emptiness, silence and
open space. We traveled
to see several other museums; one was Verdun,
where we wanted to see
how the site of the battle was maintained. Underground, of one of the
buildings, lay bones and
skulls. I was shocked
and said that at Auschwitz, something like this
was not possible. It is not
about shocking people.
Therefore, we try to avoid
showing photographs of
dead bodies. Of course,
we have unique photographs taken by the prisoners, the Sonderkommando, showing the
burning of corpses, but
this is an exception. We
should tell the histories
of these people and not
show corpses.
photo: A-BSM
US Senator Edward Kennedy (1987)
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US President George W. Bush (2003)
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sel would tell the story
that when he arrived at
just this ramp, after leaving his train car, one of
the prisoners in a uniform
in stripes, who was sorting the baggage, asked
how old he was. When
he answered, the prisoner
said: “Say, you’re older!
And why? That’s what
you have to say… And
how old is your father?
Say, that he’s younger.”
Thanks to this, they survived. I told President
Bush this anecdote and
it worked, because that
is the personalization of
history. It would be good
if every one of the guides
could refer to a personal
history.
There are many of these
places at the Memorial
that carry a great emotional charge. Did you
ever have any difficult
moments?
I was very moved by the
reaction of the prisoners’
families, when they discovered documents here. I
saw the tears in their eyes.
It was obvious that they
were shocked, but were
very grateful that the
Museum had such things
in storage. For me it was
quite touching. However,
when it comes to objects,
certainly suitcases with
names on them, because
again, it is about people
and their histories. These
names make us aware
that the victims were
the same kind of people
as we are. On the other
hand, thanks to this, we
can become aware of how
much we lost through
places like Auschwitz
—how many potential
Nobel Prize winners, poets and artists. It is a great
hole in our civilization,
since more than one generation perished.
The Minister of Education from Mexico (1970)
crematorium, or under
the Wall of Death. Children are always with their
families—this is very educational, since they will remember where they need
to pray. Because this is a
sanctuary.
Yes, because we always
use the term Museum,
but it is not the perfect
description.
That is the question—
what are we? A museum,
an educational center, a
scholarly institution, a
monument or a Memorial? We are first of all a
cemetery. On the other
hand we have the task to
pass this knowledge on
to the future. That is why,
for us, this is a great challenge, if it concerns a new
exhibition, for those who
see it to feel responsibility.
We must not only speak
of those who perished,
but also promote the living and clearly state who
made it possible for them
to survive. To show Henryk Sławik, who saved
several thousand Jews in
Hungary, of whom the
greater majority would
have probably perished
in Auschwitz; also the example of the escapees, to
demonstrate that in this
whole mass condemned
to death many were able
to save themselves.
photo: A-BSM
Is their any place on the
grounds of the former
camp that has a particular meaning to you?
The unloading ramp, on
which the SS made their
selections among the deported Jews. When you
think of families being
split up, children torn
from… There are such
drastic descriptions of
children being killed on
the ramp. It always makes
an impression on everyone. Personally, for my
husband and me, the ruins of the white house are
also important, the provisional gas chambers, since
his father was murdered
there. He was a member
of the Home Army and
was in the camp for only
two months. He fell ill
with typhus, and after
being selected in the hospital, he was gassed. I do
not like to speak of it, but
someone told me that it
was important, because it
shows that people working at the Memorial are
also personally involved
with the subject.
I recently listened in on
an interesting discussion
about what we were going to do when the survivors were no longer with
us and how were we to
continue passing on history. Someone from Mauthausen said that they
would use people from
the second or third generations, so that the people
working there would have
a personal involvement in
the subject. They will not
be able to relate the history in the same manner,
but because of their family
ties all of this will not exist
in some kind of vacuum.
Perhaps such people will
prove to be more sensitive
and more understanding.
I was always very much
impressed by what took
place on November 1. In
the crematorium, whole
families from Oświęcim
lighted candles. It is incredible, that the camp is
very often treated as a liability for the town, but the
residents visit this place,
lighting candles in the
photo: A-BSM
Dalai Lama, the leader of Tibet (1992)
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You spoke of the second
or third generation. In
your opinion does the
sensitivity of today’s
young people differ from
your sensitivity? You
were born in the last year
of the war.
