On September 17, 2022, participants of the International Conference of the ISA Research Committee on Language and Society (ISA RC25) visited the Treblinka Museum – the Nazi German Extermination and Labour Camp (1941-1944). The group was led by Prof. Anna Odrowąż-Coates, Chair of the UNESCO Janusz Korczak Department at the Maria Grzegorzewska University in Warsaw, along with Barbara Janina Sochal, President of the Janusz Korczak Association of Poland, and Dr. Mark Brennan, UNESCO Chair in Global Citizenship Education for Sustainable Peace and Youth Engagement at Pennsylvania State University.
During the visit, attendees paid tribute to Janusz Korczak, the children, and the staff of the Orphanage, who, along with the “Old Doctor,” were murdered in the gas chambers of Treblinka in early August 1942. Dr. Edward Kopówka, Director of the Museum, shared the history of the Treblinka II Extermination Camp.
The visit culminated in the planting of trees in the Korczak Forest, where 8 new saplings were planted that day. The trees were planted by representatives from Penn State UNESCO Chair, Swansong Films – Independent Irish Filmmakers, the Australasia-U.S. Educational Equity Hub at Monash University and Penn State University, the University of Galway UNESCO Chair, Foroige – The National Youth Organization of Ireland, the University of Chicago UNESCO Chair, the Ozer Grundman Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Education Initiative at Penn State, and the Global Network of UNESCO Chairs on Children, Youth, and Communities.
