Aims of the course:
- To introduce students to the lives of prisoners of war and civilian internees in the Second World War;
- To show students how to use different kinds of sources to study POWs.
Learning outcomes:
As a result of the course, within the constraints of the time available, students should be able to:
- Have the confidence to go to an archive to study documents relating to POWs;
- Learn how to approach and analyse POW material;
- Acquire familiarity with case studies of POWs;
- Discover how POWs passed time behind barbed wire.
Course content overview:
This course aims to teach students how to study POWs through all available sources which they have left behind. Drawing on the different strengths of the tutors, all of whom have researched and published works on POWs, this course will expose students to different kinds of resources each week. In the first session students will be shown how to analyse diaries, letters and logbooks, possibly the most ubiquitous kind of POW records in archives. From here, the second session will look at how POWs in a variety of camps tried to pass the time by improving themselves through studying new skills, taking exams, keeping themselves fit, and joining in theatrical events, as was common in many camps. All of these left behind an array of certificates, sporting event posters and theatre programmes. What sense can we make of these, and why were they so popular behind barbed wire?
In week 3, we examine the objects and artwork made by POWs and civilian internees, asking what insights we can gain into everyday life in the camps through the objects made to aid survival. In week 4, we move out of the barracks and onto the Appellplatz for the interminable roll-calls, gazing around the camp at the birds which flew and nested nearby. How did the study of nature help POWs to endure life in captivity? Finally we move into the domain of oral testimony. In week 5 we examine the skills of interviewing. What questions can and should one ask of a POW, how can you be best prepared, and how and why interview the children and grandchildren of POWs?
The five themes for the course are summarised as follows:
1. Narrating captivity: the diaries, memoirs, letters, and logbooks kept by POWs
2. Self-improvement and entertainment behind barbed wire: exams, sports and theatre
3. Understanding internment through objects and artwork
4. Studying nature to pass the time
5. Oral testimony and interviewing POWs and their descendants
Schedule (this course is completed entirely online):
Orientation Week: 23 - 29 October 2017
Teaching Weeks: 30 October - 3 December 2017
Feedback Week: 4 - 10 December 2017
Each week of an online course is roughly equivalent to 2-3 hours of classroom time. On top of this, participants should expect to spend roughly 2-3 hours reading material, etc., although this will vary from person to person.
While they have a specific start and end date and will follow a weekly schedule (for example, week 1 will cover topic A, week 2 will cover topic B), our tutor-led online courses are designed to be flexible and as such would normally not require participants to be online for a specific day of the week or time of the day (although some tutors may try to schedule times where participants can be online together for web seminars, which will be recorded so that those who are unable to be online at certain times are able to access material).
Unless otherwise stated, all course material will be posted on the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) so that they can be accessed at any time throughout the duration of the course and interaction with your tutor and fellow participants will take place through a variety of different ways which will allow for both synchronous and asynchronous learning (discussion boards,etc).
A Certificate of Participation will be awarded to participants who contribute constructively to weekly discussions and exercises/assignments for the duration of the course.
