“Remembrance is not a key for the past, it is a key for the future”: Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum on the lessons of the Holocaust
On the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism, Piotr Cywiński, the Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, touched on why the Museum is so important in preserving the memory of the Holocaust and the lessons that we must take away from it.
On the importance of the Museum, Mr Cywiński said: “To see the remains is certainly to understand more, especially for those people who are from the younger generation, even their grandparents were born after the war so it’s not really their own history,” Mr Cywiński said. He also explained how by visiting the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, “to enter in some barracks, to approach the ruins of crematoriums and gas chambers,” one leaves with a “personal, individual experience” that he believes cannot be obtained from films or documentaries.
Speaking on why Mr Cywiński believes it is crucial to have a thorough knowledge of the history of the Auschwitz concentration camp in order to have an understanding of the modern world, the Museum’s Director said that the Nazi’s persecution of Jews was not merely about history but “part of our heritage, part of our identity, part of our understanding of what humans are…what they’re able to do.”
When asked about his thoughts on antisemitism in the post-Holocaust era, the Director said that “It is the same attack with the same arguments…the same words, the same symbols, same cartoons that are published in some newspapers. So, the main difference in antisemitism today, than, let’s say 100 years ago, is that now we know where is the end of this road.”
Mr Cywiński also spoke on how crucial it is to remember the lessons of the Holocaust and not make the same mistakes. “Remembrance is not a key for the past, it is a key for the future. And we are still full of bystanders…we do not feel concerned by what is in the world. We see a growing impression, maybe also for pandemic reasons, we are more closed in on ourselves now, but we are seeing some growing indifference, passivity all around the world. ‘It’s not my history, it’s Africa. It’s not my history, it’s the Middle East, it’s not my history, it’s…I don’t know…somewhere in the United States.’ It’s very easy to say that…very, very easy. But this was the biggest problem for the victims of all the genocides, that the rest of the world was falling in, more or less, total indifference.”
Mr Cywiński concluded by revealing the damaging impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the Museum, acknowledging that it would need to adapt so that hopeful visitors who might not be able to visit in person could still experience the Museum. He also expressed his excitement for planned additions to the Museum. These included online tours with a real guide where visitors could ask questions, the development of virtual reality technology and the creations of new exhibitions.
He added that the Museum staff’s “most important moral obligation” was to maintain the preservation of the site and the “hundreds and thousands of documents and objects.”
The full podcast with Mr Cywiński can be listened to here, or watched here.
Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox. Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, The Sunday Telegraph columnist Zoe Strimpel and actor Eddie Marsan.
