Auschwitz Jewish Center Fellows

The Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation Fellows Program is a three-and-a-half-week advanced study trip for students who are matriculated in graduate programs or are completing undergraduate degrees in 2022 in Holocaust studies and related fields. The Fellowship offers Faculty Fellowships for faculty who teach the Holocaust in any discipline but have not made its history their primary area of study.

Fellows gain not only knowledge of the Holocaust sites they visit, but also an understanding of the legacy of the Holocaust in Poland, its effects on collective memory, and complexities surrounding such categories as victim, bystander, and perpetrator.

After a brief orientation in New York City, the Fellows travel in Poland for three weeks, during which time they visit Kraków, Warsaw, Łódź, Treblinka, and Oświęcim (Auschwitz). The Fellows travel to small towns in the regions surrounding Warsaw and Kraków, as well as through south-eastern Poland, to explore the area’s rich Jewish heritage and meet with local leaders to learn about pre-war Jewish life, life under the Nazi occupation and Communism, and the state of Jewish communities and memory in Poland today.

In Oświęcim, the Fellows attend an intensive program at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum where they tour the camps, study the history of Jewish, Roma, and Polish inmates, and take part in workshops with Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum staff on the collections and education departments. While in Oswiecim, the Fellows have the opportunity to meet European students and observe educational workshops at the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation.

Upon returning home, each Fellow will write an essay reflecting on his or her experience. Selected essays will be published in the Center’s annual journal Reflections.

Please contact AJC@mjhnyc.org with any questions.