Sensitivity may be somewhat different, but the
most important thing is
that it exists. Human sensitivity and opening up to
other people are fundamental in this place. If one
accepts that this work is a
sort of mission, then man
will look at it differently.
This is not a desk job. This
is a mission and it mobilizes. Working at such an
institution, you can’t just
be a bureaucrat. People
come here and expect us
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to be sensitive and understanding. You cannot treat
anyone curtly. Generations
have no meaning—it is a
matter of individual sincerity and the world demands
it of us, because we can see
how highly this place is
ranked in the world.
the response to the word
Auschwitz is still alive
in the world, and probably more so abroad than
in Poland. That creates
a chance for the town.
Slowly, something is beginning to happen. The
Jewish Center is functioning, and that is something remarkable. There
is a beautiful Jewish cemetery, a commemorative
plaque for the Oświęcim
Jews who perished in
Auschwitz, and that was
certainly a local initiative.
Certainly a gallery of contemporary art could be initiated in Oświęcim, since
many artists would like to
exhibit their works here,
in “The City of Peace.”
And there isn’t even a cinema here…
What, in your opinion,
is the role of the Museum in the local community? In such a town, as
Oświęcim, a place from
which one simply cannot
get away.
I participated during
the government of Jerzy
Buzek in workshops concerning the relations between the town and the
Museum. It is a matter
that to a greater degree
depends on the good will
of the local authorities. As
long as some people keep
saying, that the camp is a
hindrance to the town’s
development, that is how
long problems will exist.
I hope that when the new
head office of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and
the Holocaust opens in
the so-called Old Theater,
there will be fewer areas of contention. But I
have the impression that
the residents do not understand one thing, that
thanks to the existence of
the Memorial the town of
Oświęcim is known in the
whole world.
There is also another question that has long been
talked about. What could
be created in the town to
keep people here? Let’s
be realistic—we won’t
keep the majority here.
Częstochowa has just the
same problem. It was said
that millions of pilgrims
come to Jasna Góra, but
very few remain. The
same is true in Monte Cassino and the town of Cassino. That is why something has to be invented,
to at least retain some of
the people. This something, in my opinion, can
be education—to enlarge
at least the number of
seminars that last several
days because, fortunately,
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What does work in such
a place give you?
If I say a feeling of satisfaction, that would be
inadequate… Some kind
of fulfillment. I can declare that forty years ago
I made the right decision, and they were not
lost years. I made a good
decision, even though
I was very reluctant. Work
at the Memorial offers an
incredible
opportunity
to anyone who begins to
have a feel for the subject
in the slightest.
What is next? Certainly,
you will miss many
things.
I belong to the group that
is preparing the new exhibition for the Museum,
and that is a great challenge. I will therefore have
things to do, and I am
happy that I can take part
in it. That compensates for
everything. I will continue
to have contact with people. I am glad that I don’t
have to get up at 5:30 a.m.,
and that I will have more
time for music or books,
since I have so many of
them and for several years
have been putting them
away especially for the
moment when I would
have more time—I need
to finally start reading.
Interview by Paweł Sawicki
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Jewish Center
ter
AMERICAN CADETS IN OŚWIĘCIM
FOR THE FIFTH TIME
The flight to Poland was preceded by an intensive preparatory course at the Jewish
Heritage Museum in New
York and the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C.,
where the participants met
with survivors of the Shoah
and listened to their stories.
The first Polish city with
which the cadets became acquainted was Krakow, where
they were captivated by the
Renaissance Old City and
Wawel Castle. In the following days the guests from the
US visited the former Jewish
Quarter, Kazimierz and the
site of the Krakow Ghetto.
The first special event of this
year’s edition of “American
Services Academies Program”
was a workshop led by Waitman Beorn, from the University of North Carolina on the
participation of Wehrmacht
soldiers in the Holocaust
and a discussion on the ethical challenges facing career
army officers. In Krakow, the
students listened to the story
of Dr. Janina Rościszewska,
decorated with the title Righteous among the Nations of
the World for saving Jews
during W.W.II.
For the second part of the program, the Americans traveled
to Oświęcim and the Jewish
Center, where they learned
about the history of the local
Jewish society and its input
into the development of the
town. The participants were
greatly impressed by their
visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, as well
as the next part of the special
program—a meeting with Zofia Łyś, who spoke of the displacement of her whole family from the Zamość region
and their further tragic fates in
Auschwitz. A supplement to
the histories and losses of the
Poles under Nazi and Soviet
occupation was the showing
of the movie Katyń, directed
by Andrzej Wajda.
