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In the 1970s, Tetiana Shtonda’s mother visited the Memorial and brought back a small guidebook. After reading it, the teenage Tetiana became interested in this history. It was not until 2026 that Tetiana, by then a history teacher in Dnipro, was able to fulfill her dream by taking part in this year’s seminar.
The cooperation between the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust at the Auschwitz Museum and the Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies “Tkuma” dates back to 2018. Despite interruptions caused by the pandemic and Russia’s attack on Ukraine, five editions of the seminar for teachers from Ukraine have been held so far, including one online, as well as one seminar for teachers from Poland, who visited Dnipro and Kyiv in 2019.
This year’s seminar took place on August 17–20. A group of 20 teachers from Ukraine took part in a study visit to the grounds of the former German Nazi camp, a series of educational workshops, talks at the Museum’s Conservation Laboratories and Collections,
a historical walk around Oświęcim, and a visit to the Auschwitz Jewish Center. Most of the program was conducted in the participants’ native language, and it proved a source of inspiring impressions.
“I already knew a lot about the subject, but seeing it all with my own eyes changed my perspective,” said Nataliia Ostrovska, who holds a doctorate in social communication and is acting head of the Department of Journalism at Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic National University.
“At Auschwitz, history stops being merely
a page in a textbook. It takes on a human face, a voice, and a story,” added Larysa Pyshna,
a history teacher from Mykolaiv Oblast.
For people from war-torn Ukraine, a seminar at the Auschwitz Memorial is a particularly meaningful experience. “We fully understand that for you this is not just a journey. You have left your homes, your loved ones, and your students to come here and talk together about memory, history, and responsibility.
I want to tell you that we in Poland look upon the courage of the Ukrainian people with great respect. We admire your resistance, your fight, and your determination in defending your homeland,” Andrzej Kacorzyk, director of the ICEAH, said during a meeting with the group from Ukraine.
“Being at this site of the greatest tragedy of the Second World War makes Ukrainians painfully aware of the parallels with the present,” observed Tetiana Nikiforova,
a history teacher and director of the Osvitnia Traiektoriia (Educational Trajectory) Center for the Professional Development of Teachers of the Dnipro City Council.
The connections between the themes of the seminar and the present day, seen above all through the individual experience of war, ran like a common thread through the participants’ reflections afterward. “For me, this seminar is very helpful in developing my own ability to go through pain, to accept it, and to talk about it,” said Anastasiia Posunko, a history teacher from Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
“Thank you for reflections that encourage us to consider how to remain human, how to keep love within ourselves, and how not to become infected with hatred for those who are killing our compatriots, relatives, friends, and ordinary people in our country—and how to answer the question of where the line lies that must not be crossed,” said Alla Chernii, who holds a doctorate in political science and is director of the Rivne Regional Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education, summing up.
The seminar inspired the Ukrainian experts in many ways. “An important conclusion I drew from the project, as a Ukrainian, was how wisely this Memorial has been preserved, telling the story of many groups of victims. For Ukrainians, it can be a good example of how to cultivate our own national memory,” emphasized Olena Pyshko, who holds
a doctorate in pedagogy and works at the Rivne Regional Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education. “This seminar is very helpful to me as a museum professional, because today we are in the process of commemorating the heroes and victims of the current war,” added Anastasiia Posunko.
Many participants also shared their plans to apply what they had learned in their professional work. “The tools and methods
I have acquired will help me develop my students’ critical and systems thinking, their ability to counter prejudice, discrimination, and stereotypes, and their commitment to democratic values and human rights,” noted Dariia Olkhovetska, a history teacher from Cherkasy Oblast.
“The seminar helps us understand the nature of totalitarian regimes, as well as the mechanisms and causes of genocidal behavior. Personally, I will be able to use this in my work with students and in writing a textbook for the eleventh grade,” added Dmytro Sekyrynskyi,
a history teacher from Zaporizhzhia and author of history textbooks.
Much could be written about the value of seminars like this one and about the importance of working with difficult history, including the history of Auschwitz, when reflecting on and teaching about contemporary wars and atrocities. The essence of education at the Auschwitz Memorial is aptly captured in a comment Anastasiia Posunko wrote in the margin of her evaluation form: “Thank you for the feeling that even from Auschwitz, the road can lead to light and hope.”
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Nataliia Tkachenko, educator at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and project coordinator.