Delegation of Berezhany Agro-technical College made a working visit to the town of Oświęcim (Poland)

     On December 4-6, 2015, in Oświęcim (Poland) at the Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Zawodowa im. rotmistrza Witolda Pileckiego the III International Conference “Europa Środkowa – historia, polityka, społeczeństwo” was held, in which Berezhany Agro-technical College delegation, headed by its Director S. Pylypyshyn, took part.

     The conference saw interesting and diverse meetings. Its theme combined reports of many participants from Polish universities and others, including those from Ukraine.
     The work began with the report of Professor Witold Stankovski. Film “Zapomniane tabory” caused certain emotions and even tears while watching. In general, performances of all participants were noteworthy and focused again on the moments from the history of 40s-70s of XX century, when people of different nationalities were evicted.

     S. Pylypyshyn also presented her report “OCHRONA WARTOŚCI KULTUROWYCH I NARODOWYCH LUDNOŚCI ŁEMKOWSKIEJ NA UKRAINIE ZACHODNIEJ”, which put emphasis on maintaining the culture, customs and beliefs of Lemkos. They were evicted from Ukrainian ethnic territories by the Soviet-Polish agreement on Ukrainian western territories, but retained their identity and still remember their roots and pass the rich world of Lemkos culture to descendants that impresses many generations of artists, writers, composers...

     During the visit, official meetings of the Berezhany Agro-technical College delegation were organized with the members of the university administration, dean’s office, and heads of the Departments of Higher School of Oświęcim.

     In addition, we had a fantastic opportunity to admire this extraordinary town: the houses are close to each other, only occasionally paving the way to one of the incredible open squares or avenues. The delegation also visited the museum of Oświęcim and Birkenau, where all the tragedy of death camps is reflected.

S. Kutsa,
Foreign language instructor