The commencement ceremony for graduates of the Mauthausen Memorial’s training course for educators

The Mauthausen Memorial’s training course for educators, which is made up of eight weekend-training modules and took place from 19 June 2015 until 5 December 2015, was solemnly concluded on 26 April 2016 from 6 pm onwards with the commencement ceremony. At present, around 90 educators, who accompany visitors on tours, work at the Mauthausen Memorial.

In the course of the training the educators had to gain historical knowledge on the concentration camp system and the Mauthausen Memorial, look into dialogue-oriented educator’s method in the framework of the Mauthausen Memorial’s educational concept as well as illustrate in practice what they have learned.

After the speeches made by Barbara Glück, Director of the Mauthausen Memorial, Gudrun Blohberger, Head of the Educational Department at the Mauthausen Memorial and Martina Maschke, Chairperson at the “erinnern.at” association, the festive presentation of certificates to the educators took place in the Mauthausen Memorial’s visitor center.

Among the guests were Willi Mernyi, president of the Mauthausen Committee Austria and Christa Bauer, Managing Director of the Mauthausen Committee Austria as well as Thomas Punkenhofer, the Mayor of Mauthausen.

The musical background at the ceremony was provided by the saxophonist Karl Hinterholzer and the guitarist Josef Galli. Karl Hinterholzer was at the event not only as a musician he has also been presented with the certificate as he became one of Mauthausen Memorial's newly appointed educators.