Auschwitz. Not long ago, not far away

Dr. Robert Jan Van Pelt is internationally recognized as one of the leading authorities on the history of Auschwitz. Between 1997 and 1998 he chaired the team that developed the master plan for the conservation of the Auschwitz camp and, in addition, participated as an expert witness in the famous case against the British historian and writer David Irving (London, 1998-2001), Holocaust denier.

Van Pelt, born in Harleem (Holland), has published several books on the field, including the internationally awarded Auschwitz, 1270 to the Present (Auschwitz: from 1270 to the present, 1996) or The Case for Auschwitz (In defense from Auschwitz, 2002). Throughout his career, he has also developed historical advice in films, as he did in the television documentary Auschwitz: the Nazis and the «Final Solution» (2005) by Laurence Rees and has been one of the curators of such successful exhibitions. as The Evidence Room, inaugurated at the Venice Biennale in 2016.

Dr. Michael Berenbaum is an American writer, professor, rabbi and advisor in the conceptual development of museums and historical films. He also directs the Sigi Ziering Institute of the American Jewish University and he is professor of Jewish studies at the American Jewish University (Los Angeles). In 1979 he was appointed deputy director of President Jimmy Carter's commission on the Holocaust. Also, of 1988 he was director of the executive project for the creation of the Museum of the Holocaust of the United States (USHMM) in 1993, where he was exercised as director of its Study Center.

He has also been president and CEO of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation (1997-1999), now the USC Shoah Foundation is dedicated to the filming and cataloging of testimonies of Holocaust survivors in 57 countries and in 32 languages. This foundation was created by film director Steven Spielberg after filming Schindler's List. Berenbaum is the author and editor of more than twenty books, including Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death camp (Anatomy of the extermination camp at Auschwitz, 1994, with Israel Gutman). Different film projects in which he has taken part have been awarded by the American Film Academy and the Emmy Awards.

Paul Salmons is program director at the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education, part of the Institute of Education, University College London. As such, he is responsible for the pedagogical and educational vision of his different activities. Throughout his professional career he has participated in numerous international projects as an educational adviser.

Among these collaborations stands out the one carried out for the UN within the framework of the program of the International Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust, whose basic manual (How to teach the Holocaust) is the main author.

Also, Salmons has extensive experience in museum creation. In this way, in 1998 he participated in the creation of the permanent exhibition on the Holocaust at the Imperial War Museum in London and developed the educational approach of this complex project.