Perspectives in History: The History of the Holocaust Svanur Pétursson 21:510:289 svanurp@gmail.com Tuesdays/Thursdays 2:30-3:50 Office: Conklin Hall 337 Engelhard Hall 213 Office Hours: Thursdays: 4-6pm and by appointment Spring 2014 This course is a detailed examination of the programs of persecution and mass murder carried out by the Nazi German regime between 1933 and 1945. Several themes will be prominent throughout the semester. First, we will examine and try to understand when and how policies of exclusion can be transformed into a systematic program of murder. In this regard, we will examine not only the development of Nazi Germany as a racial state, but also the role of ideologies, such as anti-semitism, nationalism, and racism, in shaping policies of exclusion in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. Second, we will focus on the place of the Holocaust in European, and not only German history. The events we associate with the Holocaust took place across the continent of Europe and were shaped by local histories; throughout the course, we will pay close attention to the interaction between Germans, Jews, and non-german native populations. Third, we will try to try to understand how eyewitness memories, historical research, and media representations all shape our contemporary understanding of what the Holocaust was and why it seems so important to us today. The mass murder of European Jews will be the central focus of this course. We will, however, also disucuss programs of discrimination and murder carried out against other groups (e.g. Roma, the disabled, homosexuals, and Poles) and attempt to place those phenomena within the context of Nazi German racial policy. Throughout the course we will also consider how subsequent generations commemorated and portrayed the memory of the Holocaust in both official and popular forms. From documentaries like Night and Fog, and Shoah, television miniseries like the 1977 Holocaust, to more recent films like Schindler s List, Life is Beautiful, and Inglorious Basterds, to name a few, we will work to understand the continuing importance and politics of remembrance when it comes to the Holocaust. Through class discussion, students will interact with the materials, the instructor, and their peers. In the process, they will practice both their public speaking skills, and learn how to engage critically with the arguments and evidence of the texts. As this is a writing intensive course students will also regularly practice their writing skills in four short papers, a midterm paper, and a final paper. Students will learn how to use both primary and secondary sources in these writing exercises as well as further develop their research skills, especially when it comes to locating relevant academic secondary sources. In both the written assignments and the class discussions, students will develop their analytical skills by identifying the course readings main theses, supporting arguments, evidence, assumptions, and rhetorical strategies. Course Requirements: 1. Participation. Students are expected to read the assigned texts before class (by the date indicated on the syllabus), and to be prepared to discuss them in class. At times, students will be given discussion points to prepare for class (as listed on the syllabus). 2. Assignments: There are 4 short assignments in this course, each 2-3 pages long, with the topics stated on the syllabus. Each assignment is worth 5% of the final grade. 3. Midterm Paper: 5-6 pages, due at the beginning of class on March 14 th. The paper topics will be distributed two weeks in advance and you will be given the opportunity to submit a draft of your paper a week before the deadline to receive comments from me.
4. Final Paper: 7-8 pages, due on the last day of class, May 1 st. The paper topics will be distributed two weeks in advance and you will be given the opportunity to submit a draft of your paper a week before the deadline to receive comments from me. 5. Final Exam: The final exam is a cumulative in-class exam. Students will receive a study sheet to help them prepare for that exam. Grading: In-class participation: 10% Assignments: 20% Midterm Paper (March 4 th ) 25% Final Paper (May 1 st ) 25% Final Exam (May 13 th ) 20% Attendance policy: Attendance is required. If you miss more than four classes, your grade will be lowered by a third of a grade (from B+ to B, for example). If you miss more than six classes, your grade will be lowered by one full grade (B+ to C+, for example). Any student who misses eight or more sessions through any combination of excused and unexcused absences will not earn credit in this class. Such students should withdraw from the class. Excused absences from exams will only be granted for students who can document medical or family emergency. Students who feel a personal emergency is sufficiently grave to warrant an excused absence must speak with me BEFORE the exam is to take place. Students who are unclear about the course s requirements should speak to me early in the semester. Policy on Academic Integrity (Cheating and Plagiarism): Rutgers University treats cheating and plagiarism as serious offenses. The standard minimum penalties for students who cheat or plagiarize include failure of the course, disciplinary probation, and a formal warning that further cheating will be grounds for expulsion from the University. All students are required to sign the Rutgers Honor Code Pledge. To receive credit, every assignment must have your signature under the following phrase: On my honor, I have neither received nor given any unauthorized assistance on this examination / assignment. Required Texts: Doris Bergen: War and Genocide. A Concise History of the Holocaust (Rowman and Littlefield, 2 nd edition, 2009 ISBN: 978-0742557154) Donald Niewyk: The Holocaust: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, (Cengage Learning, 4 th edition, 2010 ISBN: 978-0547189468.) Christopher Browning: Ordinary Men. Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (Harper Perennial Reprint, 1998 ISBN: 978-0060995065) Primo Levi: Survival in Auschwitz (Touchstone, 1995 ISBN: 978-0684826806) Course Website You will find a copy of this syllabus at the Blackboard course website (blackboard.newark.rutgers.edu), in case you should lose this one. From time to time, I will also post additional materials (images that we discuss in class, texts that I discuss in lectures which are not in the textbooks, etc.) If there are any changes to the syllabus, I will announce these in class and then post them on the website. I will also use the electronic roster to send e-mails to all students, if there are announcements to be made. You are
responsible to check your university email account regularly to be sure that you receive those announcements. Schedule of Topics and Readings: Week 1 January 21 st : Introduction January 23 rd : Germans and Jews: Background Readings: Bergen: 1-29 Niewyk: Weiss ( Anti-Semitism Through the Ages ) Week 2 January 28 th : The Nazi Party Readings: Bergen: 29-52 January 30 th : Excluding Jews Readings: Kaplan: Between Dignity and Despair, 17-74 and 119-145 (74-119 optional) BB Assignment: According to Kaplan, what were the main methods used by the Nazi party to exclude Jews from German society? Were they mainly legal methods or should we focus on other aspects of exclusion in order to better understand the persecution of Jews in the period before the outbreak of the war? Week 3 February 4 th : Purifying the Social Body: The Disabled, Roma, and Asocials Readings: Bergen: 53-81 and 125-129. February 6 th : Pursuing Enemies: The SS abd the Security State Readings: Bergen: 81-125 Week 4 February 11 th : Nazi Germany Faces East: Planning a War of Annihilation Readings: Bergen: 131-161 Browning: 1-49 February 13 th : Bloodlands: Murder Squads in the East Readings: Browning: 49-103 Desbois: Holocaust by Bullets (Excerpt) BB Week 5 February 18 th : Ordinary Men Readings: Browning: 103-191 Assignment: TBD This will be an assignment on Browning s book. February 20 th : Nazi New Order in Western Europe
Readings: Bergen: 161-205 Niewyk: Paxton/Marrus ( Western Europeans and the Jews ) Week 6 February 25 th : Nazi New Order in Eastern Europe Readings: Niewyk: Gutman/Krakowski ( The Poles Helped Persecute the Jews ) Lukas ( The Poles Were Fellow Victims ) February 27 th : Righteous Gentiles Readings: Niewyk: Tec ( Righteous Gentiles ) Week 7 March 4 th : Life and Death in the Ghetto Readings: Documents on the Holocaust (Excerpts) BB MIDTERM PAPER DUE March 6 th : The Judenrat Readings: Niewyk: Diner ( Why the Jewish Councils Cooperated ) Documents on the Holocaust (Excerpts) BB Week 8 March 11 th : The Problems of Jewish Resistance Readings: Niewyk: Hilberg ( Two Thousand Years of Jewish Appeasement ) Bauer ( Forms of Jewish Resistance ) March 13 th : The Victims Experience I Readings: Niewyk: Bettelheim ( Helpless Victims ) Des Pres ( The Will to Survive ) Week 9 Spring Break HAVE FUN! Week 10 March 25 th : The Victims Experience II Readings: Niewyk: Levi ( The Gray Zone ) Waxman ( Women and the Holocaust ) March 27 th : Possibilities of Rescue I Readings: Niewyk: Wyman ( The Abandonment of the Jews ) Rubinstein ( The Myth of Rescue ) Assignment: TBD This will be an assignment on some of the reasons why the rest of the world did not come to the rescue of the Jews. What were some of the possible reasons why. Week 11 April 1 st : Possibilities of Rescue II Readings: Niewyk: Phayer ( The Silence of Pope Pius XII )
Lacquer ( The Failure to Comprehend ) April 3 rd : The Camps: Perspective of a Homosexual Survivor Readings: Heger: 27-97 (the rest of the book is optional) BB Week 12 April 8 th : The Camps: Perspective of a Jewish Male Survivor Readings: Levi: 13-37, 77-122 (the rest is optional) April 10 th : The Camps: Perspectives of Jewish Female Survivors Readings: Women in the Holocaust (excerpts) BB Assignment: TBD This will be an assignment comparing the different experiences the survivor s had, focusing on whether gender, race, class, nationality etc. had an effect on the way that people experienced the camps. Week 13 April 15 th : The End of the War: Seeking Justice Readings: Wright: The Nuremberg Trial BB Marrus: The Nuremberg Trial. Fifty Years After BB April 17 th : The Politics and Debates Surrounding The Eichmann Trial Readings: Arendt: Eichmann In Jerusalem (excerpt) BB Week 14 April 22 nd : Remembering the Holocaust I Documentary: Imaginary Witness April 24 th : Remembering the Holocaust II Documentary: Imaginary Witness continued Week 15 April 29 th : The Shoah and Trauma Online Viewing: Excerpts from Shoah (available on Blackboard) May 1 st : The Holocaust in American Life Readings: Novick: The Holocaust in American Life (excerpt) BB FINAL PAPER IS DUE FINAL EXAM: May 13 th, 3-6pm.