Brenau University



KENNESAW STATE UNIVERSITY

THE HOLOCAUST: HISTORY AND MEANING

SPRING 2004

Instructor: Dr. Catherine Lewis

Office: 315 Library

Office Hours: Mon. and Wed. 8:00-9:15 a.m. and 11-12:15 p.m. or by appointment

Phone: (678) 797-2058 or (404) 814-4117

E-mail: clewis1@kennesaw.edu or clewis@

Course Description: The goal of this course is to put the Holocaust into historical perspective and reflect on what it reveals about genocide in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The course will examine the roots of anti-Semitism, the rise of fascism in Europe as it relates to the ideology of the Nazi Party, and the implementation of the Final Solution. The structure and purpose of the ghettos and death camps will be studied, as well as efforts to resist. The course will conclude by looking at what contemporary representations of the Holocaust mean for a post-Shoah generation.

Course Rationale: Studying the rise of the Nazi Party and their extermination of the Jews other groups deemed "socially undesirable" is an exploration into how ordinary people can – through persuasion, propaganda, or coercion – commit genocide. Examining the voices of the chroniclers, victims, and the perpetrators is essential to understanding what the Holocaust means for contemporary society.

Classroom Policies:

o An atmosphere of mutual trust is essential to the success of this course. I strongly encourage lively debates and urge students to respect each other's opinions. Expressions of intolerance are discouraged. Disagreeing with others intelligently and politely is a skill, one that we will all strive for during the semester.

o "Every KSU student is responsible for upholding the provisions of the Student Code of Conduct, as published in the Undergraduate and Graduate catalogs. Section II of the Student Code of Conduct addresses the University's policy on academic honesty, including provisions regarding plagiarism and cheating, unauthorized access to University materials, misrepresentations/falsification of University records or academic work, malicious removal, retention, or destruction of library materials, malicious/intentional misuse of computer facilities and/or services, and misuse of student identification cards. Incidents of alleged academic misconduct will be handled through the established procedures of the University Judiciary Program, which includes either an 'informal' resolution by a faculty member, resulting in a grade adjustment, or a formal hearing procedure, which may subject a student to the Code of Conduct's minimum one semester suspension requirement" (KSU Senate 15 March 1999).

o Students are required to seek assistance from the Writing Center (770-423-6380), located in Humanities Room 237, for all writing assignments.

o Punctual, regular class attendance is required. Students are responsible for all assigned work. An absence does not absolve them from this responsibility. If possible, absences should be discussed with the instructor in advance. All exams will be taken as scheduled.

Evaluation:

|Participation and preparation of discussion questions |20% |

|Research Presentation |20% |

|Anne Frank Project |15% |

|Research Paper (15-20 pages) |45% |

Evaluation:

|A |90-100 |

|B |80-89 |

|C |70-79 |

|D |60-69 |

|F |59 and below |

Required Text (Available in the Campus Bookstore):

Bergen, Doris L. War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust. Lanham: Rowan and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2003.

Bloxham, Donald. Genocide on Trial: The War Crimes Trials and the Formation of Holocaust History and Memory. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Frank, Anne. The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition. Ed. Otto H. Frank and Mirjam Pressler. New York: Doubleday, 1995.

Goldhagen, Johah Daniel. Hitler's Willing Executioner's: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. New York: Knopf, 1996.

Lipstadt, Deborah. Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory. New York: Plume, 1993.

Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz: The Nazi Assault on Humanity. New York: Collier, 1973.

Spiegelman, Art. Maus I: My Father Bleeds History. New York: Pantheon, 1992.

---. Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began. New York: Pantheon, 1991.

Reserve Readings (available at the Sturgis Library Circulation Desk): It is helpful to have your syllabus with you when you request materials on reserve. It would be wise to copy all of the reserve readings in the first week of the semester.

Reading Schedule

Week 1: The Origins of Anti-Semitism

|W 1.7 |Introduction to the course. Film: Nuit et Brouillard (Night and Fog, 1955) | |

Week 2: The Origins of Anti-Semitism

|M 1.12 |Bergen, "Foreword," "Preface," and "Preconditions: Anti-Semitism, Racism, and Common Prejudices in |Reserve |

| |Early Twentieth-Century Europe," in War and Genocide, i-28 and Michael Berenbaum, "Before the | |

| |Holocaust" in The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as Told in the United States | |

| |Holocaust Memorial Museum, 10-16, and Saul Friedlander, "The Extermination of the European Jews in | |

| |Historiography: Fifty Years Later," in The Holocaust: Origins, Implementation, Aftermath, ed. Omer | |

| |Bartov, 79-91. | |

|W 1.14 |Raul Hilberg, "The Destruction of the European Jews: Precedents," in The Holocaust: Origins, | |

| |Implementation, and Aftermath, ed. Omar Bartov, 21-42 and Daniel Goldhagen, "Eliminationist | |

| |Assimilation: The 'Common Sense' of German Society During the Nazi Period," in Hitler's Willing | |

| |Executioners, 80-128 | |

Week 3: The Rise of the Third Reich

|M 1.19 |No Class. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday |Reserve |

| |"Leadership and Will: Adolf Hitler, the National Socialist Workers' Party, and Nazi Ideology, in | |

| |War and Genocide, 29-51 and Roger W. Smith, "State Power and Genocidal Intent: On the Uses of | |

| |Genocide in the Twentieth Century" in Studies in Comparative Genocide, eds. Levon Chorbajiah and | |

