Agnieszka Pollak-Olszowska

In February 2016, I gave a lecture on Holocaust teaching methods at an international conference for teachers in Lucerne, Switzerland.

In 2014, I presented a paper at a human rights conference at the IYMC in Oświęcim on Catholic religious sisters who rescued Jewish children during the Holocaust. The conference led to a publication, which included a chapter I wrote on the subject.

I also wrote an article comparing Polish and American methods of teaching about the Holocaust for a nationwide Polish magazine “Polonistyka” (No. 12/2014).

In 2014, in cooperation with the Galicia Museum in Krakow, I co-created a project entitled “JEWels, pearls of Jewish culture”. As part of the project, students prepared a guide to the Jewish cemetery in Bielsko-Biała.

In 2012 I gave a lecture on the methods of teaching about the Holocaust during a summer seminar for teachers at the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous in New York, USA.

I lead many workshops for teachers and give lectures during the National Librarians’ Forum on teaching about the Holocaust and Jewish culture.

In 2015 I co-organized school celebration days: World Tourism Day, which was devoted to intercultural relations. I was responsible for the preparation of artistic performances, photographs of table decorations, dedicated to Jewish culture.

In 2016 I helped to create a publication for teachers on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, published by the POLIN Museum of the History and Culture of Polish Jews in Warsaw.

I co-organize educational trips for teachers, museum educators and students, including: the Jewish Cemetery in Bielsko-Biała; commemoration to Fallen Educators during the March of Silence at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum; a visit to the district of Kazimierz in Kraków, combined with guided tours by students who want to become tour guides; anti-discrimination workshops at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw; I organize trips to the main public libraries in Bielko-Biała for lectures on multicultural history and culture of the region; for meetings with the Righteous and Holocaust survivors, organized in the “Galicia” Museum in Krakow.

Before each trip, I prepare participants during workshops, and each trip ends with a follow-up questionnaire about the students’ interest in Jewish cultural heritage in Poland.