Activity

The Remembrance Museum of the Land of Oświęcim Residents is active in the fields of popular science, education, publishing as well as in the organisation of exhibitions.

Click on the selected year to see the museum's activities in the timeline.

Popular science activities

The Remembrance Museum organised a popular science conference in St. Maximilian Kolbe Centre in Harmęże in 2019 which was combined with the promotion of Andrzej Strzelecki PhD’s book “Topography of Memory. Memorial Sites of Auschwitz Victims and Resistance Movement Heroes in the Years 1939-1945 in the Land of Oświęcim.”

The Remembrance Museum also invited visitors to the Centre for Dialogue and Prayer in Oświęcim to an academic conference entitled “Tireless in their fight for their homeland. Inhabitants of the Land of Oświęcim on WWII frontlines.” Guest speakers spoke of soldiers from the Land of Oświęcim who fought on WWII frontlines, in particular those who participated in one of the most significant battles – that of Monte Cassino.

Yet another form in which the Museum promotes history is by organising gatherings with locals entitled “We will remember it all.” These are dedicated to the fate during WWII of those people from the particular villages or towns in which the “encounter with history” is held. The series began last year with a gathering in Osiek which proved to be very popular. During the second gathering in Brzeszcze in February 2020, the organisers were pleasantly surprised at the high turnout.

Educational activities

The Remembrance Museum organised a project in cooperation with high school pupils from the Oświęcim District which was based on the information contained in Andrzej Strzelecki PhD’s book entitled “Topography of Memory. Memorial Sites of Auschwitz Victims and Resistance Movement Heroes in the Land of Oświęcim in the Years 1939-1945.” The outcome of the project is a mobile application in the form of an interactive memorial site map which is freely available for download. Educators from the Remembrance Museum ran workshops “In search of legends and history of listed buildings in the Land of Oświęcim” for children from primary school classes I-VIII. A subsequent project was aimed at pupils from higher primary school classes in Brzeszcze and was entitled “Knowing the risk – heroic attitudes of Land of Oświęcim inhabitants in daily life under occupation.”

Publishing activities

In addition to Andrzej Strzelecki PhD’s publication “Topography of Memory. Memorial Sites of Auschwitz Victims and Resistance Movement Heroes in the Years 1939-1945 in the Land of Oświęcim”, the Remembrance Museum published two other titles “Niezłomni wrześniowych dni – losy Batalionu Obrony Narodowej „Oświęcim””[1] by Marcin Dziubek as well as „Za matową szybą. W drodze do utraconej tożsamości”[2] written by Agnieszka Smreczyńska-Gąbka. (Available in Polish only.)

Exhibitory activities

An open-air exhibition presenting the concept of the Remembrance Museum was shown in five towns and villages of the Oświęcim District – Oświęcim, Kęty, Brzeszcze, Chełmek i Osiek. Local residents could see what the new Museum HQ will look like when it is located in the building on Kolbego street in Oświęcim from 2022. The Remembrance Museum was also co-organiser of a mobile exhibition of photographs from Pope John Paul II’s visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau on 7th June 1979 entitled “It was impossible for me not to come…”. The exhibition was available for viewing on the Main Market Square in Oświęcim.