Jewish center in Oświęcim / Auschwitz

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Jewish Center (April 2009)

The Jewish Center in Oświęcim / Auschwitz (Polish: Centrum Żydowskie w Oświęcimiu ) is a memorial center for the victims of the Shoah established in Oświęcim (German name Auschwitz ) in 2000 . The sponsor is the American Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation, founded in 1995 . The Polish Center has been a partner institute of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City since 2006 .

history

Oświęcim had a large Jewish community before World War II ; in the 1930s more than half of the population were Jews. For over 400 years, Jewish life, Jewish culture and numerous synagogues shaped the cityscape. This changed with Hitler's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 and the establishment of the Auschwitz concentration camp and the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp . Everything "Jewish" was deleted from this area in the following years.

After the war, the Soviet Union or the Polish government at the time had no interest in promoting religions. In addition, anti-Semitism did not end in 1945. That is why almost all survivors of the Holocaust left Oświęcim within the first ten years after the end of the war. The last Jewish family residing there emigrated to Israel in 1962. As a result, there are no more Jews living in this city today. Szymon Kluger was the only Holocaust survivor from Oświęcim who returned from emigration. He lived secluded in his former parents' house and died in 2000, shortly before the opening of the Jewish Center. The centuries-long history of Jewish life in Oświęcim ended with his death. The memory of Jewish culture in Oświęcim threatened to disappear completely.

Lomdei Mishnajot Synagogue

Over 1,000,000 people visit the former concentration camps near the city every year without first getting an insight into the Jewish perspective. For this reason, the Jewish Center opened in 2000 to preserve the earlier diversity of this religion in that area and to give visitors to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum an insight into the former city life of Oświęcim / Auschwitz. School groups from Germany , Israel , England , Poland , France and the USA make up the largest proportion of visitors . Groups from Austria are in spite of the diverse references of the local past to Austria - u. a. the area was part of the Kingdom of Galicia - comparatively rarely represented.

Goals and methodology

The center, open to Jews and non-Jews, has two goals:

  • Give everyone the opportunity to get to know Jewish culture through exhibitions, lectures, and educational programs. Projects have been carried out with local schools on a regular basis for several years. This led to greater acceptance of the facility.
  • To create a place where visitors to the concentration camp can remember the Jewish victims and see the former Jewish-Polish culture.
Austrian memorial servants in front of the Auschwitz Jewish Center (2009)

The following facilities are available to help you achieve these goals:

  • Chewra Lomdei Mishnajot Synagogue : It is the only synagogue of about twenty to survive World War II .
  • a main exhibition showing the former Jewish life in the Oświęcim area
  • a library, mainly for genealogical research
  • Room for changing exhibitions. The current exhibition "New Life" is for the former residents of Oswiecim who emigrated to Israel.
  • The Kluger house for temporary exhibitions with the adjoining Café Bergson

Since 2007, the Jewish Center in Oświęcim has been an operational site of the Austrian Memorial Service . The Jewish Center also has one German and one Ukrainian volunteer from Action Reconciliation Service for Peace . Among other things, they offer tours of the museum, the synagogue, the city and the former Jewish cemetery.

Part of the international commemoration of the Shoah

The center sees itself as part of the globally active museums that commemorate the Shoah / Holocaust . The center works together with the State Memorial and the International Youth Meeting Center in Oświęcim / Auschwitz .

In 2008/2009 the exhibition “Polish Heroes” about Polish righteousnesses was shown in the Jewish Center . This was designed in collaboration with the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow and has been in use in six versions in Poland, England and North America since then.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Global list of all Jewish museums ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jewishmuseum.info
  2. ↑ Youth meeting place (German)

Coordinates: 50 ° 2 ′ 25.2 ″  N , 19 ° 13 ′ 13.5 ″  E