Auschwitz-Birkenau - English Lessons for Auschwitz Memorial Guards

English Lessons for Auschwitz Memorial Guards

Contributed by jarmen
Thursday, 01 March 2007
About a million people visited the site of the former Nazi German Auschwitz concentration camp last year. Over half of them came from abroad. They could call on almost 200 licensed Museum guides, who work in a total of 16 languages. There are also several dozen Museum guards constantly watching over the safety of visitors, and it is they who are often the first point of contact for foreigners visiting the Memorial. In order to make such contacts as pleasant and useful as possible, 30 security staff have signed up voluntarily for a free 5-week English language course that the Museum has designed especially for them. Both older and younger security staff have enrolled. Beata Juszczyk of the Translators Section and Anna Kramarczyk of the Education Center are teaching the guards to understand and answer the most commonly encountered questions. Assistant head of security Józef Góra reported that foreign visitors ask about many things connected with the site: where the gas chambers are, how to get to Birkenau, or where to buy a guidebook. Anna Kramarczyk said that the guides, attending the course outside their working hours, are enthusiastic learners. “This is true even in the case of those who have never learned English before,” she said, “or for whom learning languages does not come easily. It’s plain to see that they’re all well motivated, and try to get the most out of the lessons.” The guards themselves say that they can already see results and feel that they are able to communicate better with visitors.