Second Annual Polish-German Student Study Tour
On 9-10 December 2022, the second (this year due to the pandemic) Annual Polish-German Student Study Tour (Alljährliche deutsch-polnische Studienreisen für Studierende) entitled Places of Remembrance of World War II / Erinnerungsorte des Zweiten Weltkriegs took place. The event, coordinated by Dr Tomasz Ślepowroński, aimed to familiarise students with how the memory of the Second World War is cultivated in Poland and Germany in the current border area. Participants visited various historical sites – repressed from memory, marginalised, dormant, commemorated and living – including those on holidays and throughout the year. They compared what were and are the differences and convergences in the politics of remembrance of the Second War on both sides of the border. During the trip they visited – Löcknitz (Kriegerdenkmal 1914/1918, Gedenkstein für die Opfer von Krieg, Gewalt und Vertreibung, Deutsche Soldatengräberfeld, Sowjetische Ehrenfriedhof, Mahnmal für die Opfer des Faschismus, Gedenkstein für die jüdische Gemeinde von Löcknitz und deren Verfolgung, Vertreibung und Ermordung während der Shoa, Stolper-steine in Löcknitz), Pasewalk (traces of the symbolic mausoleum of A. Hitler), Gedenkstätte Stammlager Fünfeichen (Stalag II A and Speziallager Nr. 9 Fünfeichen); the former Ravensbrück camp, Schwedt (former synagogue site and mikvah), Chojna (St. Mary’s Church, war cemetery, former military airfield), Cedynia (commemoration of the battle of 972 and reference to the battles of 1945. (fortified settlement, Regional Museum, observation tower), Czcibor Mountain (monument to the Polish Victory on the Oder River), Stare Łysogórki (Siekierkowski war cemetery of the soldiers of the 1st Polish Army), Gozdowice (Sappers’ monument, death ravine). In addition, they participated on Friday evening in Chojna in the promotion of the “Rocznik Chojeński”, where they not only listened, but also joined a panel discussion with Prof. Jan M. Piskorski (IH US), Dr. Michał Gierke (Książnica Pomorska) and editor Robert Ryss.