A new and important element
of the program was a special
workshop on “Why we need
tolerance” with the participation of a Polish-Dutch group
THEY ARE OPEN TO POLAND
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tain degree was responsible for them.
To this you also surely
add the responsibility of
following or not following orders.
That is, of course, a very
important subject. The
participants themselves
have many questions
related to this subject,
how to counteract such
actions, and how they,
as future soldiers, could
behave in such extreme
situations. After all, we
sometimes hear what is
happening in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Various
moral dilemmas occur
today, but not, of course,
on the level of World War
II. Accordingly, we want
to take a close look at the
past events at this place,
reflect upon why it happened, and consider how
not to allow such things
to happen, keeping in
mind the behavior of the
individual.
In observing the participants in the seminar, do
you get the impression
that this is an important
subject for them? What
is their reaction?
The subject of military
ethics is present at their
schools; hence it is an important subject for them.
The history of World
War II is an example of
the total collapse of these
ethics and one could imagine that this is an extreme example, since the
subject is so distant and
unimaginable, and that
it is even impossible. We
present it in this way—
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that we hope, of course,
that they will never be
confronted by such situations, but that similar
things, on a different
scale, do take place. During the program, aside, of
course, from visiting the
former Auschwitz camp,
or meeting with the survivors (with whom they
met earlier in the United
States, since a part of the
program takes place at
the Holocaust Museum
in Washington D.C. and
the Jewish Heritage Museum in New York), we
also, for example, saw
Andrzej Wajda’s movie,
Katyń. After the showing,
there was a discussion on
the situation on the other
side. For the majority of
them, this is completely
new knowledge. The film
made a great impression
on them, because, we had
a situation where officers
were outright murdered
in an unprecedented
way.
Again, we can speak of
the total collapse of military ethics. Besides, the
discussion went even
further, since we also
spoke of symbols. In the
West, Nazi symbols are
completely
forbidden
and not allowed, while
Communist symbols are
not treated so negatively.
That the USSR was an
ally of the Allied forces
had a great impact on
how Communist crimes
were perceived. These
differing
sensitivities
must be shown to them,
because in Poland many
people do not distinguish
between Nazi and Communist crimes. To them
this is something absolutely new, since they are
not aware that, for someone in Poland, they are
explicitly the same.
You mentioned visiting
the former camp, movies,
and discussions. Is there
time during the program
to show them around Poland? For all of them this
is certainly their first stay
in our country.
We try our utmost to vary
the seminar program.
There has to be a place for
Poland. It is especially interesting that many of the
participants have Polish
roots. They are additionally motivated and interested in Poland as the
country of their forefathers. This year, we were
in Krakow, where they
had a lot of free time;
there was Oświęcim, and
a trip around South-Eastern Poland, which ended
in Nidzica and the Pieniny Mountains.
photo: JC
When one hears that a
seminar was organized
for junior high and high
school students, it does
not make much of an
impression. However,
when we say “a seminar
for American cadets,” it
immediately catches our
attention.
Tomasz Kuncewicz, director of the Jewish Center: Not long ago the fifth
edition of this program
was completed. In the
first there were six participants, and this year
there were fifteen. That
is the highest number up
till now. The participants
come from four different military academies
in the USA. It really does
sound interesting, since
in the future the majority of these people will
be military leaders. Most
of them choose military
careers. They come from
different backgrounds.
As a rule, one or two of
them are of Jewish ancestry, the rest Catholics and
Protestants.
How would you describe
the philosophy of education behind this undertaking?
The main question that
we turn our attention to
is military ethics. Using
the Holocaust and World
War II as well as the actions of the Third Reich
and its various uniformed
units as an example, we
try to encourage them to
ask questions and draw
conclusions. After all,
the army did take part in
those events, and to a cer-
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photo: JC
F
ifteen cadets from the US Military Academy, US Naval Academy, US Air Force Academy and
US Coast Guard Academy, visited Oświęcim and Poland in June as part of the annual Jewish Center “American Services Academies Program.” The aim of the program is an in-depth
historical study of the Holocaust and the ethical issues concerning the prevention of genocide.
of students from the Higher
European School in Krakow
exchange program, “Poland
meets Holland.”
