The State Museum at Majdanek has just released its recent publication on the subject of education at memorial sites. The publication 'Pedagogy of remembrance. Theory and practice of education in martyrological museums', edited by Tomasz Kranz, contains materials from the international conference organised by the State Museum at Majdanek in October 2017.

The main objective of the session, which is also reflected in the book, was to analyse the theoretical reflection, which in Poland, Germany and Austria attempts to define the identity, status, and practical educational activity of museums located at memorial sites of the Second World War. It was significant to look at it through the prism of experiences made by teachers and students, theoreticians and practitioners, researchers of remembrance and history educators.

The volume consists of three parts entitled: Pedagogy of remembrance – contexts and conceptions, Education at memorial sites from the viewpoint of students, teachers, and museum educators as well as Memorial sites in education. At the end of the publication, the record of a debate is to be found. The debate was an attempt to critically evaluate the development of pedagogical activity in museums-camps. We encourage you to read the table of contents below.

The publication is available in the Museum Bookshop in paper and in electronic form.

In both German and Polish understanding, the pedagogy of remembrance is an open, critical, and contemplative form of education. It can be described as open, because it assumes open situations of learning, the subject of which can be not only history itself considered from different perspectives, but also forms and contents of remembrance including other historical narratives and visions. Critical, because it presumes that the intellectual and emotional confrontation with the darkest events of the Second World War motivates to a critical analysis and to a possible revision of the own opinions and imaginations concerning the past and the remembrance. Contemplative, because it inspires to think about individual and group behaviours in specific historical cases and potential social situations, ergo to contemplate moral and ethical dimension of human activity on the basis of history.

Extract from Introduction