HISTORY 323/650: THE HOLOCAUST
Summer
Session II 2005
MTWTh 1:-3:30 pm Professor
Jeremy Popkin
205 Biological Sciences
Bldg Dept. of
History
1725
POT Tel.: 257-1415
Email: popkin@uky.edu Off. hrs. Mon., 11:00-12:00 pm, W 4:30-5:30 or by appt.
All course materials
(syllabus, handouts, assignments) will be posted on Professor Popkin’s personal
Web site, www.uky.edu/~popkin.
Course
Syllabus
I. Course Description: This course will attempt to help students
understand the events that resulted in the virtual destruction of
II. Course Aims and Objectives: The purpose of this course is to introduce
students to the issues involved in the study of one of the largest projects of
mass murder in recorded human history.
Although it occurred little more than half a century ago, the Holocaust has already become a major reference point in
our culture's understanding of itself.
One has only to look at a daily newspaper to see the many different
contexts in which the Holocaust is referred to.
An understanding of the events of the Holocaust is important not only
for students of modern European and Jewish history, but for many students
interested in psychology, religious studies, literature, sociology,
education, and a number of other
disciplines. This course is intended to
prepare participants to transmit what they learn about the subject to others.
III. Course Requirements
A. The emphasis in this course will be on
understanding the material and on acquiring the capability to discuss it orally
and in writing. Active participation in course discussions will be strongly
emphasized; this implies regular attendance and timely completion of the
reading assignments. This is especially important in a
summer-school course, because of the limited time we have and the difficulty of
catching up if you fall behind. This
course meets for 2 ½ hours a day for the first 4 weeks of the 8-week summer
session (June 9—July 7, 2005). Class
projects and final papers will be due on Friday, July 8.. Attendance will be taken and will count as
part of your participation grade. More
than one unexcused absence will affect your course grade. Students earning a failing grade for
attendance and participation will fail the whole course—turning in your papers
is not enough! Students are expected to
be in class at the starting time (1:00 pm), to return promptly from any breaks,
and to stay until class ends at 3:30 pm.
B. Required
D.
Dawidowicz, Holocaust
Reader ISBN 0-874412366
Niewyk, The Holocaust,
3rd. ed. ISBN 0618-214-623
C. Browning, Ordinary Men,
ISBN 006-099-5068
T. Blatt, From the Ashes of Sobibor, ISBN
0-8101-1302-3
N. Tec, Resilience and Courage, ISBN 0-300-10519-3
Students taking this
course for graduate credit (History 650) will also read the following three
books:
S. Haffner, Defying Hitler, ISBN 03-312-421-133
C. Browning, Origins of the Final Solution, ISBN 0-8032-1327-1
E. Linenthal, Preserving Memory, ISBN 0231-124-074
C. Written Assignments: (1) Four
essay papers based on assigned readings (4-6 pp double-spaced, typed); (2)
short ungraded “comment card” assignments based on readings (counted as part of
class-participation grade); (3) a review of a film or television special about
the Holocaust, 4-6 pp double-spaced
D. Grading: Participation in class meetings and
discussion, 50%, essay papers 40%, film review 10%. There are no mid-term or final exams in this
course.
E. Requirements for Students Enrolled
for HIS 650: Graduate students taking
the course for HIS 650 credit will do some additional reading (approximately
one additional book per week), and will participate in an additional course
meeting each week (approx. one hour). In
place of the film review, graduate students will write one longer paper (12-15
pp double-spaced)
Schedule of Topics and
9 June.: Introduction to the
course; slide lecture on the Jews of Europe
*13 June: A Holocaust survivor’s story.
14 June.: (a) Backgrounds to the Holocaust.
15 June.: Hitler’s rise to power and the fate of the German Jews, 1933-38.
16 June: Rising violence, Hitler’s first conquests and the creation
of the Polish ghettos.
.
*20 June.:
The fate of Polish Jewry.
*21 June.: The Final Solution in practice.
22 June: The death
camp experience.
23 June: Video screening of
excerpts from Claude Lanzmann, Shoah
*27 June: The problem
of the perpetrators.
28 June: Analyzing
the perpetrators.
29 June: Life in
the wartime ghettos.
30 June: Debates
about Jewish resistance.
4 July:
University
holiday, no class meeting
*5 July: The
6 July: (a)
The Holocaust in western Europe.
*7 July: Conclusion.
