The body responsible for decision-making, supervising and assessing the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation's activity. Council members are individuals who have greatly contributed to the preservation of memory of Nazi crimes. They include experts such as historians, diplomats and intellectuals. Some of them also sit on the International Auschwi

tz Council, an advisory and consultative body to the Polish Prime Minister on the protection and management of the site of the former Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz as well as other Holocaust Monuments.

Members of the Council of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation

 

Marek Zając – Chairman

Journalist specializing in religious and social matters. Secretary of the International Auschwitz Council since 2006. 

 

 

Marcin Barcz

Between 2007 - 2015 the Adviser to the Secretary of State in the Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers for International Dialogue. From 2015 the Secretary of Władysław Bartoszewski Chair at Collegium Civitas. A member of the Jan Nowak-Jeziorański Association of workers, co-workers and friends of the RFE Polish Section.

Daniel Benjamin (USA)

The president of the American Academy in Berlin. He is a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council as well as the advisory boards of several NGOs.

 

 

 

 

 

Eleonora Bergman

Former director of the Jewish Historical Institute, member of the Council of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, member of the International Consultative Council for the new main exhibition at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

 

 

 Jacek Kastelaniec

 Co-founder of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, former Director General.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Serge Klarsfeld (France)

Historian, lawyer, vice-president of Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah (Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah), chairman of Fils et Filles des Déportés Juifs de France (Association of Sons and Daughters of Jews Deported from France), member of the Council of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

 

 

 

Edward Kosakowski

Head of the Department of Conservation and Restoration of Mural Paintings at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, member of the Council of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim.

 

Hannah Lessing

Secretary of the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for the Victims of National Socialism. Since May 2001 she has been managing the General Settlement Fund for the Victims of National Socialism and since 2010 the Fund for the Renovation of Jewish Cemeteries in Austria. She took part in negotiations concerning the indemnities within the framework of the Joint Statement signed in Washington in January 2001. Member of the International Auschwitz Council.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paweł Machcewicz

Historian, professor at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, lecturer at the Collegium Civitas. Director of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk. A member of the International Auschwitz Council since 2012. 

 

 Zbigniew Nosowski

Former co-chairman and now deputy chairman of the Polish Council of Christians and Jews, editor-in-chief of Więź magazine, co-founder and chairman of the Social Committee for the Remembrance of Jews of Otwock and Karczew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś

Archbishop of Łódź, and earlier the auxiliary bishop of Krakow. For years he has been involved in activities supporting ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue. He was a member of the International Auschwitz Council by the Polish Prime Minister that existed until 2018.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jürgen Rüttgers (Germany)

Minister of education in Helmut Kohl’s cabinet from 1994 to 1998, prime minister of the Land of North Rhine-Westphalia from 2005 to 2010.

 

Józef Wancer

Deputy Chairman of Citibank of New York for 23 years, former chairman of the board of Raiffeisen Centrobank in Warsaw, for 10 years the Chairman of the BPH bank. Chairman of the supervisory board of the BGŻ BNP Paribas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roman Rewald

Roman Rewald is a Polish lawyer and a US-qualified attorney admitted to practice law in the state of Michigan. He is a retired partner of the law firm of Weil Gotshal & Manges in New York. He advised substantially on the creation of well-known charitable institutions, including the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN, Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation and many others. Presently he is an officer and board member of the American Friends of POLIN Museum foundation in New York, as well as the Chairman of the Board of the Ronald McDonald Foundation in Poland. He is a past (multiple term) Chairman of the Board of the American Chamber of Commerce in Poland and a member of the Board of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Institute. He continues his legal practice as an active EU qualified mediator listed at the ICC ADR Paris and President of the Lewiatan Mediation Center in Warsaw. He is also as an arbitrator listed by the renowned international arbitration courts. In 2014 Roman Rewald was decorated with the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, for contributions to the country’s economic transformation. He maintains a location in Warsaw, Poland and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.