The list has been compiled by Blooloop, the world’s leading online resource for museum professionals.
Cywiński is the only person from Central Europe on this year’s Blooloop 50 Museum Influencer List and the only person there currently working in the field of documenting genocide and crimes against humanity.
According to Blooloop, the list spotlights 50 people whose innovation and creativity are helping museums through the uniquely challenging time of the pandemic.
“The impact of COVID-19 has been devastating, with around 90 percent of the world’s museums closing temporarily due to the pandemic. Most will suffer significant damage and experts suggest that up to 1 in 8 museums worldwide might not reopen. […] New initiatives, technologies and innovations will shape the museum of tomorrow. And it is the people driving and enabling this change we celebrate with this list,” Blooloop writes on its website.
Cywiński is a professional historian. He studied in France and Poland, before obtaining his PhD from the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences in 2001. In 2006, at the age of 34, he was appointed the Director of the Auschwitz Museum.
Around 1.1 million people, mostly European Jews but also Poles, Sinti, Soviet POWs and people of other nationalities, perished in Auschwitz.
Last year, the site of the camp attracted 2.3 million visitors, an increase of almost a quarter of a million over the previous year.
(mk/pk)