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Professor Jürgen Rüttgers, a member of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation Council, was honored with the "Light of Remembrance" award – the highest distinction of the Auschwitz Museum. The award was presented to him on April 29 in Düsseldorf by Auschwitz Museum Director Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński. A particularly significant aspect of the laureate's public service is his commitment to preserving the authenticity of the Auschwitz Memorial.
As Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, and also after retiring from politics, Jürgen Rüttgers was among those politicians who supported the commitment of both the German federal government and the German federal states to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, whose goal is to finance long-term preservation work and protect all authentic remains of the Auschwitz camp.
"The establishment of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, and thus the entire process of preserving authenticity, would have been impossible without the personal involvement of Professor Jürgen Rüttgers from the very beginning of this project." "He understood perfectly how important it is to engage with authenticity in the education of future generations, especially those who did not experience the atrocities of World War II and the Holocaust, nor could witness the enormous post-war effort of building a common Europe," said Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywinski, director of the Auschwitz Museum.
Jürgen Rüttgers's crucial role was primarily in reinforcing the belief that the authenticity of all remnants of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz must be secured by a stable, international support system.
Jürgen Rüttgers was born in Cologne in 1951. He studied law and history. From 1987, he was a member of the Bundestag, where he focused primarily on science, technology, and education policy.
From 1994 to 1998, he headed the Federal Ministry of Education, Science, Research, and Technology, and from 2005 to 2010, he served as Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia. After retiring from active political life, he remained active in public life as a lawyer, academic, and member and collaborator of institutions dealing with historical memory, international dialogue, and German-Polish and German-Israeli relations.
The "Light of Remembrance" is an award established and awarded by the director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum for outstanding contributions to education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust. It honors individuals dedicated to preserving and transmitting the memory of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz.
To date, this award has been presented to Professor Władysław Bartoszewski, Krystyna Oleksy, Avner Shalev, Serge Klarsfeld, Luis Ferreiro, Romani Rose, Piotr Setkiewicz, and Michael Berenbaum.
On the occasion of Yom HaShoah, the Jewish calendar’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, Vice-President Sabine Verheyen, Vice-President Pina Picierno and Member of the European Parliament Oliver Schenk, together with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, hosted a special commemoration at the European Parliament.
Held in the days surrounding Yom HaShoah, the commemoration aimed to honour the victims of the Holocaust and to underline the responsibility of European institutions to preserve the memory of the Shoah. At a time when the willingness to remember is fading and public attention is increasingly fragmented, the organisers stressed the importance of keeping that memory alive and warning against the dangers of dehumanisation, antisemitism and indifference.
“Thousands of people took part in the March of the Living from Auschwitz to Birkenau yesterday. Here in the European Parliament, too, we must speak about history, pass on its lessons and warn against the dangers of antisemitism, so that this threat never returns,” First Vice-President Sabine Verheyen stated. She underlined that the European Parliament stands firmly against hatred of Jews in Europe and remains determined to confront antisemitism in all its forms.
“It is our commitment to combat antisemitism in Europe with all the means at our disposal. That is why we worked across political groups to bring the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation to the European Parliament. This initiative like no other allows participants to experience this visit virtually and engage directly with guides on site. It is truly a unique learning experience and remembrance opportunity at once” - First Vice-President Sabine Verheyen said.
“Remembrance is never abstract. It becomes real when we see the names on the suitcases, the shoes of the victims and the traces of lives that were destroyed. Auschwitz shows us what happens when people are stripped of their dignity and reduced to numbers. Remembering the Shoah is therefore not only a moral duty; it is also a political responsibility. A democratic Europe can only remain strong if it defends historical truth, confronts antisemitism and rejects every attempt to relativise or forget the crimes of the Holocaust. To turn away from remembrance would be to turn away from the very foundations of our democracy” - Member of the European Parliament Oliver Schenk stated.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation welcomed the opportunity to bring the memory of the Memorial Site into the European Parliament and stressed the importance of education and remembrance in preventing hatred and intolerance.
“Auschwitz is not only a place of memory, but also a warning. Every generation must understand that hatred, exclusion and antisemitism do not begin with violence, but with words, indifference and the denial of human dignity. We are grateful to bring this message to the European Parliament together with our partners,” Wojciech Soczewica, Director-General of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, said.
“Auschwitz symbolizes the deepest fall of European civilization, against which the entire post-war European community’s efforts were built and the European Union was founded. Those who stand before the remains of Auschwitz should have a clear understanding of this. Democracy, human dignity, and freedom can never be taken for granted. Our task is not only to preserve the site but also to preserve the truth and pass it on people who are willing to listen to shape their moral responsiblities today,” said Dr Piotr Cywiński, Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
The organisers reaffirmed their commitment to continue working actively to identify, combat and prevent antisemitism, regardless of where it comes from.
The event featured a live guided virtual tour of the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz. Participants were guided in real time by an educator thanks to “Auschwitz. In Front of your Eyes” platform, drawing on historical material, survivor testimonies and live images from both Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau sites. Throughout the event, participants had the opportunity to ask questions and engage directly with the guide.”
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation has established a partnership with Echoes & Reflections, one of the most significant Holocaust education programmes in the United States. As a result, American high school teachers will be able to use the "Auschwitz. In Front of your Eyes" platform, which offers guided online tours of the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum for students.
In 2026, the Foundation and Echoes & Reflections will provide groups of teachers with free access to online tours. This will enable them to use this modern educational tool and later implement it in their own schools and communities.
