25.04.2023
THE "ROAD TO SHOAH" PROJECT AT THE STATE MUSEUM AT MAJDANEK
On 22 April 2023, the State Museum at Majdanek hosted a nationwide conference entitled "Road to the Shoah - culture and pedagogy of remembrance in Holocaust education". The event was the result of the cooperation of the Warsaw Centre for Educational and Social Innovation and Training with memorial sites and cultural institutions, which organised a series of seminars for teachers in the past months.
The aim was both to commemorate the events of April 1943 and to promote the principles of the pedagogy of remembrance as an important element of contemporary education.
During the meeting, almost 50 participants were presented with a conclusion of the "Road to the Shoah" project and listened to speeches by representatives of such institutions as the Esther Rachel and Ida Kamińska Jewish Theatre, Centre for Yiddish Culture, the State Museum at Majdanek, the branch Radegast Station of the Museum of Independence Traditions in Łódź and the State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau. The speakers talked about the practical application of the methods of the pedagogy of remembrance in extracurricular teaching, the role of the educator at the memorial site, and presented the educational offer of their institutions. Another element of the event was a debate entitled "From formal to informal education - teaching about the Holocaust in Polish schools", which was an opportunity to exchange experiences between pedagogues, museum professionals and educators. The meeting ended with a visit to the grounds of the former German Nazi concentration camp at Majdanek.
The conference was also attended by school principals, directors of educational institutions, teachers, as well as the employees of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum, the Museum of KL Plaszow, the Museum of the former German extermination camp Kulmhof in Chełmno nad Nerem, the Marek Edelman Dialogue Centre and the Treblinka Museum.