Robert Zurek, previously Executive Director of the Kreisau Foundation for European Understanding, has supported and shaped German Polish cooperation over the past ten years through numerous publications, lectures and events. He is now taking on a new role as Managing Director of the Maximilian Kolbe Foundation and the Maximilian Kolbe Werk. The Maximilian Kolbe Werk has been working with Holocaust survivors for many decades. The Werk also supports remembrance work in Germany by organizing events featuring eyewitnesses at schools and universities. The Maximilian Kolbe Foundation was established in 2007 by the Maximilian Kolbe Werk with the support of the German and Polish Bishops’ Conferences. In keeping with the Werk’s tradition, the Foundation develops reconciliation projects throughout Europe. The President of the Maximilian Kolbe Werk and Chair of the Maximilian Kolbe Foundation, former Member of the Bundestag Peter Weiß, commented on the appointment of Robert Zurek as the new Managing Director: “With Robert Zurek’s considerable expertise and dynamism, we will give fresh impetus to our work on remembrance and reconciliation and successfully develop it further. We are delighted to have secured such a distinguished figure as our new Managing Director.”

The motto ‘Never Again’, coined by the survivors of the Holocaust and the concentration camps, will continue to serve as an inspiration. At a time when some people are promoting historical revisionism, this task is more important than ever.