Bookpacking through Poland and World War II

It would be difficult to overstate the importance of the Second World War and the Holocaust on modern Europe. Roughly 3% of the 1940 population died, it resulted in the creation of the Eastern Block behind an Iron Curtain for half a century, and it changed the European map permanently. Around 6 million Polish citizens perished during World War II, 3.5 million of whom were Jews. In other words: about one fifth of the Polish pre-war population was killed, and 90% of all Polish Jews. The Polish cultural and geographical landscapes carry traces of these deaths and battles. Polish literature and cinema is full of stories about the war and in Polish villages and cities stand statues of battles and killed soldiers, remnants of former concentration camps, and museums testifying to the atrocities.

In this course we spend the first 8 weeks reading fiction and watching movies about East European World War II history with a special focus on Poland, and for 8 days in April we travel collectively to Poland and visit sights mentioned in the text and institutions where we learn from local experts about the war. The remaining 3 weeks of lessons will be organised as workshops on students’ individual papers.

Texts we will read include classics by Tadeusz Borowski and Czesław Miłosz as well as more rare finds by Zofia Nakowska, and films by Andrzej Wajda and Agnieszka Holland. Sites we visit might include the Auschwitz concentration camp outside of Krakow; The Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk; and the Institute of National Remembrance in Warsaw.

Expected expenses per person covering transportation from Copenhagen to Poland and within Poland (airplane and train tickets), lodging and entrance fees, approximately: 5.400 DKK