The International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust was created by a decision of the Polish government in June 2005. Five months earlier, on January 27, 2005, during commemorations marking the liberation of the camp, the Act of Foundation was signed by two former prisoners of KL Auschwitz, Władysław Bartoszewski and Simone Veil, on behalf of all former prisoners. During the symbolic launch of the Center, delegations from over 40 countries, including presidents, prime ministers, and members of royal families were in attendance. Two hundred other former prisoners also signed the Act of Foundation, expressing their support for the idea of creating such an educational center in Oświęcim.
We have to ask ourselves and the world a question, how much truth about the horrible experiences of totalitarianism did we manage to pass on to younger generations? I think a lot, but not enough. Here and now, as the last will and testament of the prisoners who will no longer be among us, we must make a decision about the opening of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust.
Władysław Bartoszewski, January 27, 2005
Pope Benedict XVI, during his May 2006 visit to the Memorial Site Auschwitz-Birkenau, listed the Center as one of the institutions that bears hope to the world.
The Center does educational work aimed at both Poles and those in other nations. Work is done in close cooperation with home and international organizations to educate and memorialize the Nazi perpetrated mass murder. This, in the context of Auschwitz, helps people better understand the challenges of the modern world. The center educates about all facets of the tragedy of the Jewish Holocaust, Polish victims and Nazi terror during the occupation, the destruction of victims in the concentration camp system, the persecution and mass murder of the Roma, and about the systematic exclusion of entire national groups from society.
The International Center is one of the integral parts of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and draws on the Museum’s experience. The Center works in cooperation with the various departments of the Museum, among them: the Research Department, Archive, Collections Department, and Exhibitions Department, using their experience, research output, collected artifacts and archives.