The Americans’ visit to Poland ended, as is traditional,
with a visit to the Pieniny
Moutains and a hike to the
Red Monastery on the Slovak
side of the Dunajec River.
Maciej Zabierowski
My experience is that individuals who come for the
first time are positively
surprised. This is a consequence of the somewhat
stereotypical image that
Poland has abroad. We
are still a “former communist country,” which
casts a shadow on modern Poland. But in reality
it does not correspond to
that image. And certainly
thanks to these programs
and these visits, the participants opened up to
Poland and sincerely like
Poland because of their
experiences.
What is the further fate
of these people?
Each one of them should
prepare a presentation
for its group back home.
They also write essays,
which are published in
different places. It is interesting and important that
many of the participants
in our program return to
Poland and want to do
something here; a perfect
example is Kate Craddy,
who took part in the
seminar “Bridges to History” and now runs the
Galicia Museum in Krakow.
Interview by Paweł Sawicki
Center for Dialogue and Prayer Foundation
TO BECOME COMPLETELY
ONESELF AGAIN
I
s it not a paradox? A group of fifty adults travels eight hundred kilometers to a place called Oświęcim, in
order to sense an inner, transformational experience. In Switzerland, Austria, and Germany, the countries
from which the participants originated, this town numbering just over 40,000 inhabitants in the South of
Poland is virtually unknown. However, everyone knows the name Auschwitz, which the Germans gave this
place. In the world it is a symbol of an unfathomable crime, which man committed against man, a symbol of
the murder of over a million innocent people organized by the Nazi Regime on an industrial scale.
In the shade of the barracks, the singing of 45 well-fed
people, in the place where during the camp’s operation
800 or more people starved and suffered. Dona Nobis
Pacem—the power of singing and the human experience
of being united seemed to brighten the interior. Back then,
they also sang and prayed—singing barracks in the face
of death—and today as well? I swear that it is possible
to reject hatred in relation to other people. At AuschwitzBirkenau I understood how I can, as a human, get to the
other side of being human. Functionality, functional systems, which are put above man and his expression of life,
can be inhuman. Only being a human, and happiness, can
prevent crimes against humanity. A new beginning lingers in every look—just as spring came to Auschwitz.
Imke Lohmann
Although in the practice of
meditation the experience
of absolute silence is a key
element of this road, the inner-mystical dimension of
being human is not everything. The exercise should
be integral in the sense that
it allows the possibility of
universal
consciousness
in daily life. This will be
thoughts. The group was
under intensive guardianship. Besides Annette Kaiser, there were Zen Master Sensei Grover Genro
Gauntt, who flew in from
New York for the seminar,
Anne Christine Neubacher,
and Annette’s husband,
George Eich. The method
of care used was counseling. During the meetings, which took place in
small groups after morning meditation, a place was
created for the participants
where they could express
emotions that at times
manifested themselves in
uncontrolled crying. This
process in affect was characterized by belonging or
group identity, and for
certain individuals it also
had the effect of relief and
cleansing.
Our first day began with
a tour of Krakow. During
a beautiful day, there is
nothing that could keep the
people of this city within
their own four walls. It
seemed, as though all the
inhabitants and tourists
were out on the streets.
They strolled along the
lovely avenues, squares
I am touched by God’s spark of life, which was present
even at the moment of deepest pain and which I feel today in the unmeasured goodness of nature. In my own
self, I carry contradictions of destruction and life, and
my mind is not able to join them; only through love can
they be joined in the heart.
Johanna Nyffenegger
photo: Rolf Steiner
The seminar in Oświęcim
was part of an exercise initiated and lead by Annette
Kaiser. This exercise, consisting of nine stages, is called
DO—nameless. Auschwitz
was our seventh stage. DO
designates the road, which
is understood as an aid to
getting nearer to our own,
unnamed essence.
possible when the I, which
one experiences separately
from everything else in the
world, opens itself in the
present to transpersonalism, to NOW. The participants of the group do not
differentiate
themselves,
in the sense that they wish
to be something special,
but it is obvious that they
are normal people—God’s
creatures accumulating human experiences. All the
main dimensions of being
human are engaged in this
exercise. During the visit
to Auschwitz, it was not
in the end the intention to
heal old wounds on the
level of our collective consciousness.