Film
essay due (may be turned in earlier)
THERE IS NO FINAL EXAM FOR THIS COURSE
COURSE
ASSIGNMENTS
Comments
on readings: For each day’s reading assignments, you will
send me via email (1) a one- or two-sentence summary of the subject and central
thesis of the assigned reading and (2) at least two comments about the
reading. Comments may include points you
did not understand, points that struck you as especially noteworthy, issues in
these readings that relate to other course readings, etc. Please try to keep comments brief. These email assignments will count as an
important part of your course-participation grade. These
emails must reach me by
Graded
Written Assignments: Each student will write five short (4-6pp,
double-spaced typed) papers during the semester. Of these, four will be responses to questions I give out about the assigned
reading, one will be a review of
book of your choice on some topic about the Holocaust, or a review of a film,
play, monument, artwork, museum or some other non-written medium dealing with
the Holocaust. You may also review some
of the Web sites devoted to the Holocaust - consult me about selection, and see
the instructions later in this syllabus..
When you review a film, play, artwork, or
Web site, your essay should explain the theme and content of the work under
review. How does it strive to communicate
its message about the Holocaust, and how effective is it at doing so? Precise questions will vary depending on what
sort of work you are reviewing.
Select Bibliography on the Holocaust
General Reference Works: I. Gutman, ed., Encyclopedia of the Holocaust,
4 vs.; Rozett and Spector, Encyclopedia of the Holocaust; W. Laqueur, Holocaust
Encyclopedia; Niewyk and Nicosia, Columbia Guide to the Holocaust;
M. Gilbert, Atlas of the Holocaust.
Materials on the Web: The best starting point is the web site of
the
Overview of Holocaust historiography: M. Marrus, The
Holocaust in History
General histories of the
Holocaust:
L. Dawidowicz, The War Against the Jews; M. Gilbert, The Holocaust;
L. Yahil, The Holocaust, Y. Bauer, A History of the Holocaust; D.
Dwork and R. Van Pelt, The Holocaust.
History of Antisemitism: J. Katz, From Prejudice to Destruction
(covers 1700-1945); J. Parkes, Conflict
of Church and Synagogue (on Christian origins); N. Cohn, Warrant for Genocide (about
Protocols of the Elders of Zion); John Weiss, Ideology of Death
(concentrates on Germany and Austria); A. Lindemann, Esau’s Tears
(controversial re-examination of history of anti-semitism); James Carroll, Constantine’s
Sword (the Catholic Church and the Jews over the centuries)
German attitudes,
Hitler, Nazism:
S. Friedlander, Nazi Germany and the Jews (treatment of German Jews,
1933-1939); G. Mosse, Crisis of the German Ideology (intellectual
attitudes) and Toward the Final Solution (development of racist ideas);
I. Kershaw, Hitler (now the
standard biography); W. Allen, Nazi
Seizure of Power (study of Nazi rule in a single town); S. Gordon, Hitler,
the Germans and the Jewish Question (how important was antisemitism in
bringing Hitler to power?), F. Henry, Victims and Neighbors (relations
between Jews and other Germans in one town), S. Haffner, Defying Hitler
(a non-Jewish German’s memoir of Hitler’s rise to power), V. Klemperer, I
Will Bear Witness (Jewish survivor’s diary); C. Koonz, The Nazi
Conscience (what attracted Germans to anti-semitism)
Pre-War Jewish Life in
Eastern Europe: Herzog and Zborowski, Life is with People
(classic anthropological study); I. B. Singer, Family Moskat (novel set
in Warsaw just prior to war); E. Mendelsohn, Jews of East Central Europe
(historian’s study of the Jewish communities in the interwar period); C.
Heller, On the Edge of Destruction (the pre-war Polish Jewish
community); Y. Eliach, Once There Was a World (reconstruction of the
life of a Jewish village).
Implementation of the
Holocaust: R. Hilberg, Destruction of the European
Jews (fundamental study of the killing process); C. Browning and J.
Matthaus, Origins of the Final Solution (most up-to-date research on
beginnings of genocide); Y. Arad, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka (the
killing camps in eastern Poland); C. Browning, Ordinary Men (study of
one group of Germans involved in killing); D. Goldhagen, Hitler’s Willing
Executioners (what was perpetrators’ motivation?); R. Lifton, Nazi
Doctors (how did medical doctors come to play major role in killing?); K.
Schleunes, Twisted Road to Auschwitz (how did Nazi policy evolve toward
extermination?); R. Breitman, Official Secrets (what Allied intelligence
records tell about the start of the extermination process.
Jewish Experience: E. Ringelblum, Notes
from the Warsaw Ghetto (documentation kept at the time); H. Fein, Accounting
for Genocide (sociological study of factors that explain chances of
survival in different countries); I. Trunk, Judenrat (fundamental study
of Jewish community leaders); R. Ainsztein, Jewish Resistance in Nazi-Occupied
Eastern Europe (most thorough study of the subject); G. Paulsson: Secret City (how Jews survived in
hiding in wartime Warsaw); L. Dobroszycki, ed., Chronicle of the Lodz Ghetto
(data from 2nd-largest ghetto); I. Trunk, Jewish Responses to Nazi
Persecution (excerpts from memoirs); J. Bauman, Winter in the Morning
(young woman in Warsaw ghetto); J. David, A Square of Sky/A Touch of Earth
(young woman in Warsaw ghetto); B. Ferencz, Less than Slaves
(documentation about slave-labor camp); Y. Gutman, The Jews of Warsaw,
1939-1943 (historian’s account of the largest ghetto); C. Kaplan, Warsaw
Diary (eloquent account of life in ghetto); V. Klemperer, I Will Bear
Witness (German Jew’s day-by-day diary of life from 1933 to 1945); Bob
Moore, Victims and Survivors (Jewish fate in the Netherlands); R.
