Group Study Program – Poland, May 7 – June 3, 2014
Witnessing Auschwitz: Conflicting Stories and Memories
“Witnessing Auschwitz: Conflicting Stories and Memories” is a program run in partnership with the Department of Central, Eastern and Northern European Studies, University of British Columbia’s Go Global: International Learning Programs and the Faculty of Arts. It is supported through generous funding from the Faculty of Arts, Go Global, and anonymous donors.
Students attended lectures, workshops, and specialized tours in Warsaw, Krakow and at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in a supportive group study environment.
As part of the Witnessing Auschwitz program, I taught a special section of the course “Representations of the Holocaust” (CENS 303D), which prepared students to take on the challenges of the exchange program. CENS 303D has been adopted as an advanced research seminar for International Relations and Political Science majors, which highlights the interdepartmental collaboration involved with this project.
Program directors were extremely impressed with the students’ involvement and level of preparedness for the work involved. Students who participated in the program received certificates, issued jointly by UBC and the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust. UBC is the only international university that can issue certificates jointly with the Memorial Auschwitz Birkenau State Museum. One student, Karina Vertlib, has since taken a position at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, which is one example of the students’ commitment to continue learning, listening and teaching others.
Dr. Bozena Karwowska
Taking part in the Witnessing Auschwitz program provided all of us with an incredible opportunity to study and to develop independent research questions in an extremely supportive environment. During the four intense weeks, we had the chance to learn from a variety of experts in the field, who generously shared their knowledge and expertise. We found the most helpful support for our own projects and had access to an extremely valuable stock of material and resources.
The contact to such a rich academic network, the access to the vast amount of knowledge, to original documents, artworks and testimonies, as well as the personal accounts of our lecturers and guides have been very instructive, both on an academic and on a personal level. All this led to the formation of a variety of fascinating research topics that the students will present at a conference at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre this September. They are also invited to submit their papers for the Zeszyty Oswiecimskie Series (Auschwitz Series) published by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
Apart from this, students have expressed an intense feeling of responsibility and social awareness generated by the program. For me, their wish to share their knowledge, to inform others and to contribute to the discourse is the second important effect of the program. It mirrors the double character of Holocaust Studies as an intellectual but also an ethical endeavour.
Our time at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum was equally shaped by the site’s commemorative and academic nature. Confronting our previous knowledge with the actual presence of the site was almost as instructive as the access to the abundant sources of additional knowledge. The museum staff was extremely welcoming and clearly appreciated our students’ interest and participation. Andzej Kacorzyk, the Director of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust, expressed his appreciation for our students’ presence in a conversation with Prof. Karwowska and stressed that with this cooperation, we are shaping a new model of teaching about the Holocaust.
Personally, I feel like I have seldom learned in a more condensed and multifaceted context. Even though it has surely been an unsettling and painful experience at times, the knowledge and insights I have gained are invaluable to me.
Anja Nowak, PhD Student and Teaching Assistant
Student Reflections
“Although I went on exchange to Poland twice during my undergrad, the program has been an exceptional learning experience in that it is holistic; that is, while centred on intellectual experiences it is not limited to them.
Visually being able to place the testimonies and written accounts of Auschwitz has made areas of my understanding that were once abstract much more tangible. Moreover, the artwork created by prisoners is not reproduced elsewhere so visiting Auschwitz and having special access to these exhibits provides a rare opportunity to see how prisoners who were so dehumanized reclaimed or hung onto their sense of feeling human.
As an assistant to Prof. Karwowska for this program, I also paid daily attention to students’ reactions. The art exhibits reached students across disciplines in a powerful way. It is one thing to study the humanities, it is another to see humanity created by people relegated to the most subhuman extremes of all time. Not only did these prisoners find their own human condition in inhumane conditions, but their works span time, and, nearly 70 years since the camp’s liberation, their works continue to strike a human connection with those of us born in an entirely different time and place.
I see this experience as giving an entirely new dimension to academic pursuits in the humanities: a deeper sense of import and dedication, a new raison d’être. It is not uncommon for people to talk of campus life as a kind of “bubble world,” abstract and a bit removed from daily affairs off campus. The study abroad in Auschwitz program takes studies at home in Vancouver back into the scope of reality. The challenges I see students, Prof. Karwowska, the other assistant and myself taking with us from the study abroad in Auschwitz are life-changing both academically and personally.
