Dr. Maria Zalews­ka is a non­prof­it exec­u­tive, Holo­caust edu­ca­tor, media schol­ar, and author with a track record of strate­gi­cal­ly plan­ning, devel­op­ing, and fund­ing cross-insti­tu­tion­al Holo­caust edu­ca­tion­al projects, as well as devel­op­ing media projects from pre- to post-pro­duc­tion. Her aca­d­e­m­ic work has focused on the rela­tion­ship between new tech­nolo­gies, media stud­ies, and Holo­caust mem­o­ry. Her research devel­ops new direc­tions in Holo­caust stud­ies and inno­v­a­tive respons­es to the chal­lenges fac­ing Holo­caust edu­ca­tion in the dig­i­tal age. She cur­rent­ly serves as the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Auschwitz-Birke­nau Memo­r­i­al Foun­da­tion. Her great-grand­fa­ther was killed in Auschwitz.

The Auschwitz-Birke­nau Memo­r­i­al Foun­da­tion (ABMF) is a New York-based non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion estab­lished in 2012. Its mis­sion is to safe­guard the mem­o­ry of Auschwitz-Birke­nau through the preser­va­tion of its orig­i­nal arti­facts and bring­ing edu­ca­tion about Auschwitz to every Amer­i­can stu­dent. Under the lead­er­ship of its Chair­man, Ronald S. Laud­er, the ABMF believes that the exis­tence of the Auschwitz-Birke­nau Memo­r­i­al and Muse­um, its authen­tic­i­ty, and its mes­sage will help pre­vent a reoc­cur­rence of the hatred, racism, anti­semitism, and xeno­pho­bia that led to the Holocaust.

The Auschwitz-Birke­nau Memo­r­i­al Foun­da­tion’s work con­sists of three main pillars:

• Preser­va­tion of the authen­tic remains of Auschwitz-Birkenau
• Holo­caust education 
• Sur­vivors’ out­reach in the Unit­ed States