HIS 362G Introduction to the Holocaust Fall 2016
Dr. Tatjana Lichtenstein Office hours: WF 1:30 - 2:30 pm (or per appointment) in GAR 0.110 Contact: [email protected]
Teaching Assistant: Natalie Cincotta Office hours: M 4:15-5:00 pm & W 11:00 am-12:00 pm in Qualcomm Café on thr ground floor of the Gates Dell Complex (GDC) Contact: [email protected]
Class meets MWF 3:00 – 4:00 pm in WEL 2.304
Course Description
Please note: This is an upper-division history course with a substantial reading and writing component.
This course on the Holocaust examines the mass killing of Jews and other victims in the context of Nazi Germany’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.
Course Materials • Doris L. Bergen, War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 3. edition, 2016) [readings assigned per week] • Marion A. Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998) • Sara Nomberg-Przytyk, Auschwitz: True Tales From a Grotesque Land (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985) • Gitta Sereny, Into that Darkness: An Examination of Conscience (New York: Vintage Books, 1974) • Readings marked with *are available through Canvas. Take good notes as I do not allow electronic devices in the classroom, you must rely on your notes. • Items marked with # can be found online.
All course materials are required
Please Note: The use of electronic equipment incl. laptops, net books, iPads, phones, MP3 players among others is not allowed in this class. 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.
Page 1 of 9 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% Short Essay on Kaplan* (9/14) 10% Midterm (10/14) 15% Essay on Sereny (10/31) 20% Short Essay on Nomberg-Przytyk (11/18) 15% Final Exam (TBA) 20%
*Instructions for the essays will be posted on Canvas.
Grade scale: A through F. Plus and minus grades will be issued for this course.
Extra Credit Opportunities: You can receive extra credit by attending events on or off campus that are related to our course (ask me for approval of relevance). I will make announcements in class about relevant events and welcome suggestions from you as well. 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. 250 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 2 of 9 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 is lecture-based, in reality, the 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.
Page 3 of 9 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 8/24 Organization, Readings, Assignments
F 8/26 The Origins of Antisemitism *Excerpts from the New Testament *Excerpt from Martin Luther, On the Jews and their Lies, 1543 *Papal Bull about Jews, July 14, 1555
Week 2 Antisemitism, WWI, and Adolf Hitler
Bergen, 1-11, 13-67
M 8/29 *Petition opposing equality for Jews, 10 January, 1850
W 8/31 #Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDMFP2uPbCQ [Tip: Make sure you can identify Germany, Austria, Russia and what happened to the territory after 1919]
F 9/2 *Excerpts from Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (1925)
Week 3 The Racial State
M 9/5 No Class – Labor Day
Bergen, 69-100
W 9/7 #Explore and read sections on “Science as Salvation, 1919-1933,” and “The Biological State, 1933-1939,” and explore artifacts in the online exhibit Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race https://www.ushmm.org/exhibition/deadly-medicine/overview/ [Tip: Choose one artifact and write some notes to yourself about how it speaks to certain themes in the material you have read; bring your notes to class]
*Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases July 14, 1933 *Nuremberg Race Laws
F 9/9 Nazi Eugenics
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Week 4 Nazi Policies and Jewish Experiences of Persecution
M 9/12 Anti-Jewish Policies
W 9/14 Discussion of Marion Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany, chapter 1-4 (p. 3-118).
**Kaplan short essay due on Canvas before class
F 9/16 Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair, 119-144 (November Pogrom) *American Consul Samuel Honaker’s Description of Anti-Semitic Persecution and Kristallnacht and its Aftereffects in the Stuttgart Region (November 12 and 15, 1938)
Week 5 Creating Racial Enemies
Bergen, 101-127
M 9/19 Nazi Propaganda Exhibit Groups # 1 The Bullock Texas State History Museum
W 9/21 Nazi Propaganda Exhibit Groups # 2 The Bullock Texas State History Museum
F 9/23 Class Discussion
Week 6 War and Experiments in Mass Murder
Bergen, 129-145, 159-165, 167-186
M 9/26 Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair, 145-172. *Minutes of conference on the deportation of Poles, Jews, and Gypsies, January 30, 1940.
W 9/28 Bergen, 127-133 *Excerpt from Permission for the Extermination of Life Unworthy of Life, 1920 *Letter by Hitler Authorizing Euthanasia Killings (backdated to Sept 1, 1939) *Postwar Testimony of the first successful gassing of mentally handicapped on January 4, 1940 *Excerpt from Bishop von Galen’s Sermon Aug 3, 1941 and government response
F 9/30 The Murder of the Disabled
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Week 7 German-Occupied Poland: Ghettos
Bergen, 145-159
M 10/3 The Creation of the Ghettos. *Letter from Reinhard Heydrich planning the concentration of Polish Jews 9/21/39 *The Warsaw Judenrat offers to regulate forced labor
W 10/5 The Warsaw Ghetto
F 10/7 Natalie Cincotta: German Photographers and the Ghettos
Week 8 Essay (Sereny) Workshop & Midterm
M 10/10 Ghettoization (conclude) A few tips for the midterm . W 10/12 Essay Workshop #Watch videos posted on Canvas and read assigned chapters of Into that Darkness
F 10/14 Midterm (in class)
Week 9 War of Annihilation and Mobile Killing Units
Bergen, 186-206, 207-235
M 10/17 Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair, 173-200. *A German Field Marshal Instructs the Wehrmacht on Its Role in the Soviet Union
W 10/19 Mobile Killing Units *The so-called “Jäger Report” *Excerpt from Rivka Yosselevska Testimony *Hermann Gräbe’s testimony on witnessing mass shootings
F 10/21 *Minutes of the Wannsee Conference about the ‘final solution,’ January 20, 1942
Week 10 Death Camps: Chelmno, Treblinka, Sobibor, and Belzec,
Bergen, 237-273
M 10/24 *Order to Warsaw Jewish Council to organize deportation ‘to the East,’ 7/22/42 *Postwar testimony by Kurt Gerstein
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W 10/26 Treblinka: Survivor Testimonies
F 10/28 Roma and Sinti in the Holocaust
Week 11 Perpetrators
M 10/31 Discussion of Gitta Sereny, Into that Darkness (all).
**Sereny essay due on Canvas before class
W 11/2 Professor Dennis Darling (UT Photojournalism): “Child Survivors of Terezín.”
F 11/4 Perpetrators (continued)
Week 12 Victims & Neighbors
M 11/7 *The head of the Lodz ghetto announces the deportation of children *Richard Glazar Testimony (Treblinka)
W 11/9 *Call for resistance in the Vilna Ghetto January 1942
F 11/11 Neighbors: Allies or Enemies? #Explore the online exhibit: “Some Were Neighbors: Collaboration and Complicity in the Holocaust.” http://somewereneighbors.ushmm.org/#/exhibitions [Tip: Choose one story and make some notes on why you think it is significant in the context of the exhibit and our course, bring your notes to class]
Week 13 Auschwitz-Birkenau: Killing Center and Slave Labor
Bergen, 275-290
M 11/14 *Memoir by Filip Müller on use of gas chambers at Auschwitz in 1942
W 11/16 Auschwitz Album – labor and mass murder
F 11/18 Discussion of Sara Nomberg-Przytyk, Auschwitz: True Tales from a Grotesque Land (all)
**Nomberg-Przytyk short essay due on Canvas before class
Page 7 of 9 Week 14 The Final Stage: Death Marches
Bergen, 290-295
M 11/21 Death Marches: View Personal Stories on USHMM website https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005162
W 11/23 No Class – Thanksgiving Holiday
F 11/25 No Class – Thanksgiving Holiday
Week 15 Cycles of Violence and the Memory of the Holocaust
Bergen, 297-310
M 11/28 Antisemitism after Auschwitz
W 11/30 Legacies of the Holocaust
F 12/2 Final Discussion
Week 16
M 12/5 Review for Final Exam
Final Exam will be scheduled during the following days 12/8-10 & 12/12-14, 2016
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Films on the Holocaust approved for extra credit
* Many of these are available on Netflix, Amazon Instant Video and other such streaming services. You can also watch them at the Fine Arts Library.
• Aftermath (Poklosie, 2013) • Aimee and Jaguar (1999) • Angry Harvest (1985) • Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State (2005, doc) • Border Street (1949) • Conspiracy (2001) • 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 miniseries) • The Nazis: A Warning from History (1997, doc) • The Pawnbroker (1964) • The Pianist (2006) • The Round Up (France, 2010) • The Shop on Main Street (1965) • Uprising (2001)
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