They wouldn’t have been able to say that they were hungry or that they were afraid etc. The most moving moment during the visit was “when they learned that because of their disability they would never survive in the camp, they would have been killed right off.” They asked Piotr “Why? Why? We are healthy, of course we are healthy, we are just hard of hearing, we are just deaf, it’s impossible!” After that, they said that they needed to do anything in their power to be remembered and they are highly motivated to leave a trace behind, to make themselves remembered. Finally, he mentioned important elements that need to be understood regarding a visit with deaf and hard of hearing people. First, the interpreter is the most important person, not the guide. The group will not pay attention to the guide. Secondly, attention must be paid to potential visual disturbances. For example, the interpreter must ensure that the sun does not blind them, that everyone is able to see him/her. “If you turn your back to them, they will have a hard time “listening” to you.”
Piotr Kondratowicz passionately communicated to the audience his everyday satisfaction of working with deaf and hard of hearing young adults. They are skilled young adults, great professionals who simply function differently than us. “After two days in the Museum, my students became heroes in my eyes because they matured within those two days. They reconverted into mature men who were working for the benefit of future generations. […] I have the great pleasure to work with the deaf and hard of hearing and they really let me adopt a different perspective on the world. I get to see that there is a world beyond the verbal, there is a world that consists of otherness broadly understood, smells and other emotions, and all of that can be combined into something exceptional and wonderful. […] Albert Einstein once said that there are no impossible things, the impossible things are things that require a little bit more time to achieve. We do have that time and let’s use it to the full.” The second speaker, Dr. Marcin Owsiński from the Stutthof Museum, is a German language and culture specialist, a sociologist and a pedagogist. He presented three projects implemented by the Museum for people with mild to moderate cognitive dysfunctions and social maladjustment. For him, the mission of memorial sites is not about transmitting history, dates and figures: what matters most are the notions of empathy and reflection. “How do we explain, working in a memorial site, that history is not what matters most? Why do visitors need to remember dates and figures if they are beyond comprehension? It is quite difficult to explain things in thousands - why should they remember these specific data? Will it affect their life? Not necessarily. […]