Open Panel:
‘History is Repeating. From the Past
to the Present,
From the Present
to the Past’
Marco Gonzalez, Executive Director, Yahad-In Unum
Elizabeth Barna, PhD candidate, Vanderbilt University
Catarina Branco, psychologist
Maciek Zabierowski, Learning and Special Projects Officer, Auschwitz Jewish Center
Alexander Kleiß, Mauthausen Memorial
Moderator: Dr Wanda Witek-Malicka, Research Centre, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
This panel consisted of five separate presentations from experts in a number of professions and from different countries.
Mr Gonzalez began with his presentation ‘The Holocaust Museum in Guatemala’. He discussed the country’s own dark past - an internal war between the 1960s and ‘90s saw more than 200,000 native Mayans killed – and the Holocaust is now being used as an avenue to discuss this history. In 2016, the Guatemalan government passed a law making Holocaust education compulsory in schools; the Museum was inaugurated in February of that year. It is the first of its kind in Central America and has so far seen 50,000 visitors. As Executive Director of Yahad-In Unum, Gonzalez stressed the importance of teaching the Holocaust as a crime – evidence of this crime, couple with survivor testimonies, are the best tools for educating young people and allowing them to take responsibility for future conflicts that may occur in their lifetime.