For Bartek Bartyzel, these three elements are interrelated: “the reasons for, the consequences and safeguards are interrelated elements because it is very difficult to reflect on any of those elements without considering the other two.” He mentioned that in a natural way, memorial sites are more focused on the results and the events that happened but they “cannot, in the narrative, overlook the reasons and the causes because the results came from something.” When memorial sites relate to events and consequences, they should put them in the context of their origin, what led to these atrocities. As for prevention, he thinks that memorial sites have a role to play but shouldn’t be isolated. They are one element of the educational process. “The entire education system involves schools, families, individuals, civic society and so on. […] We need to make people reflect on the mechanisms that led to those events and we want to make people reflect on how we could prevent similar events in the future, but of course it is all interrelated.” In order to properly raise awareness and educate about the mechanisms leading to this kind of situation, Dr. Anna Ziółkowska added that, “we should work on all three of those elements and we need to present all the attitudes and all the behaviors that can lead to the creation of places such as camps and other similar sites.” For her, a one-day field trip or a workshop is not enough to reach this objective.
Question n°4: Without the Trojan people and their curiosity, the horse would never have entered their city and the city wouldn’t have been conquered. We can see ourselves as the modern day residents of a city such as Troy. What are the Trojan horses that we should fear today? If there are any Trojan horses, how should we talk about them in sites such as Auschwitz, Stutthof or Kulmhof?
As Dr. Anna Ziółkowska stipulated: “Kulmhof, Stutthof and Auschwitz should be keys to understand the meaning of the present-day world and the processes that are happening in the modern-day world.” But unfortunately, the three speakers agreed upon the fact that humanity hasn’t yet learned from its mistakes. It seems that no matter how much effort is put into educating visitors to memorial sites, they don’t learn from history; no lessons are drawn from these visits to influence today’s world. Dr. Anna Ziółkowska passionately expressed: “We live in a brutal, cruel world that actually shows us that the world is sitting on its hands. There is no reaction to the evil that surrounds us on a daily basis. Therefore, we can say that our educational activities, in a sense, have failed. […] Everyone that comes to Auschwitz should learn their lesson. […] They should pass on the right attitude to others, but no lessons are learned, the homework is not done, these people do not learn from history. How does the world react to genocide? To mass murders? The world is watching! Of course there are protests, but physically, no action is taken, no resolve is shown to prevent such events. We are surrounded by evil and evil is developing all around us. And through remaining passive, we tend to accept the evil that is there in the world.” All the speakers pointed out that they have a feeling of failure concerning the education of people visiting memorial sites because the world is not changing. Mass murders and genocides are still happening after Auschwitz. Piotr Tarnowski illustrated this by saying: “The situation in Burma is completely not understandable because such atrocities are occurring in a country where the government is headed by the laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize.” He and Bartek Bartyzel underlined the role that memorial sites should have regarding these situations. “I believe that we are some elements of this puzzle and we should treat our role as a role of experts, as the voice of conscience. […] our voice, our legacy, be experienced, be felt, be present, hoping that the voice of memory sites, strengthened by other organizations or institutions, will be able to change the world for the better,” wisely said the spokesman of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum.
But none of them lost hope that memorial sites’ actions are crucial and very important to make things change:
“We know that what we are doing is important. […] How many of them [events that could change history] would there be if they hadn’t been stopped by our talks? About what consequences there might be of genocides, of hatred and lack of tolerance?” – Dr. Anna Ziółkowska.
“Without being naïve, our world wouldn’t make any sense if we didn’t believe in our ability to change the world.” – Bartosz Bartyzel.