The Ename Center for Public Archaeology

In August 2004, the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation signed its first formal agreement of cooperation. The agreement was signed between the AJCF, the Ename Center for Public Archaeology, and the Province of East-Flanders, Belgium, with the primary aim of cooperation on the preservation and development of the Klieger House Historic Museum.

The Ename Center, with extensive expertise in the presentation of archaeology and oral history, and the AJCF have agreed to work together with the support of East-Flanders to establish a positive benefit to all in the sharing of skill, presentation techniques, and technology. The agreement reflects a shared commitment to enhance the educational and social values of heritage preservation as a means of teaching lessons of tolerance, understanding, and other basic values.

The first stage of implementation took place shortly after this, with archaeological excavations being carried out on the area surrounding the house, jointly sponsored by the Ename Center and the AJCF, and carried out by experts from the department of anthropology at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. The excavations revealed numerous objects pertaining to the Klieger family, and the task now is to consider what these excavations reveal about their life in the house.

More recently, the agreement has been further strengthened by a visit in January 2005 to East-Flanders by Auschwitz Jewish Center Board Director David Goldman, and Center Director Tomasz Kuncewicz. They were invited to participate in a symposium organised by the Province and Ename on memory and identity. As well as the opportunity to view many of the projects developed by Ename, Mr Goldman spoke to members of the symposium on the agreement between the Ename Center and the AJCF, and Mr Kuncewicz was invited to lecture on the history of the Jews of Oświęcim.

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