In the morning and evening
we practiced Dhyana meditation, which—like on the
road in Zen—could evoke
in the meditator a state
of pure perception without engaging emotions or
March of the Living. Up front in a trench coat, Annette Kaiser
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Center for Dialogue and Prayer Foundation
photo: Rolf Steiner
Meditation by the unloading ramp
On the third day, I was engulfed by a deep peace. This
is how I wish to remain at peace. To cultivate peace
in my heart and be guided by such a heart. No matter
where I would go, who I would meet or what experiences I would encounter, I want always to bring my
peace there. To be present with an internal peace. On
the fifth and final day, I was overcome by a deep friendship. Sitting on the unloading ramp in Auschwitz-Birkenau, I was reading the names of the victims and befriended them. I ran along the roads, across fields and
in the dust, once ashes, and blessed the dead souls. And
they blessed me a thousand-fold. A light wind arose,
and in the rustling birches and beech trees their voices
whispered. And they told me their stories. Yes, histories of suffering and sadness. But also histories of love
and joy, envy and pettiness, goodness and inspiration.
Histories of their completely ordinary but remarkable
humanity. I heard their laughter and songs. These souls
whispered to me that I sing their songs. That I dance
their dances. That I live their unrealized joy. They blessed me for my great journey called life. A bond of friendship spread over us and our names. A bond of warmth.
This is what they demanded that I do: no less and no
more than to be a kind person.
Kilian Raetzo
and also along the banks
of the Vistula River. What
was most important for our
group was the tour through
Kazimierz, once the Jewish quarter of the city. Not
much to see of Jewish life
today. At one time the Jews
constituted 30 percent of
Krakow’s population; today barely 150 of them live
in Kazimierz—mostly older Jews. We were very impressed by our visit to the
still functioning Synagogue
and the adjacent Jewish
cemetery.
of all, during the projection of a black and white
documentary film, we saw
things that were incomprehensible. We came in contact with a time and events
during which all respect
for life was extinguished.
We felt what words like
“racial cleansing” and “annihilation of man” really
meant. If it were not for the
documents, which showed
that it truly did occur, one
might believe that it actually could not have taken
place. For the next several
hours, we walked along
The second day was de- the surviving remains of
voted to visiting the former the wall of torture, humiliAuschwitz camp. First ation and the beastly treat-
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ment of man by man. One
of the participants, Kilian
Raetzo, wrote: “This day really exhausted me and left me
speechless. I, of course, was
largely aware of this information. But the ghastly details
completely overwhelmed me…
How long will we still drag
this on? And I again reinforced my decision: I want to
be part of a far-reaching process of social change… As far
as the fundamentals of respect
and existing for each other. To
the culture of being a neighbor
and to perseverance. To a living ethic towards every form
of creation.”
That our third day was to
become a totally exceptional experience, we had
Dr. Fr. Manfred Deselaers,
from the Center for Dialogue and Prayer, which
was also our guest home,
to thank. The former camps
of Auschwitz and Birkenau
were closed this day to visitors. Each year for over ten
years the Auschwitz Museum has observed a special
day of remembrance. On
this occasion, 7,000 Jewish
youth came from all over
the world, to take part in
the March of the Living.
Our group accepted it as a
great privilege to be able to
participate along with them
on this three kilometer road
leading from the former
camp of Auschwitz to the
former camp of Birkenau.
And that reconciliation is
possible was demonstrated
in a short dialogue with
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To become completely oneself again. To learn, that we
are a shining diamond, consisting of light and shadow.
And it is not about, not only, about seeing ourselves
as a diamond, but all the people who were in Auschwitz. The victims as well as the perpetrators. They all
are, they all were whole people, they loved and hated,
loved and suffered. Light and shadow are so close to
each other in Auschwitz… I also could have been deeply happy in Auschwitz.
On the other side of words.
Beyond pain,
My own and these strangers’,
the ancient and the new,
Beyond silence itself
It always is.
Call it love.
Jacqueline Forster-Zigerli
one of the Jewish participants of the March:
Where are you from?
From Germany.
Thank you very much for
coming.
