"Study trip to Krakow" : A historical didactic study of the Holocaust memory sent and received by 15 students

The essay examines a study trip to Krakow and the mediation of the Holocaust memory to 15 students. It is partly structured after three places that the students move between, experience arenas, which are the death and concentration camps, Poland and Sweden. The students are also moving according to four different dimensions: first place, but also time, morality and existential. The survey is based on a ritual theoretic view of social memory production and the formation of new witnesses. With inspiration from the Norwegian study Pilgrim, tourist and student: Norwegian school trips to death and concentration camps by Kyrre Kverndokk, has also this study trip been studied as a ritualization process based on which students will obtain a state of catharsis. With a qualitative research method, information has been gathered through participatory observations, group interviews and a poll. The result shows that the students attributed the camps to death, destruction and evil, but that they were struggling to live in the victims’ situation because it was too far from their own lives but also difficult to understand such evil. The students did on the other hand identified the spectator role since Sweden was seen as one of the countries that looked at and let the Holocaust happen. The students positioned themselves as new witnesses and told about their experiences in their free time and on their own initiative. The study indicates, among other things, that the Norwegian approach to the Holocaust differs from Swedish, which influences the meaningful learning process