Workshops - Instytut Pileckiego

Education Workshops

Workshops can be conducted both on-site and online. 

Face-to-face workshops last 3 hours and can be combined with a guided tour of the exhibition “The Volunteer. Witold Pilecki and his Mission in Auschwitz”. 

The duration of the online workshops is 90 minutes. Technical requirements include an internet-enabled device (PC, laptop, tablet, etc. with a functioning camera and microphone) on which the Zoom software can be installed. 

Topics of the workshops: 

  • “Reports by Witold Pilecki from the Auschwitz concentration camp”

In the online workshop, participants will examine the history of the Second World War, the Polish underground state, and the resistance in the Auschwitz concentration camp on the basis of Witold Pilecki’s biography. They will have access to archive material that shows Pilecki’s efforts to inform the outside world about the Nazi atrocities. The reactions of the Allies are elaborated on and presented in the form of a debate on the leading question “Should the Auschwitz concentration camp be bombed by the Allies?”.

  • “How Diplomats rescued Jews”

Who were Aleksander Ładoś, Chiune Sugihara and Raoul Wallenberg? Not many people today know who these people were, although they saved thousands of Jews from Nazi persecution. As diplomats of various states in Europe during the Second World War, they used their position to forge passports and visas. 

The network around Ładoś in Bern, which forged Central and South American passports, is presented in more detail. The group consisted of employees of the Polish legation in Switzerland and Jewish organizations. Using the passports forged by this group, we will trace various Jewish biographies and fates during the Second World War.

Was someone really protected from Nazi persecution by a forged passport? Was it possible to flee and leave Europe with a passport? By working together with the original documents, we also want to reflect on general questions of resistance, flight and borders.

  • “The Secret Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto”

What do milk cans, ten metal boxes and a secret archive have in common? Not much at first glance, but it was precisely in such containers that the secret archive of Emanuel Ringelblum and the Oneg Shabbat group in the Warsaw Ghetto was kept and preserved for posterity. Who were these people who, surrounded by misery, collected and archived wills, documents, diaries, posters, announcements, portraits and even candy wrappers in occupied Warsaw? Why did people risk their lives and repression from the SS during the Second World War in the name of conveying the truth from the perspective of those affected? In our workshop “Resistance to Nazi Crimes. The Secret Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto” we will discover Emanuel Ringelblum and his network using archive materials.