On the fourth day, we
spent the evening in one of
the surviving wooden barracks at camp Birkenau. We
joined in the silence of this
place, we sang songs together and Annette Kaiser
read excerpts from a diary
left by Etty Hillesum, who
as a young Jewish Dutch
woman lived at camp Westerbork and was in the end
murdered in a gas chamber at Auschwitz. Through
her words it is plain to see
that locked within her was
a source of strength, which
could be an inspiration for
all of us: The poverty is truly great, but despite it, I run
in the late evening, when the
day has fallen behind me into
a dark abyss, with a bounding
step along the barbed wire and
again from my heart springs
the thought that there is nothing I can do, that’s just the
way it is, an elementary force:
life is something wonderful
and great, we must later build
a completely new world—towards every following crime,
towards every cruelty we must
stand up with love and goodness, which we must muster up
in ourselves.
Gerd Luthe
In the four days that we spent at Auschwitz-Birkenau,
my most important exercise, in the light of the cruelty
felt there, was opening the heart, not closing it.
Christiane Dilger
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History
PEOPLE OF GOOD WILL
MARIAN GACH
Born on September 29, 1921,
in Brzeszcze. near Oświęcim,
he was the son of Antoni and
Wiktoria née Płużek. He was
raised in a working-class environment with rich socialist traditions, mainly thanks
to his father, who joined the
Polish Socialist Party (PPS) in
1924. Marian Gach attended
elementary and vocational
school in Brzeszcze, and went
to work in the Bata shoe factory in nearby Chełmek in
1938. When the outbreak of
the war limited shoe production a year later, he had to look
for other work; he found a job
in the coal mine in his hometown of Brzeszcze. He worked
underground as a miner’s
helper. When the shoe factory
in Chełmek increased its output and began hiring again, he
went back there, and stayed
on there as a lathe operator
until December 1944.
He was active in the resistance
movement during the war. He
joined an underground organization—the PPS Brzeszcze
Group, which operated in the
vicinity of Auschwitz Concentration Camp. He went by the
pseudonyms “Alfons” and
“Hermes.” At first, he served
as a courier, and afterwards,
from mid-1944, became the
commander. He worked actively within his organization
for the sake of the Auschwitz
prisoners. He clandestinely
provided them with material
aid in the form of food, medicine, and warm clothing, as
well as the underground socialist press. He received and
concealed escapees from the
camp. He furnished them with
false identity cards. He served
as an intermediary in secret
contacts between the prisoners and the outside world.
He received evidentiary material on SS crimes from the
camp resistance movement
and conveyed it to the Polish
underground. This material
included photographs of ex-
termination, copies of and
extracts from camp records,
and reports on conditions in
the camp, the extermination
of the Jews, the destruction of
Poles, Roma, and other ethnic
groups, and Nazi plans for
removing the evidence of the
crimes they had committed.
Many of the secret messages
coming out of the camp were
addressed to him personally,
under the names “Alfons”
and “Hermes.” In December
1944, under threat of arrest,
he had to leave Brzeszcze
and resettle in Krakow. Next,
he joined a partisan unit and
fought against the Germans in
the vicinity of Izdebnik, near
Myślenice.
He was supported in the effort to aid the prisoners by his
family, and especially by his
sister Antonina (born 1919),
a member of the clandestine
Brzeszcze Group. She helped
the prisoners in various ways,
supplying them with food
and medicine, acting as an
intermediary for their secret
correspondence, and helping to prepare escapes from
the camp. Employed in the
personnel records office in
the Brzeszcze coal mine, she
had access to various official
forms, and prepared false
identity papers for escapees
from Auschwitz, members of
the underground movement,
and people who were in hiding and being sought by the
Gestapo. Once her brother
Marian went to Krakow, she
maintained the contacts with
the resistance movement inside the camp.
After liberation, Marian Gach
served in the army and then
returned to the footwear industry. In 1948, he married
Stanisława Dec. They had two
children, a son and a daughter. Working in the shoe industry, first in Chełmek, then
in Otmęt, and finally in Nowy
Targ, Marian Gach advanced
from lathe operator to line
manager to deputy director
for production. He undoubtedly helped his own career by
constantly improving his educational qualifications, first
in the Mechanical Technical
School in Bytom, and then on
a Higher Course in State Administration, in Poznań. After
a professional career spanning
40 years, he retired in 1978.
