The strong messages of Auschwitz Survivors opened the International Educational Conference at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, setting the atmosphere for reflections and discussions concerning the condition of memory about the tragic events of the past in our today’s world. The question formulated in the title of the conference disclosed the state of uncertainty and anxiety of many people working in the field of memory, education, or historical research in the face of the resurrection of ancient, dehumanizing, antisemitic, and racist ideologies as well as the emergence of new tensions and international conflicts.
The year 2025 marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz as well as 20 years since the ICEAH was brought into being by the will of former prisoners of Auschwitz. Deputy Director Andrzej Kacorzyk started his welcoming speech by recounting the establishment of the center in 2005. “The center is the fruit of the work of many generations,” he stressed, “of those who were at the Auschwitz Museum from the very beginning and those who came after them. Education at Auschwitz did not begin 20 years ago, but it was then that the Survivors passed us the symbolic baton in the relay of generations.”
Kacorzyk dwelled upon the name of the center that encompassed its mission and character.
“International because people from all over the world join our programs and our team is made of people from many countries, different cultures, and languages. We listen to the voices of the whole world with attention," he noted.
OPENING OF THE CONFERENCE
The event was inaugurated by the voices of Auschwitz Survivors. The opening address was delivered by Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, and Andrzej Kacorzyk, deputy director of the Museum and head of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust.