Henryk Ross, Lodz ghetto: Children talking through fence of central prison on Czarnecki Street prior to deportation, 1940-42. ©Art Gallery of Ontario

HIS 362G Introduction to F2019

This course on the Holocaust examines the mass killing of Jews and other victims in the context of ’s quest for race and space during World War II. Using sources that illuminate victim experiences, perpetrator perspectives, and bystander responses, we investigate the Nazi racial state; the experiments in mass killing; the establishment of a systematic genocidal program; collaboration and complicity; resistance and rescue; as well as the memory of the Holocaust in western culture.

Please note: This is an upper-division history course with a substantial reading and writing component.

Class meets MWF 2-3 pm in JGB 2.216

Page 1 of 11 Dr. Tatjana Lichtenstein ([email protected]) Office hours: M 10 am -11 am and F 11 am -12 pm in RLP 2.402 (and per appointment)

Course Materials • Doris L. Bergen, War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 3. Edition (required), 2016) • Gitta Sereny, Into that Darkness: An Examination of Conscience (New York: Vintage Books, 1974) • Sara Nomberg-Przytyk, Auschwitz: True Tales from a Grotesque Land (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985) • Readings marked with # have been posted on Canvas or you can access them through PCL electronic resource database. You need to take very good notes for these readings as you will be drawing on them in details for the midterm and final exam as well as for weekly class discussions.

• All course materials are required

Please Note: The use of electronic equipment incl. laptops, iPads, any type of phone, among others is not allowed in this class. If needed, a designated note taker will assist students with documented needs. The note takers are the only ones permitted to use electronic equipment during class. Please ensure that your phones and other devices remain off and stored away during class.

Course Goals • To explore how and why the Holocaust occurred, in particular the connection between war and genocide • To analyze people’s behaviors and experiences through a variety of source materials such as documents, eyewitness accounts, diaries, memoirs, film, images, and other primary and secondary sources

Grades Attendance and Participation 20% Map Quiz 5% Kaplan Essay (9/20) 10% Midterm (10/11) 15% Nomberg-Przytyk Essay (11/1) 15% Sereny Essay (11/15) 20% Take-Home Final (due 12/14) 15%

*Instructions for assignments can be found on Canvas.

Grade scale: A through F. Plus and minus grades will be issued for this course.

Extra Credit Opportunities

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a) You can receive extra credit by attending events on or off campus that are related to our course (ask me for approval in advance of the event). I will make announcements in class about relevant events and welcome suggestions from you as well.

W 10/30, 2019 at 7:30 pm AFS Cinema (Austin Film Society) 6406 N I-35 Suite 3100 Austin, TX 78752, part of their Agniezska Holland Film Series: “Europa, Europa” (1990) featuring q and a with director A. Holland.

Th 11/7, 2019 from 12 to 2 pm (PCL Learning Lab 3): Dr. Stephen Naron: “The Fortunoff Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at UT Austin: An Introductory Workshop.”

Su 11/10, 2019 from 4 to 6:30 pm (Avaya Auditorium): Film: “The People vs Fritz Bauer” (2015) w introduction by Dr. David Crew (History).

b) A list of approved films that you can watch and reflect on is included on the last page of this syllabus.

To receive the extra credit, you need to write 1 double-spaced page (c. 200 words) response in which you reflect on the exhibit, film, or lecture that you attended. Making connections between your subject and our class readings and lectures is central to your response. You should hand in your piece to me in the first or second class after the event. Each response is worth ½ point. You can earn a total of two (2) extra credit points for the course. One (1) point can be earned in the period between week 2 and 8; one point between week 9 and 16 (last class day).

Course Policies Students with Disabilities Any student with a documented disability who requires academic accommodations should contact Services for Students with Disabilities at 471-6259 (voice) or 1-866-329-3986 (Video Phone) as soon as possible to request an official letter outlining authorized accommodations. http://www.utexas.edu/diversity/ddce/ssd. It is essential that you inform me about your accommodations in the beginning of term so we can make appropriate arrangements.

Attendance and Participation Lectures and class discussions are a significant part of this course. Therefore, attendance and participation are required. You are expected to have done the readings before you come to class. This will be essential for your ability to participate in group work, to ask questions, and to do well on in-class assignments.

Page 3 of 11 You are expected to be on time for class. If you are consistently late or leave class early, this will affect your course grade. If you have any concerns about this, please contact me in the beginning of term.

Although this course has a lecture component, discussion and debate of ideas is central to every meeting. All viewpoints and perspectives are welcome as long as they meet the following criteria: they are delivered in a respectful manner and they are informed by the course materials. Your participation grade depends on your having done the readings before class as well as your ability to engage with them and your fellow students.

I encourage you to participate in class with relevant questions about the readings and the lecture materials. If you are not comfortable speaking in class, think about other ways you might engage the material. For example, you can visit me during office hours to discuss readings and assignments.

Electronic Equipment Failure to adhere to the course policy regarding the use of electronic equipment will be penalized. You will receive a warning once. Subsequent infractions will result in you receiving 0 (zero) for attendance and participation in the course.

Academic Dishonesty Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating on assignments or examinations; plagiarizing, which means representing as your own work any material that was obtained from another source, regardless how or where you acquired it or misrepresenting as your own work any part of work done by another; submitting the same paper, or substantially similar papers; and unauthorized collaboration or collusion (you are expected to complete all assignments independently). Any act of academic dishonesty will result in immediate referral to Student Judicial Services and an F for the course. http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/acadint_plagiarism.php

On-Line Resources United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (especially the Holocaust Encyclopedia) http://www.ushmm.org This is the official website of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Its Holocaust Encyclopedia is a particularly useful tool. Here you can look up terms, people, and places. The website also has online exhibits, short films, source collections and other interesting materials.

Take Note:

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It is your responsibility to read through this syllabus (including grade distribution, assignment due dates, test dates, course policies etc.) before the second week of classes.

It is your responsibility to be familiar with my expectations for preparation, attendance, and participation.

Creating a productive and inclusive learning environment is our shared responsibility.

Office Hours: Office hours are times set aside specifically for meetings between students and instructors. I have listed our TA Paul Adams’s hours and my own in this syllabus. I encourage you to come to office hours at least once during the semester and preferably early on. It is a change for us to get to know each other a little better and hear about your interest in the topic.

Both Paul and I are available to talk assignments, note taking techniques and other things with you, but we are also here to learn about you, your interests and thoughts about the material. Furthermore, we can also guide you in solving many academic or other problems or obstacles you might encounter, not least by helping you figure out where to get support be that the Writing Center or UT Counseling and Mental Health Center. You don’t need to make an appointment if you are coming during regular office hours. You don’t need to have a question or concern – my door and Paul’s are open. If it makes you more comfortable feel free to bring a friend or come as a small group from class. Those are often great conversations.

If you have a minor question you are also welcome to walk with me after class, just let me know and I will meet you in the hallway. Before class is often not a good time as I need to quickly set up my slides, video clips, etc.

Should you have any questions about course policies and pracrices, please ask me in person or by email.

Page 5 of 11 Schedule of Classes

• All readings are required (bring your notes and relevant readings with you to class) • Attendance and participation is mandatory • Polite, respectful, and considerate behavior is expected

Week 1 Introduction

W 8/28 Organization, Readings, Assignments

F 8/30 The Origins of # Excerpts from the New Testament

** Please Note: Next Friday (9/6), we will have a 15-minute map quiz.

Preparations for Quiz: See Canvas page for one blank practice map and list of places (study maps can be found in Bergen, xx, 236 and 189.

Week 2 Antisemitism, WWI, and | Map Quiz Friday

Bergen, 1-43

W 9/4 Anti-Judaism and Antisemitism # Excerpts from the New Testament # Excerpt from Martin Luther, On the Jews and their Lies, 1543 #. Papal Bull about Jews, July 14, 1555

F 9/6 The Legacies of WWI In-class map quiz (15min)

Week 3 The Racial State

Bergen, 45-100

M 9/9 Adolf Hitler and Nazism # Excerpt from Adolf Hitler, (1925)

W 9/11 # Watch at home: “Science and the Swastika: Hitler’s Biological Soldiers” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQAdwjYc_VE # Study Questions # Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases July 14, 1933

F 9/13 Nazi Eugenics: Consent and Coercion

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Week 4 Nazi Policies and Jews’ Experiences of Persecution | Essay Due

M 9/16 Anti-Jewish Policies # Marion Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany, 3- 49.

W 9/18 Jewish Responses # Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair, 50-73.

F 9/20 # Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair, 74-118. # Race Laws

**Kaplan short essay due on Canvas before class

Week 5 Preparations for War and Radicalization of Race Politics

Bergen, 101-127, 159-165

M9/23 Territorial Expansion and the Radicalization of German Policies # Memoir of Walter Grab, , March 1938 # Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair, 119-144 # November Pogrom Photographs

W 9/25 Murder of the Disabled 1938-1941 Bergen, 127-133 # Excerpt from Permission for the Extermination of Life Unworthy of Life, 1920 # Impact of Nazi Take-Over (documents) # Murder of Disabled Children (documents) # Murder of Disabled Adults (documents)

F 9/27 The Murder of the Disabled/1941-1945 # Excerpt from Bishop von Galen’s Sermon Aug 3, 1941 and the government’s response # ‘Wild Euthanasia’ (documents)

Week 6 German-Occupied Poland as a Racial Laboratory

Bergen, 129-145, 167-186

M 9/30 Population dislocation and forced labor In-Class: “The Wild East”

Page 7 of 11 W 10/2 The Creation of the Ghettos Bergen, 145-159 #Letter from planning the concentration of Polish Jews 9/21/1939 #Life in the Ghettos (documents)

F 10/4 Review for Midterm (please note test include materials from M 10/7)

Week 7 Ghettoization | Midterm

M 10/7 The Warsaw Ghetto: “A Film Unfinished” A few tips for the midterm . W 10/9 Study Day – No Class

F 10/11 Midterm (in class)

Week 8 War of Annihilation

Bergen, 186-206, 207-235

M 10/14 War of Annihilation

W 10/16 Mobile Killing Units # A German Field Marshal Instructs the on Its Role in the Soviet Union # The so-called “Jäger Report” # Excerpt from Rivka Yosselevska Testimony # Hermann Gräbe’s testimony on witnessing mass shootings

F 10/18 Fall of 1941 – local initiatives/central decision making: Chelmno Bergen, 207-242 # Minutes of the about the ‘,’ January 20, 1942

Week 9 Aktion Reinhardt Camps: Treblinka, Sobibor, and Belzec

Bergen, 242-273

M 10/21 East/West – Deportations and Murder # Order to Warsaw Jewish Council to organize deportation ‘to the East,’ 7/22/42

W 10/23 Aktion Reinhardt # Postwar testimony by Kurt Gerstein

Page 8 of 11 F 10/25 Experiences: Treblinka - Survivor Testimonies

Week 10 Auschwitz-Birkenau: Killing Center and Slave Labor | Essay Due

Bergen, 275-290

M 10/28 Evolution of the Auschwitz Complex

W 10/30 # Auschwitz Album – Slave Labor and Mass Murder (short film and online album, study carefully)

F 11/1 Discussion of Sara Nomberg-Przytyk, Auschwitz: True Tales from a Grotesque Land (all)

**Nomberg-Przytyk short essay due on Canvas before class

Week 11 Victims

M 11/4 The Grey Zone # Primo Levi, “Grey Zone,” 21-51, The Drowned and the Saved (1988) # “The head of the Lodz ghetto announces the deportation of children,” Sep m1942

W 11/6 Forms of Resistance #Abraham Lewin, excerpt notebooks and diary, 188-198 # Call for resistance in the Vilna Ghetto January 1942 # Memoir by Filip Müller on use of gas chambers at Auschwitz in 1942

F 11/8 Roma and Sinti in the Holocaust

Week 12 Perpetrators and Neighbors | Essay Due

M 11/11 Neighbors: Enemies? # Neighbors (documents)

W 11/13 Neighbors: Allies?

F 11/15 Discussion of Gitta Sereny, Into that Darkness (all).

**Sereny essay due on Canvas before class

Page 9 of 11 Week 13 The Final Stage: Death Marches and the End of War

Bergen, 290-295

M 11/18 Death Marches: View Personal Stories on USHMM website https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005162

W 11/20 Antisemitism after Auschwitz

F 11/22 Legacies of the Holocaust (Cycles of Violence)

Week 14 Memory of the Holocaust

Bergen, 297-310

M 11/25 Memory of the Holocaust during the Cold War

W 11/30 No Class – Thanksgiving Holiday

F 11/29 No Class – Thanksgiving Holiday

Week 15 Memory of the Holocaust (contnd)

M 12/2 Memory of the Holocaust after 1989

W 12/4 Legacies of the Holocaust (Justice) # Documents – the Search for Justice

F 12/6 Reflection Essays and Discussion (instructions on Canvas)

Week 16 Final Review

M 12/9 Tips for the Take-Home Exam

Take-Home Final Exam due 12/14/2019

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Films on the Holocaust approved for extra credit

* Many of these are available on Kanopy (via UT Libraries), Netflix, Amazon Instant Video and other such streaming services. You can also watch them at the Fine Arts Library.

• Aftermath (Pokłosie, 2013) • Aimee and Jaguar (1999) • Angry Harvest (1985) • Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State (2005, doc) • Border Street (1949) • Charité: At War (2019) • Defiance (2008) • Europa Europa (1990) • Generation War (Unsere Mütter, Unserer Väter, 2013) • Ida (2014) • Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust (2007, doc) • In Darkness (2012) • Irena Sendler: In the Name of their Mothers (2011, doc) • Korczak (1990) • Lodz Ghetto (1989, doc) • Paragraph 175 (2000, doc) • Porrajmos: Europe’s Gypsies and the Holocaust (doc) • Rosenstrasse (2003) • Schindler’s List (1993) • Shoah (1985, doc) • Sophie’s Choice (1982) • Son of Saul (2015) • Spring 1941 (2008) • The Diary of Anne Frank (many versions, 1959-2009) • The Grey Zone (2001) • The Holocaust (1978, TV ) • The Nazis: A Warning from History (1997, doc) • The Pawnbroker (1964) • The Pianist (2006) • The Round Up (, 2010) • The Shop on Main Street (1965) • Uprising (2001)

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