The workshop "Auschwitz as World Heritage – UNESCO, Poland
and History Politics" analyses the events that led to the
inscription of Auschwitz-Birkenau in the World Heritage List and
its further development as a World Heritage site. The focus is not
only on assessing cultural and political processes at global and
transnational levels, but also on investigating regional and
national as well as locally rooted developments.
After the adoption of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention in
1972, Poland was one of the most active members and one of
those states submitting the first proposals to the new World
Heritage list. The Polish nominations in 1978 included not only
the old towns of Krakow and Warsaw, the Wielicka salt mine and
the Białowieża national park, but also the former concentration
and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. This proposal was
initially rejected, but already at the second session of the World
Heritage Committee in 1979 the site named "Auschwitz
concentration camp" was registered on the World Heritage List.
The workshop "Auschwitz as World Heritage – UNESCO, Poland
and History Politics" analyses the events that led to the
inscription of Auschwitz-Birkenau in the World Heritage List and
its further development as a World Heritage site. The focus is
not only on assessing cultural and political processes at global
and transnational levels, but also on investigating regional and
national as well as locally rooted developments. Thus, the
workshop will examine the changing role of Auschwitz
remembrance in Poland in a historical perspective as well as
history politics, heritage preservation and culture politics in an
international context. Experts from different historical disciplines
and social sciences, practitioners of conservation, and specialists
dealing with the site convene in order to discuss implications of
the Polish nomination of the Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-
Birkenau for inscription in the World Heritage list in 1978. What
consequences did the status "World Heritage site" have for
Auschwitz-Birkenau? Can the entry of Auschwitz Concentration
Camp on the World Heritage List in 1979 be read as an
expression of the universalization of the Holocaust from the
1960s onward? Who used the World Heritage programme of
UNESCO in this context to pursue global, national or local
policies, with what aims and under what conditions?
The workshop is hosted by the research project “Knowledge of
the World – Heritage of Mankind: The History of UNESCO
Cultural and Natural Heritage” (www.ieg-unesco.eu) which
started at the Leibniz Institute of European History in July 2013.
The project consists of a longitudinal study focusing on the
emergence of the UNESCO Convention Concerning the
Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage as well as
the further development of the programme from 1972 to 1994.
Depth is added by four studies dealing with sites that have had
a specific effect on the World Heritage programme since its
beginnings in the 1970s and 1980s: the Galápagos Islands,
Aachen Cathedral, the Old City of Jerusalem and the former
concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Venue: Bursa im. Stanisława Pigonia - Dom Profesorski, ul.
Garbarska 7a, 31-131 Kraków
PROGRAMME
Friday, 18 July 2014
9:00 Johannes Paulmann: Welcome/ Andrea Rehling:
Introduction
Panel 1:
The changing role of Auschwitz Heritage in a historical
perspective
9:30 Julia Röttjer: Auschwitz-Birkenau as “dissonant” World
Heritage since the 1970s
10:15 Jonathan Huener: The Politics and Culture of
Commemoration at Auschwitz
11:15 Heidemarie Uhl: Heidemarie Uhl: From the Margins to
the Center of European and Global Memory: The Transformation
of Holocaust Remembrance as historical context of Auschwitz-
Birkenau Memorial
12:00 Marek Kucia: The Meanings of Auschwitz in Poland, 1945
to the Present
Panel 2: Polish history politics and conservation of cultural
heritage in an international context
14:15 Danuta Kłosek-Kozłowska: The Spirit of Place and the
Place of Spirits. Auschwitz-Birkenau former Nazi Death Camps
15:00 Piotr Trojanski: The problems of commemoration of
Jewish victims at Auschwitz Memorial and Museum during the
Communist time (1947-1989)
16:00 Marek Rawecki: Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum protection
zones. Managing the legacy of the former death camp
17:00 Discussion
Kontakt:
Dr. Andrea Rehling
Leibniz-Institut für Europäische Geschichte
Alte Universitätsstr. 19, D-55116 Mainz
0049 (0) 06131-39394641
0049 (0) 06131-3935326
unesco@ieg-mainz.de
URL: www.ieg-unesco.eu