Kempinski, Who Brought Holocaust Education Program to Haverhill, Becomes Honorary Consul

(Additional photograph below.)

Haverhill High School history teacher Theodore “Ted” Kempinski, who earlier this year brought a virtual, live tour of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp to students, was formally appointed Friday as honorary consul of the Auschwitz Memorial in the United States.

Kempinski made Haverhill High School the first American school to start cooperation with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation to participate in online tours of the Auschwitz Memorial through the platform “Auschwitz. In Front of Your Eyes.” In his new role, he will primarily support the activities undertaken by the Diplomacy of Remembrance of the Museum in Massachusetts.

“As a 25-year history secondary educator, I now commit a significant part of my life to improving Holocaust education relationships with organizations. As a teacher, I dedicated my career to empowering students at Haverhill High School. As time went on, I grew to lead many years of community activism for improving public support for education in Massachusetts,” said Kempinski in a Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation release. “I now take those two great wells of experience on my new mission to connect the American education system to primary Holocaust sources. Bridges between organizations will transform student lives,” he added.

Kempinski’s appointment as honorary consul was made during the National Council for the Social Studies educational conference in Boston, which was attended by thousands of teachers and others involved in education and the popularization of the social sciences in the United States.

“The Haverhill community initiative, the entire school district, and local administration have allowed local students to learn about the history of Auschwitz and the Shoah in a way previously inaccessible to them,” said Wojciech Soczewica, the general director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation.

A panel discussion, “What Auschwitz Can Teach Us Today: Holocaust Memory and Its Implications for Future Education,” was moderated by Soczewica. Participants included Kempinski; Jenn Goss from Echoes and Reflections, an organization that collaborates with 145,000 teachers and educators in the U.S.; Jeremy Nesoff, director at the Boston-based organization Facing History and Ourselves, which prepares educational materials for teachers; and Auschwitz Museum Director Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński.