The award is a mark of recognition for the singular role that the Auschwitz Museum has played in preserving Holocaust memory in its 75 years of existence.
Addressing Wednesday’s ceremony in Washington, Cywiński said that "at this moment, with the survivors [of Auschwitz] diminishing in number, it is our responsibility to determine the role of this memory in individual and collective lives."
He added: "If we place the memory of the Holocaust only in the history books, it means that we have failed to understand the universal truth about humanity it reveals.”
Cywiński told those at the ceremony that "in today's world, our culture, legal, political, and diplomatic evolution, as well as our understanding of ethics and social norms cannot be comprehended without understanding the very essence of the planned dehumanization, exclusion, anti-Semitism, and racism of Auschwitz and the entire German Third Reich.”
USHMM Council Chairman Stuart E. Eizenstat spoke of a unique role of the Auschwitz Museum in Holocaust memory and education. He said: “We are deeply grateful to Poland for its decision to establish the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, as well as its longstanding support for the institution. We applaud Dr. Cywiński’s stellar leadership of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and his singular contributions to advancing the cause of Holocaust memory and education in Europe and worldwide.”
The US State Department’s Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, Ellen Germain, said: “Auschwitz stands as testimony to the depths of evil to which humanity can descend, and so we can’t overstate its importance as a place of commemoration and education."
She added: "For 75 years, since just after the end of World War II, Poland’s Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum has taken on that dual role of honoring the victims and preserving their history. Under Dr. Cywiński’s leadership, the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum has supported accurate history and education about the Holocaust and has guarded against Holocaust distortion and denial. The United States is proud to work with such people and institutions."
The ceremony was attended by Auschwitz survivors Irene Weiss and Ruth Cohen, as well as politicians and members of the Polish diplomatic corps.
A professional historian, Cywiński is a graduate of the University of Humanities in Strasbourg, France and of the Catholic University of Lublin in Poland. In 2001, he obtained his PhD from the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 2006, at the age of 34, he took over as director of the Auschwitz Museum.
The Auschwitz Museum commemorates all the victims of the Nazi German camp, where some 1 million Jews, 70,000 Poles, 21,000 Sinti and Roma, 14,000 Soviet POWs and 12,000 people of other nationalities and groups were murdered.
(mk/gs)
Source: PAP, Auschwitz Museum