For these reasons I see the development of this program long into the future as one of the most beneficial undertakings both UBC and the Auschwitz State Museum can engage in.”
Asia Beattie
“During my time at Auschwitz-Birkenau, I have learned that there is an abundant amount of research and investigation to be done in order to fully understand the extent of the camp’s operations. As a young historian, I am privileged to work with experts in their field of study. I have witnessed their dedication towards their work to answer the question left behind by those that came before them.”
Riley T. Hass
“Witnessing Auschwitz: Conflicting Stories and Memories with Dr. Bozena Karwowska has been an amazing educational opportunity, emotional journey, and incredible learning process. The most moving experience was spending seventy hours in two weeks at Auschwitz-Birkenau, learning about the history and implications of the Holocaust in the past, present, and future, and then meeting with Auschwitz survivor Tadeusz Smreczynski.
It is no wonder that this study abroad experience has completely changed my outlook on life, and has impacted my attitude towards my studies as well. Understanding the importance of dialogue, I realized that my role in Auschwitz as a Chinese-Canadian was not simply just to remember and commemorate, but to also live in the present and undertake my responsibility as a global citizen.
Now as an ambassador to the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust, I find it extremely important to educate my family, peers, and community about this event and encourage others to do the same. Now prepared with new-found insights, I believe I have the ability to talk about various issues related to the Holocaust, raise awareness in my community, bear witness, and continue the conversation with the past, present, and future.”
Audrey Tong
“Each day that I spend at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum my understanding of the Holocaust is both deepened and questioned. As one of our lecturers said, ‘the more I learn about the Holocaust and Auschwitz, the less I understand.’ The opportunity that we have had here in these two weeks has been a once in a lifetime situation, and the extremity of this has not been lost on me.
“The kindness of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial staff has been extremely appreciated and has strengthened my passion for learning and educating about the Holocaust that will undoubtedly last into the future.”
Emily Winckler
“Throughout this trip not only have I been able to discover Poland and the beautiful sights it has to offer, but I have also had the opportunity to work with leading scholars in their field, which has been amazing.
The most moving experience of the trip was meeting Tadeusz Smreczynski, a survivor of Auschwitz. He talked to us about his experiences for two hours and it was extremely moving. Meeting him motivated me immensely to continue my research and to keep learning about the Holocaust even more after this program.
The experience has definitely had a massive impact on my life. Being able to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau has made me realize that even though it was the lowest point of humanity in terms of cruelty and what humans are capable to do to each other, it has also shown me that even in the harshest conditions, humans are still capable of kindness, generosity and love. It has made me want to teach people about this subject, to spread the awareness and to have everyone know more about the victims of Nazi viciousness. It’s important to see these people as more than just victims, to spread their stories and commemorate them in that way.
The experience has enhanced my studies in the way that it has given me so much motivation to push myself in learning more about the Holocaust and doing research. It has been an incredible opportunity to work with everyone at the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum and also at the Jewish Historical Institute at Warsaw.”
Lea Duranseaud
“I am so grateful to have had the unprecedented opportunity to study at Auschwitz-Birkenau, to speak with leading researchers in the field as well as gaining access to the museum’s extensive archives, and to have our ideas and pre-conceptions challenged on a daily basis has been an invaluable experience.
Our time studying at Auschwitz-Birkenau has the single most intense academic, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual experience of my life.”
Maria Dawson
“Our program with Auschwitz-Birkenau museum has taught me so much. Seeing the various national exhibitions and listening to so many informative lecturers highlighted both the similarities and contrasts between the sufferings of the various European Jewish communities, Poles, and Sinti, and Roma.
I have understood the varying differences in the nature of Nazi occupations. In Poland the occupation affected almost everyone, in other countries, it mainly affected the targeted peoples.
The exhibitions are rich in content but also evoke great emotion. They do so not only by displaying the tragic systematic murder of the deported communities, but also presenting their culturally rich pre-war lives from which they were so unexpectedly and irrationally torn. The Belgian exhibit showing a picture from each transport and tracking how many people were transported, how many survived selection and how many survived till the liberation was simultaneously informative and incredibly moving.
The great knowledge displayed by our educators and the vast information available at the museum has inspired me further to continue in the direction of Holocaust studies, despite realizing that regardless of how much we learn, we do not come closer to understanding what happened. However, this experience has taught me that the more we learn, the better equipped we are to tie the link between past and present- we learn from the past and spread awareness for the future.”
Karina Vertlib
