On May 26, the Museum - Memorial Site in Bełżec was visited by participants of the 37th Conference of the Polish-German Textbook Commission of UNESCO Historians and Geographers entitled ‘Second World War in historical education in Poland and Germany: knowledge, teaching methods and forms of presentation’, which took place in Zamość.

The stay of the mixed Polish-German group of 70 people was a part of the conference held on 23-26 May.

The Second World War is one of the topics that provoke lively discussions both in the public sphere and in historical education. The discussions are of particular importance in view of the demographic changes that take place, as a result of which the memory of the Second World War is shifting from communication memory based on direct experience to cultural memory. This is mainly due to the fact that the last witnesses of history, who remembered this period, have been leaving. This is connected with the process of creating a canon, in which knowledge about the past is reorganized and the processes of forgetting and displacing indicate how societies shape the memory of the past. Also, the school curriculum framework imposes didactic reduction of the topics taught. This situation puts teachers and textbook authors before the question of how to present the Second World War to the next generations. What content should be covered? Which topics and aspects of historical education are the most important in this context? Is a focus on great political events and military actions the right way to teach about war? What methods should be used in school practice?

The conference was organised by: the Centre for Historical Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Berlin, Leibniz Institut für internationale Schulbuchforschung (Institute for international Textbook Research), the Polish-German Youth Cooperation, the Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation, the City Hall of Zamość, State Museum at Majdanek, the Arsenal Museum of Fortifications and Weaponry in Zamość, the Complex School under the name of European Union in Zamość and Roztocze National Park.