“Witnessing Auschwitz – Conflicting Stories and Memories” is an intensive research seminar developed by scholars from the University of British Columbia (UBC), the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute. Each spring since 2014, a new group of students from UBC has travelled to Poland for a month of lectures and study tours on subjects pertaining to pre-war Jewish life and the Holocaust in Poland. Students spend two weeks at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, whee they work and study with the Museum’s historians, collections specialists, and members of its publishing house and education centre. They spend another two weeks studying in Warsaw, Kraków and Białystok. By the end of the program, students have developed research topics deeply rooted in the scholarship to which they have been exposed while in Poland. The essays in this volume are the result of this inspiring and important international scholarly and educational collaboration. The essays that you will find in this book are the result of a long journey. They have been written by undergraduate students who came to Poland from the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada), as a part of the intensive research seminar Witnessing Auschwitz. Coming from various backgrounds, personal as well as academic, students invested an incredible amount of time and dedication into learning about the camp and the crime committed there. Each study in this volume is based on the unique interests of these young researchers and will highlight a particular aspect of history related to Auschwitz. The texts come with invaluable footnotes by experts in the field who accompanied our students with advice and support throughout their research. With “The More I know, The Less I Understand”, UBC students share with you their insights on the topics where they have focused their dedication and their intellect.
