A knife, a diary, a recipe book, a stringed instrument, and a cotton pouch. Each belonged to an individual who was in their 20s during the Second World War: a fresh-faced prairie boy, a melancholic youth, a capable cook, a musician wounded at the front, and a survivor. The author and Joseph Pearson shows how everyday objects from the Second World War illuminate individuals’ stories. At the Akademie-Forum, he will read from and discuss with Kai Wiegandt his recently published book of literary non-fiction on the subject, My Grandfather's Knife (HarperCollins and The History Press 2022).

Dr. Joseph Pearson (1975) is a Canadian author and historian based in Berlin. He is well known as the house essayist of the Schaubühne and for his city portrait Berlin (2017). He holds a doctorate in Modern History from the University of Cambridge (UK), taught at Columbia University in New York, and currently teaches writing and humanities at the Barenboim-Said Akademie, NYU Berlin, and the Berlin University of the Arts. This fall, a chapter of My Grandfather's Knife (2022) will be published in German translation in Lettre International.

With a musical performance by Itamar Carmeli (piano).

Presented in English.