The opening took place as part of a memorial tour that Borussia Dortmund regularly organizes with interested football fans. The sports ground is now available to both the international guests of the IYMC and the residents of Oświęcim. It not only strengthens the connection between the meeting centre and the town, but also serves as a meeting place for young people visiting the Auschwitz Memorial.
The International Youth Meeting Centre (IYMC) has been operating in Oświęcim since 1986, implementing educational activities to remember the Holocaust and National Socialism and advocating an open civil society. To young people from all over the world who visit the museum and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial the IYMC is a place for discussion, reflection and exchange.
The educational centre’s extensive programme includes workshops and seminars on preparing for and following up on visits to the memorial, on addressing the Holocaust at the European level, on the importance of international understanding and human rights and on responsibility in the here and now. In addition, the IYMC offers cultural and sports programmes as a space for reflection, understanding and togetherness. This portfolio will be further strengthened by the sports ground opened today.
The sports ground is named after Stanisław Hantz (1923-2008), a Polish survivor of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz. He experienced and survived almost the entire history of the Auschwitz concentration camp, from the expansion of the former barracks in the main camp to the construction of the large Auschwitz II concentration and extermination camp at Birkenau and the death marches to the west. After the end of the Second World War, he returned to Auschwitz and helped to set up the museum there. Stanisław Hantz later related his experiences he himself had witnessed and joined many trips to memorial sites.
More information about the IYMC can be found here.