| |George Shirinian, 3-14. | |

|W 1.21 |"From Revolution to Routine: Nazi Germany, 1933-1938" in War and Genocide, 53-80; "The Nazi's |Reserve |

| |Assault on the Jews: Its Character and Evolution," in Hitler's Willing Executioners, 131-163; and | |

| |Ian Kershaw, "'Symbol of the Nation': The Propaganda Profile of Hitler, 1933-1936," in The "Hitler| |

| |Myth": Image and Reality in The Third Reich, 48-82 | |

Week 4: War and Terror

|M 1.26 |"Open Aggression: In Search of War, 1938-1939" and "Experiments in Brutality, 1939-1941: The War |Reserve |

| |Against Poland and the So-Called Euthanasia Program," in War and Genocide, 81-130 and Susan |Prospectus Due |

| |Heschel, "When Jesus Was Aryan: The Protestant Church and Antisemitic Propaganda," in In God's | |

| |Name: Genocide and Religion in the Twentieth Century, eds. Omer Bartov and Phyllis Mack, 342-349 | |

|W 1.28 |"Expansion and Systematization: Exporting War and Terror, 1940-1941," in War and Genocide, | |

| |131-160 and "The Agents and Machinery of Destruction," in Hitler's Willing Executioners, 164-178 | |

Week 5: The Final Solution

|M 2.2 |Christian Gerlach, "The Wannsee Conference, the Fate of German Jews, and Hitler's Desire to |Reserve |

| |Exterminate All European Jews," in The Holocaust, 106-161 and "The Peak Years of Killing, 1942 | |

| |and 1943" in War and Genocide, 161-204 | |

|W 2.4 |"Death Throes and Killing Frenzies, 1944-1945," in War and Genocide, and "Police Battalions: |Reserve |

| |Agents of Genocide," in Hitler's Willing Executioners, 181-202 |Outline Due |

Week 6: Complicity

|M 2.9 |"Explaining the Perpetrators' Actions: Assessing the Competing Explanations," in Hitler's Willing|Reserve |

| |Executioners, 375-415. Yehuda Bauer, "Overall Interpretation: Daniel J. Goldhagen, John Weiss, | |

| |Saul Friedlander," in Rethinking the Holocaust, 93-118 | |

|W 2.11 |Adelheid von Saldern, "Victims or Perpetrators? Controversies about the Role of Women in the Nazi|Reserve |

| |State," in Nazism and German Society, ed. David F. Crew, 141-165. Film: America and the | |

| |Holocaust: Deceit and Indifference (1999) | |

Week 7: Eyewitness Accounts

|M 2.16 |Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl. | |

|W 2.18 |Tim Cole, "Anne Frank," in Selling the Holocaust: From Auschwitz to Schindler, 23-46 and Film: |Reserve |

| |Anne Frank Remembered (1996) | |

Week 8: Symposium

|Th 2.26 |Jewish Life in the South Symposium (7 p.m.) |KSU Center |

|F 2.27 |Jewish Life in the South Symposium (9 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Lunch will be provided) |KSU Center |

Week 9: Resistance and Survival

|M 3.1 |Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz: The Nazi Assault on Humanity and Risa Sodi, "The Memory of |Reserve |

| |Justice: Primo Levi and Auschwitz, in Holocaust and Genocide Studies 4:1 (1989): 89-104 | |

|W 3.3 |Lawrence Langer, "Redefining Heroic Behavior" in The Holocaust, 235-250 | |

Week 10: Spring Break

|M 3.8 |No class | |

|W 3.10 |No class | |

Week 11: The Nuremberg Trials

|M 3.15 |Donald Bloxham, Genocide on Trial: The War Crimes Trials and the Formation of Holocaust History | |

| |and Memory | |

|W 3.17 |Donald Bloxham, Genocide on Trial: The War Crimes Trials and the Formation of Holocaust History | |

| |and Memory | |

Week 12: Contemporary Representations of the Holocaust

|M 3.22 |Art Spiegelman. Maus I, My Father Bleeds History |Complete Draft Due |

|W 3.24 |Art Spiegelman, Maus II, And Here My Troubles Began and Andreas Huyssen, "Of Mice and Mimesis: |Reserve |

| |Reading Spiegelman with Adorno," in Visual Culture and the Holocaust, ed. Barbie Zelizer | |

Week 13: Denying the Holocaust

|M 3.29 |Deborah Lipstadt, Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory |Reserve |

|W 3.31 |Deborah Lipstadt, Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory |Reserve |

Week 14: The Holocaust in a Comparative Perspective

|M 4.5 |Yehuda Bauer, "Comparisons with Other Genocides," in Rethinking the Holocaust, 39-67 |Reserve |

|W 4.7 |"169,198,000 Murdered Summary and Conclusion," R. J. Rummel, Death By Government, 1-28 |Reserve |

Week 15: After Auschwitz

|M 4.13 |"The Legacies of Atrocity," in War and Genocide, 221-228 and Andreas Huyssen, "Monuments and |Final Paper Due |

| |Holocaust Memory in a Media Age," in A Holocaust Reader, ed. Michael L. Morgan, 359-363. | |

|W 4.15 |"From the Holocaust to the State of Israel," in Rethinking the Holocaust, 242-260 and Robert S. |Reserve |

| |Wistrich, "Modernity and the Nazi Genocide," in Hitler and the Holocaust, 213-340 | |

Week 16: Research Presentations

|M 4.19 |Research Presentations | |

|W 4.21 |Research Presentations | |

Final Examination: Research Presentations

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