Communication in foreign languages with the visitors of a place of memory : a peripherical topic in interpretation studies

After some general remarks on a contemporary basic map of Translation Studies, we present the results of a research on a peripherical topic in the field of Interpretation Studies: interpreting in a museum setting. The museum concerned is the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, a former nazi concentration and extermination camp situated in Poland, a World Heritage Site and a symbol of the Holocaust. The research is based on surveys conducted in 2017 and 2018 by Marta Paleczna among the camp’s visitors, guides and interpreters. We discuss the interpreters’ main problems, which include translating camp-related and other specific terms, collaboration with the guide, the increasing number of visitors and time constraint, and their solutions, which include compressing the explanations given by the guide during the visit, taking over the role of the guide by the interpreter, and expanding explanation time by tking advantage of the trip to the museum and back.