Auschwitz museum hits milestone of a million social media followers
Celebrities helped expand museum’s presence online, where ‘people could reach us, ask questions and discover the history,’ says official
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
The Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial museum has reached 1 million followers on social media and is hailing that milestone as it works to educate the world about the crimes committed by the Nazis during World War II.
The memorial is located in southern Poland, which was under German occupation during the war.
The state-run institution said the number of followers worldwide that it has on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram combined hit 1 million Monday.
Pawel Sawicki, a museum official who runs the social media accounts, credited celebrities and media figures for helping to spread word about its education mission.
He noted that Mark Hamill, the American actor who played Luke Skywalker in the “Star Wars” films, once tweeted: “It may be difficult, but @AuschwitzMuseum is the most important account I’ve ever followed.”
We hope to get 750,000 followers for the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on 27 Jan 2020.
This will not be possible without your support & engagement.
Help us to honor all victims and preserve their memory online. RT & encourage others to follow @AuschwitzMuseum. pic.twitter.com/PDbTvDcOyg
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) August 23, 2019
“We started – as the first institution of this kind in the world – with our Facebook page as we noticed that this is where the users search for the information about the history of Auschwitz and they find different – better or worse – pages devoted to the history of the camp. So, we agreed that – as a Memorial Site – we should be present there in order to be accessible, so that people could reach us, ask questions and discover the history,” Sawicki said in a statement by the museum.
“A few years later we launched our accounts on Twitter and Instagram. Now, also as the first institution of this kind in the world, we have reached a million followers,” said Sawicki.
The Times of Israel Community.