"The potential scale of this cooperation is of particular importance to us. Since its launch in 2005, Echoes & Reflections has reached over 175,000 educators, who have the capacity to impact millions of students across the United States. This opens up a significant opportunity to bring education from the authentic site of the former German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz into American classrooms," said Wojciech Soczewica, Director General of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation.
“We are thrilled by this exciting new collaboration. The ability to bring U.S. educators virtually to this important site of Holocaust history, will in no doubt enhance their knowledge and teaching skills to deepen student learning and understanding,” said Lindsay J. Friedman, Managing Director of Echoes & Reflections.
As part of this joint effort, every online tour will be accompanied by an additional educational component prepared by Echoes & Reflections. This will include guidance for teachers on how best to prepare students for participation in a future online tour, as well as access to additional classroom materials and pedagogical recommendations. Echoes & Reflections will also develop a set of online resources to support teachers in preparing for and discussing the experience with their students.
For the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, this collaboration represents an important step in expanding the international reach of Auschwitz and Holocaust education. Making the "Auschwitz. In Front of your Eyes" program available to teachers in the United States not only provides a way to reach a wide audience for whom a visit to the Memorial is often impossible, but also provides support for responsible, in-depth education based on authenticity and a reliable historical narrative.
Echoes & Reflections is a partnership program of Anti-Defamation League (ADL), USC Shoah Foundation, and Yad Vashem.
More than 200,000 students from over 10,000 Italian schools took part in a special, showcase online visit to the Auschwitz Memorial on 26 January. This was made possible thanks to the platform “Auschwitz. In Front of your Eyes”.
The online visit is conducted live. While discussing the key aspects of the history of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz, the educator uses multimedia materials, archival photographs, works of art, documents, and testimonies of Survivors. Interaction with the guide and the opportunity to ask questions are also possible. All of this allows for a deeper understanding of history and its contexts, despite the lack of physical presence at the Memorial.
The development of the platform created for the Auschwitz Memorial is possible thanks to financial support from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, drawn from funds outside the main endowment allocated to preservation works.
“This event, involving many thousands of Italian students, is a breakthrough moment that demonstrates the power of modern education in the service of Memory. This scale was an exceptional gesture of solidarity linked to the commemoration of the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and required special technological solutions. However, the essence of the ‘Auschwitz. In Front of your Eyes' platform remains focused on direct dialogue, enabling work in groups of up to 20 to 30 people. Only in such an intimate setting does each participant have the chance to speak, ask the guide questions, and fully engage with this difficult lesson of history,” said Wojciech Soczewica, Director General of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation.
“Trips to Auschwitz, which for years could only be taken by a small group of students, have now become a collective experience thanks to this technology. Today, this virtual tour has allowed us to reach approximately 200,000 students. I would like to thank the Italian Ministry of Education and Merit and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial for making it possible,” said Amedeo Spagnoletto, Director of the Museo Nazionale dell’Ebraismo Italiano e della Shoah in Ferrara.
The visit on 26 January had a showcase character. The video signal from the “Auschwitz. In Front of your Eyes” platform was retransmitted via another application, as the system does not support such a large number of simultaneous connections. The special visit also included excerpts from testimonies given by three Italian Survivors of Auschwitz: Shlomo Venezia, Piero Terracina, and Settimia Spizzichino.
“I appeal to governments and institutions around the world to support this form of remote education in a systematic way. Thanks to the commitment of the Foundation’s donors, geographical and financial barriers are no longer an obstacle, but it is up to state decisions whether every student, regardless of where they live, will be given the chance to have this personal encounter with the history of Auschwitz. Memory is our shared responsibility, one that requires modern tools and courageous decisions to support educators,” emphasized Wojciech Soczewica.
In a video message directed to the students, Italian Minister of Education and Merit Giuseppe Valditara said: “One question moves me: How can we inhabit this place of remembrance? How can we be aware of it? It's not enough to travel and visit; we must be aware of it. The sounds, the signs, the paths of Auschwitz are important. For example, when I think of sounds, I think of what the deportees in the freight cars must have heard: the sounds of desperation. These 80 years have helped us to mature, they have made us realize that every human being has dignity, that every human being must never be labeled based on prejudice. This awareness is the greatest wealth these 80 years have given us. My true, sincere concern is that this awareness could be lost; it would be a second tragedy.”
“It is deeply moving for me to be here. Memory is responsibility. Today we share a European story. Our story,” said Noemi Di Segni, President of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities.
The online visit is intended for groups such as schools, universities, educational institutions, museums, and companies. A group may participate together using one screen in a larger room or individually, with each participant using their own device. The recommended minimum age for participants is 15.
Schools, institutions, or companies wishing to book online visits for a larger number of groups on different dates are asked to contact the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation individually to arrange the details at: education@fab.org.pl.
Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Helen McEntee, has announced a €100,000 contribution to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation to support the development of online visits to the Memorial Site for secondary school students in Ireland.
The programme will reach more than 600 Irish schools and aims to strengthen historical awareness among younger generations to ensure they grasp the murderous scale of the Holocaust, and they reflect on ways we can prevent it from occurring again.The online guided visits are delivered through the platform “Auschwitz. In Front of your Eyes”.The tours are conducted live. In addition, the educator uses multimedia materials, archival photographs, artworks, documents, and testimonies of Survivors. The application also enables interaction with the guide and the opportunity to ask questions.