While working and furthering
his education, he also found
time for a wide range of community activities. He was
chairman of the Włókniarz
Sports Club, which fielded
teams under the sponsorship
of the Otmęt plant. He was
also a member of the Presidium, and on two different
occasions a member of the
Municipal People’s Council in
Nowy Targ, which he made
his home, and chairman of the
Powiat Board of the Union of
Fighters for Freedom and Democracy (ZBoWiD) there. He
was also chairman of his local
Neighborhood Committee on
three different occasions, and
chairman of the Auschwitz
Preservation Society.
He received a range of decorations and honors for his
occupation-era and postwar
professional and community service, including the
Officer’s Cross of Polonia
Restituta, The Knight’s Cross
of the Order of Poland Reborn, the Partisan Cross, and
the Gold Cross of Service.
Biographical sketch from:
People of Good Will.
Memorial Book of Residents of
the Land of Oświęcim
Who Rendered Aid
to the Prisoners of Auschwitz
Concentration Camp,
Henryk Świebocki, ed.
Auschwitz-Birkenau
State Museum
Preservation Society,
Oświęcim, 2009
VESTIGES OF HISTORY
FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF
THE AUSCHWITZ MUSEUM
T
T
were produced in Oświęcim
in the 1930s, but I had a lot
of trouble finding out anything about the watch and
its story. After two years of
searching for information
about what had happened
to the owner of the watch,
the collector agreed to sell it
to me. When I took delivery
of it, I was surprised to see
photo: Mirosław Ganobis
He asked me for help in
finding information about
the Oświęcim-Praga factory and the watch itself.
I was surprised, because
I had been unaware that
watches with such inscriptions existed. I asked him to
send me a copy. I knew almost everything about the
Oświęcim-Praga cars that
A watch with the inscriptions
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that it still ran.
The car magazines from the
1930s that I have in my collection described rallies for
Oświęcim-Praga cars. The
watch with the inscription
was probably awarded to
the winner of one of these
rallies. The date pointed to
a rally held in Poznań on
June 1, 1930, which was described in one of the magazines.
The Oświęcim-Praga car
factory is now the OMAG
Machinery and Equipment
Factory. Previously, it was
known as the Oświęcim
Consolidates
Machinery
and Car Factory. In the
1930s, it manufactured
Oświęcim-Praga passenger
cars and trucks, which were
popular in prewar Poland.
One model was the Grand.
Two of them were entered
in the 1930 Monte Carlo
Rallye, and one finished.
Famous owners, like the
opera singer Jan Kiepura
and the painter Wojciech
Kossak, endorsed the cars
in ads.
photo: Agnieszka Juskowiak
his miniature wooden clog—a symbol of the suffering of the prisoners—
served a member of the SS as a wall
wo years ago, I received an e-mail from a man who claimed to ornament. Auschwitz prisoners made it in
have a silver watch in his collection with the inscription “Prize the camp carpentry shop, where they were
for a Good Driver, Oświęcim-Praga,” and the date June 1, 1930. assigned to labor.
FROM GANOBIS’S CABINET
A miniature prisoner’s clog
Aside from their official assignments, the prisoners
made many things illegally
for the private use of members of the SS, as a way of
earning an occasional extra
portion of bread. The miniature prisoner’s clog has
the word “Holland” carved
on the front, and a hook on
the back from which it could
be hung. Former prisoner
Nikodem Pieszczoch donated it to the Museum. He
does not recall how it came
into his possession. It was
Mirosław Ganobis probably left behind in one
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of the houses in Oświęcim
where SS members lived.
Nikodem Pieszczoch arrived in Auschwitz in the
first transport of Polish
political prisoners on June
14, 1940. He was 18, and received prisoner number 673.
Two years later, he was transferred to the Neuengamme
camp. After evacuation from
there, he was one of the few
survivors of the sinking of
the Cap Arcona.
Agnieszka Sieradzka
Collections Department A-BSM
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Photographer
THROUGH MOL’S LENS
photo: Tomasz Mól
photo: Tomasz Mól
photo: Tomasz Mól
photo: Tomasz Mól
photo: Tomasz Mól
A training session with the Polish champion rugby team, from Katowice, was held at the Powiat Sports Champions Secondary School Complex 2 in
Oświęcim. The name of the game derives from Rugby School in England, where the first match was played in 1823—during a football match, William
Webb Ellis picked up the ball and ran with it. In 1895, a controversy over pay for players led to the rise of two different variants, Rugby League with
13 players, and the more traditional Rugby Union with 15 players.
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new headquarters for the education center preserving the

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