THE HOLOCAUST IN EXPERIENCE AND MEMORY

Office/Hours: Social Sciences 237A, 621-1113 / W 11-12:00, Th 1:00-1:45 and by appointment

This syllabus is available online, on my faculty website under UA Instruction Fall 2007

This course will explore the history, memories and representations of the Holocaust: the attempted annihilation of European Jews, and the murderous persecution of the Roma, Sinti and other racial and political opponents by the Third Reich in Germany , 1933-1945. We will discuss the perspectives of survivors, perpetrators, witnesses, historians, and ourselves as students, while seeking to understand the nature of this event and its significance.

All of the assigned readings are available for purchase either as books or course packet at the bookstore, and/or available online through ERes:

Art Spiegelman, Maus: A Survivor's Tale , v. 1 and Maus: And Here My Troubles Began, v. 2

ERes : All "packet" readings are also available online through the Main Library. On Sabio, select Reserves, then ERes. You will need the course password to login: hist374 .

Students are expected to have read each reading assignment in advance of the class meeting for which it is assigned, and be prepared to discuss the contents. To assist preparation for discussion, students will regularly write one-page reading responses . Responses are limited to one typed page of organized, coherent comments, questions and reflections on the assigned reading. Do not summarize the reading; a better response will focus on one aspect or issue that interested you. It's always a good idea to cite or quote from the text ; you may use the short citation format at the end of the sentence (author, page). Only students who have excused absences on reading response due dates may make up the assignment by writing a response for another day's reading and handing it in on the day that reading is assigned.

PAPERS AND EXAMS: three exams, two "debate papers" (2 pages each), and one longer paper (6-8 pages). All written work is due in class on the assigned date and will not be accepted later without prior permission of the instructor.

Failure to credit the source of any statement which is not the result of your own creative endeavor is plagiarism, which is a violation of academic integrity and personal honesty and will result in a FAILING GRADE FOR THE COURSE. If you have any concerns about what plagiarism is and how to avoid it, visit the Main Library website: http://www.library.arizona.edu/help/tutorials/plagiarism/plagiarism-resources.html.

If you know you will have to miss a class for legitimate reasons, you are expected to inform the instructor in advance. Late work will be accepted only from students who have excused absences on due dates.

Aug. 21	Introduction
Aug. 23	Jews in Europe and Anti-Semitism, 1800-1933
	Read: Bergen , ch. 1

Aug. 28	From Weimar to Hitler
	Read: Bergen , ch. 2
Aug. 30	Discussion. Read: Levy, ed., "Adolf Hitler and the Jewish Question" and Hitler, "Propaganda" [ ER/packet ]

Sept. 4	The Third Reich: Read: Bergen ch. 3
	Exam Review Questions posted on ERes
Sept. 6	Aryanization and the Concentration Camps: Read: Bergen , ch. 4

Sept. 11	EXAM
Sept. 13	World War II and the Holocaust: Read: Bergen , ch. 5

Sept. 18	World War II and the Holocaust: Read: Bergen , ch. 6
Sept. 20	Perpetrators: Read: Browning, Ordinary Men , ch. 3-8 and ch. 17-18
	Debate paper assignment handout in class

Sept. 25	Film: "The Lodz Ghetto"
Sept. 27	Debate: "Ordinary Men" or "Willing Executioners"?
	Read: Goldhagen, "Police Battalion 101" [ ER only ]
	Due in class: debate paper on Browning and Goldhagen

Oct. 2	"The Final Solution": Read: Bergen , ch. 7
Oct. 4	Film: Claude Lanzmann, "Shoah" part 1
	Email film response due by Friday, Oct. 5 at 5:00 pm
	Exam Review Questions posted on ERes

Oct. 9	Death Marches , Liberation and the Question of Postwar Justice
	Optional reading: Bergen , ch. 8
Oct. 11	Exam

Oct. 16	Discussion. Read: Levi, Survival in Auschwitz , pp. 9-86

Oct. 18	Discussion. Read: Levi, Survival in Auschwitz , pp. 87-173
	Reading Response Due

Oct. 23	Discussion. Read: Spiegelman, Maus, vol. 1
	Handout in class: Newspaper Research assignment
Oct. 25	Discussion. Read: Spiegelman, Maus, vol. 2
	Reading Response Due

Oct. 30	Who Knew What When?
	Due in class: Newspaper Research assignment
Nov. 1	Discussion: Women in the Third Reich
	Read: Burleigh, The Racial State , Ch. 8 [ ER/packet ]
	Paper topics handed out in class

Nov. 6	Women in the Camps
	Read: Fink, "A Scrap of Time" and "The Table"; Perl, "A Doctor in Auschwitz "; and Delbo, "Days and Memory" in Rittner and Roth, eds, Different Voices and Kluger, "Theresienstadt" [ ER/packet ]
Nov. 8	The Persecution of Roma, Sinti and Gays
	Read: Sybil Milton, "Gypsies" and Burleigh, The Racial State , pp. 182-197 [ E R /packet ]
	Reading Response Due

Nov. 13	Screening and discussion: Claude Lanzmann, "Shoah" (con't)
Nov. 15	**Guest Lecture: Dr. Patricia Heberer, US Holocaust Memorial Museum , on "Disability and Persecution under the Third Reich"
	PAPER DUE

Nov. 20	**Guest Lecture: Prof. Peter Fritzsche ( Univ. of Illinois ) on the History of the Third Reich
	Debate paper assignment handout in class
Nov. 22	NO CLASS (Thanksgiving)

Nov. 27	Remembering the Holocaust: Memorials, Museums and Denial
Nov. 29	Debate: Denial on Campus?
	Read: Lipstadt, Denying the Holocaust , ch. 10 [ ER/packet ]
	Due in class: debate paper on Lipstadt

Dec. 4	Meet with Holocaust survivors at Jewish Family and Children's Services, 4301 E. Fifth Street (at Columbus )
Dec. 6	(Dead Day) Review for Final Exam

Dec. 13, 11:00	Final Exam

The internet is full of useful, and some notorious, sites for information about the Holocaust. Here are some recommended sites:

Due in class: debate paper on Lipstadt