Holocaust Memorial Partnership

# train tracks leading to the Sobibór death camp

Holocaust Memorial Partnership

The Partnership was established in 2015 by experienced certified guides and educators collaborating with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. The aim of the Partnership was to offer educational services for the most discerning visitors to the Auschwitz Memorial. Since 2020, we have begun working online and provided the Auschwitz Virtual Tour to an international audience. Now, we are expanding and creating sessions on various topics related to the Holocaust theme.

This is an immensely important element: we can be effective in conveying the history and the message of the Holocaust, all of us with different views and ethnic backgrounds, united under a common banner. Because what unites us is not that we want to tell a specific Jewish story. The Holocaust is not just a Jewish story but a manifestation of the decline of Western civilization. Combating antisemitism, resisting potential genocide, is an inherent component of our survival, both ethically and physically. It is our duty to ourselves.

Over the past 3 years, we have educated 100,000 people about Auschwitz. Sitting in our tiny studios, where we have set up two computers and our audio-visual recordings, we have told the story of Auschwitz to schools in New York, Washington, London, India, and New Zealand. When we start a public session with 70 people, after two hours, we still have 70 people logged into the system. No one resigns, no one feels disappointed. And typically, we spend another hour engaging in conversations with these people during the Q&A session. Today, after 3 years and tens of thousands of participants, we can confidently say: yes, we know how to tell the story of the Holocaust remotely, through audiovisual sessions. And we can do it everywhere. There are no geographical limitations today. People with disabilities, students in small schools in Alabama, elderly individuals, busy corporate employees - in other words, everyone - we don't need to physically go to Auschwitz, Treblinka, or other former extermination camps to understand what had happened there. To see what had happened there.

Who we are

About Us

Dr. Jerzy Wójcik

Jerzy Wójcik was born in the town of Oświęcim (Auschwitz), Poland. He is a graduate of the International Relations program as well as Middle and Far East programs at Jagiellonian University in Krakow. In 2010, he was awarded a PhD in political science. Jerzy has been the recipient of scholarships from the Florentyna Kogutowska Fund at Jagiellonian University and from the State of Israel as a Research Fellow at Tel Aviv University. For a number of years, he has worked with several organizations and institutions in Poland, including the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, the Jagiellonian University Center for Holocaust Studies in Krakow, the Center for International Relations in Warsaw, and the European Association of Israel Studies. Since 2015, he has been running the Holocaust Memorial Partnership. Jerzy has visited Israel over 20 times.

jerzy.wojcik@holocaustpartnership.eu

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Dr. Tomasz Cebulski

Tomasz Cebulski was born in Kraków. He graduated with MA in International Relations from Jagiellonian University, Kraków. In October 2014, he received his Ph.D. from the Department of Political Relations at Jagiellonian University. In 2000, he founded a research and historical interpretation center called POLIN TRAVEL (www.jewish-guide.pl). It focuses on history, genealogy, and guiding, providing a holistic visit experience in Central Europe.

Cebulski is the author of a book, “Auschwitz after Auschwitz. History, memory, politics.” The book debates the dynamic of construction of the Holocaust memory, provides an insight into the Auschwitz Museum through analyzing the politics of commemoration and conflict resolution a the side in the last 3 decades. In 2020, Tomasz established a new visual project SKY HERITAGE PICTURES to present historical sites from a new drone vantage point. The films produced by SHP in Gen-FILM-It series are used by museums, educational institutions and in narrating family genealogies. The productions are sharable and involving new digital tools to narrate history.

In 2020, Cebulski established the TEEN FLYING UNIVERSITY to promote education of Polish youth. Project is based on teaching values of social diversity and democracy as being rooted in history awareness. Within the project local sites of memory are being discovered, taken care of and interpreted by the youth for the sake of local history awareness, responsibility and education.

tomasz.cebulski@holocaustpartnership.eu

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Mr. David Kennedy

David Kennedy is a Polish-American with a deep familial connection to the city of Oświęcim, Poland, where Auschwitz is located. His family experienced the war in the city, and he also spent a significant part of his childhood there. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Political Science and International Relations. Since 2007, he has been an educator at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, as well as a translator and editor. His work encompasses various projects for the museum, including publications, and contributions to both temporary and permanent museum exhibitions. In 2023, he joined the team at the Polish-German foundation, the International Youth Meeting Centre in Oświęcim, an organization specializing in educational programs focused on Auschwitz and the Holocaust.

david.kennedy@holocaustpartnership.eu

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Mr. Wojciech Menzyk

Wojtek Menzyk is a graduate of the University of Silesia in Katowice, where he obtained a master's degree in French literature and a diploma in English translation. Since 2004, he has been a licensed guide at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. He has also participated in training courses organized by the Memorial de la Shoah in Paris and the Holocaust Educational Trust in London. An enthusiast of history, bicycles, and mountain hikes, he lives in Oswięcim with his family and two cats.