Instytucja Kultury województwa Małopolskiego

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.

Zdjęcie rodziny pozującej przed domem.

It was a very difficult year for everyone. Cultural institutions were also affected by limitations and the related problems in functioning. The COVID-19 pandemic has stopped many interesting initiatives or forced their implementation in another form. Despite these difficulties, the team at the Memorial Museum has a lot to be proud of. We invite you to an overview of the most important events.

Modernization of the building, the so-called Lagerhaus

It is no coincidence that we start with topics related to the investment. 2020 will go down in history for many reasons. For us, an important reason to remember it in particular will be the announcement of a tender for the modernization of the building, the so-called Lagerhaus at Kolbego Street in Oświęcim – the future seat of the Memorial Museum and the signing of a contract for construction works.

At the same time, work on the script for the permanent exhibition was continued. At the end of the year, the scenario was ready and approved for implementation. Construction work is ongoing and proceeding as planned. Let us remind you that the opening of the Memorial Museum is planned for the beginning of 2022.

Enriched museum collections

Over the past 12 months, the collections of the Memorial Museum of the Inhabitants of the Oświęcim Region have been significantly enriched. In January, they received valuable photographs, documents and everyday objects related to the legend of aid – Helena Płotnicka, a resident of Przecieszyn.

A few months later, in July, our collection was expanded with new, extremely valuable artifacts. It was then that the Memorial Museum signed contracts for the transfer of documents and souvenirs from the brave pharmacist from Brzeszcze – Maria Bobrzecka.

and Cichociemny, a war hero – Piotr Szewczyk, born in Babice.

These are the most valuable, but not the only exhibits obtained in 2020. Many of them can be seen at the currently prepared permanent exhibition and at future temporary exhibitions.

Cooperation with other institutions

Despite the limitations related to the pandemic, the employees of the Memorial Museum established or expanded contacts with local cultural centers and institutions. Shortly before the introduction of the restrictions, they visited the Museum of the John Paul II Family Home in Wadowice, where they had the opportunity not only to visit the exhibition, but also to learn about the internal structure of the museum. In Chełmek they were in Bata Memorial House . This meeting initiated a very good cooperation with the Municipal Center of Culture, Sports and Recreation in Chełmek . Close contacts were also established with the Commune Public Library in Przeciszów, the Society of Lovers of the Zatorska Land, the Aleksander Kłosiński in Kęty, the Commune Center for Culture, Reading and Sports in Osiek and the Center for the Documentation of Deportations, Expulsions and Resettlements of the Pedagogical University in Krakow.
Among the institutions with which this very good cooperation has been going on for a long time time are, among others Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum or Auschwitz Jewish Center.

Internet projects

The introduction of the state of pandemic and the related restrictions resulted in the need to transfer many activities previously carried out in real reality to the network. At this point, it is worth mentioning two very important projects. The first is the multimedia application “Memorial Sites” based on the book by Dr. Andrzej Strzelecki, “Topography of Remembrance. Memorial sites for the victims of Auschwitz and the heroes of the resistance movement in 1939-1945, located in the Oświęcim Land “. Secondary school students from the Oświęcim poviat worked on enriching its content, just like a year ago. Thanks to this, the application includes multimedia.

The second is an educational portal officially launched in December and available at: https://edukacja.muzeumpamieci.pl

Portal Edukacyjny

The works that lasted several months resulted in a website targeted at a very wide audience: children, adolescents and adults. The diverse forms of presenting stories related to the Oświęcim area will surely find many recipients among the numerous history lovers. In the future, individual sections of the portal will be enriched with new, interesting content, including extraordinary stories of local families.

Meetings and conferences

Meetings with history is one of the forms of popularization by the Memorial Museum of local history and its heroes among the inhabitants of the Oświęcim region.

For the event entitled "The memory will cover everything - the fate of the Birch trees during World War II" in February, over 170 people came to the Volunteer Fire Department in Brzeszcze.

The pandemic prevented the implementation of further such projects. For this reason, the popular science conference entitled “Help had a woman’s face”, planned for March and devoted to the involvement of the inhabitants of the Oświęcim region in helping the prisoners of KL Auschwitz. The project implemented jointly with the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum has been moved to the next year.
After several weeks of preparations, the Memorial Museum, together with the Center for the Documentation of Deportations, Expulsions and Resettlements of the University of Life Sciences in Krakow, completed its first online conference. Theme: “Memory and post-memory – Siberian families in the Oświęcim area. On the 80th anniversary of mass deportations to the USSR ”. During the meeting in the virtual space, the speakers took the participants on a trip in time lasting almost three hours. It is worth emphasizing that the conference was translated live into sign language. Its edited record is also available to all interested parties.

Relationships, competitions, projects

Despite the difficulties resulting from the limitations related to the pandemic, in 2020 the employees of the Memorial Museum continued the process of recording meetings with witnesses of history and their relatives. Among the many reports there was, among others registered in the church of St. Maksymilian Męczennik w Oświęcimiu, a story by Beata Laskowska about her grandfather Franciszek Ptasznik, who took the relics of St. Maksymilian from KL Auschwitz.

The educational activities of our Museum also include various competitions addressed mainly to children and adolescents. Their aim was, above all, to activate young audiences and expand knowledge about local history.
In June, students of secondary schools were invited to work outdoors. Photos from the photo competition “Memorials – the story is my inspiration” were included in the multimedia application “Memorial Sites”.
The next initiatives are the literary-artistic historical competition “Paths of memory” conducted in cooperation with the Youth Cultural Center in Oświęcim and the “Letter to St. Mikołaja ”- addressed not only to the youngest.
Among the projects implemented by the Memorial Museum in 2020, pioneering dendrological research carried out in Oświęcim is worth noting. Their goal was to answer the question: apart from the blocks built in the city during World War II by IG Farben for the needs of the factory workers, there are also trees left behind by the Germans?

Another important undertaking at the end of the year and continued in 2021 was the action of collecting contemporary photos of the inhabitants of the Oświęcim region. After its completion, a collective portrait of people who are close to the idea of ​​aiding aid will be created:

Portret mies

Among the interesting events was also the publication, for the second time, of a calendar with photographs from the last century – mostly unpublished so far, and coming from the own collections and donated to the resources of the Municipal Water Resource Center by the inhabitants of the Oświęcim region.

Kalendarz 2022

Historical calendar for 2022

Friends and supporters of the Remembrance Museum of Land of Oświęcim Residents received a special calendar before Christmas in which photos of heroes and heroines are

Read more »

The employees of the Memorial Museum, who are close to the idea of ​​helping and supporting those in need, are actively involved in various projects of this nature. One of them was the production of the film for the #gaszynchallenge campaign.

Another was the action of delivering chrysanthemums donated by the Małopolska Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture, branch in Oświęcim, and decorating the graves of people who helped prisoners of KL Auschwitz during the war and memorial sites in our area.

Kwiaty Miejsca Pamięci
Another very important year in history is ahead of the Memorial Museum. The year of completing the investment, preparing the permanent exhibition, preparations for moving to a new headquarters and waiting for visitors. We would like to thank all our friends and supporters for their support and energy for further activities. We would also like to thank the representatives of the media – local, provincial and national – for their cooperation and providing up-to-date and reliable information on the activities of the Memorial Museum of the Oświęcim Residents.
Telewizja Kraków

We wish everyone a lot of health and good luck in the New Year 2021.