Poznanski, Jews in France during World War II; D. Dwork, Children
With a Star (about children’s experiences)
The Death Camps: T. Des Pres, The
Survivor (how did anyone survive?); E. Kogon, The Theory and Practice of
Hell (non-Jewish survivor’s memoir of Buchenwald - one of the basic sources
on camp life); Y. Gutman and Michael Berenbaum, Anatomy of the Auschwitz
Death Camp (most recent research); R. Van Pelt, The Case for Auschwitz
(the detailed evidence about the gas chambers).
See also the survivors’ memoirs, esp. Primo Levi
Jewish-Christian
Relations:
P. Hallie, Lest Innocent Blood be Shed (rescuers in France); N. Tec, When
Light Pierced the Darkness (rescuers in Poland); M. Gies, Anne Frank
(by the woman who organized help for the Frank family); S. and P. Oliner, The
Altruistic Personality (social and pyschological characteristics of
rescuers); Eva Fogelman, Conscience and Courage (another study of rescuers’ psychological
characteristics); Y. Gutman and S. Krakowski, Unequal Victims: Poles and
Jews during WWII (emphasizes Polish antisemitism); J. Gross, Neighbors
(Polish historian’s account of Polish role in killing of Jews)
Role of Non-German
Governments and communities: M. Marrus and R. Paxton, Vichy France and the Jews;
B. Wasserstein, Britain and the Jews of Europe; M. Phayer, The
Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930-1965 (role of the Catholic Church); J. Morley, Vatican
Diplomacy and the Jews; D. Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews (U.S.
government policy); I. Abella and H. Troper, None is Too Many (Canada);
D. Porat, The Blue and the Yellow Stars of David (Jewish community in
Palestine); Y. Bauer, American Jewry and the Holocaust (American Jews’
efforts at rescue)
Survivors' Memoirs: O. Lengyel, Five Chimneys; P. Levi, Survival
in Auschwitz; A. Donat, The Holocaust Kingdom; there are hundreds
more in English.
Women, Gender and the
Holocaust:
N. Tec, Resilience and Courage (the most wideranging study); C. Rittner
and J. Roth, eds., Different Voices (selections from memoirs and
scholarship); Marlene Heineman, Gender and Destiny: Women Writers and the
Holocaust (study of memoir literature); Ofer and Weitzman, Women in the
Holocaust (collection of recent scholarship)
Memory and the Holocaust: L. Langer, Holocaust
Testimonies (analysis of survivors’ testimony); J. Young, The Texture of
Memory (issues in designing Holocaust memorials); E. Linenthal, Preserving
Memory (how the U.S. Holocaust Museum came to be); S. Friedlander, When
Memory Comes (memoir centered on problem of memory); P. Novick, The
Holocaust in American Life (how Americans have understood the Holocaust);
J. Herf, Divided Memory (memory of the Holocaust in post-war Germany);
Eva Hoffman, After Such Knowledge (thoughtful essay on Jewish Holocaust
memory); Art Spiegelman, Maus (Holocaust memory in comic-book medium)
Holocaust negationism: D. Lipstadt, Denying the Holocaust
(basic account, centered on US); R. Evans, Lying About Hitler (account
of the David Irving trial)
Fiction Related to the
Holocaust:
J. Hersey, The Wall; A. Schwarz-Bart, Last of the Just; J.
Becker, Jacob the Liar; J. Kosinski, The Painted Bird; there are
hundreds of other titles
Comparative Genocide
Studies: E. Weitz, A Century of Genocide; S.
Power, A Problem from Hell:
Philosophical and
Theological Reflections: Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Holocaust Theology: A Reader (collection of essays); R. Rubenstein, After
Auschwitz; E. Fackenheim, God’s Presence in History (two Jewish
perspectives); F. Littell and H. Locke, The German Church Stuggle and the
Holocaust (German churche’ reactions, and reflections on them); Millen, New
Perspectives on the Holocaust (includes a number of articles on approaches
to teaching the Holocaust)
Course
Policies
1. Late Work: Late papers are not accepted unless students
requesting them can produce documented evidence of illness, accident or
other cause beyond their control accounting for absence. Students who will miss an assignment because
of a scheduled university activity must make arrangements to make up the work before
the scheduled due date.
2. Plagiarism: Plagiarism is
defined in the UK Student Handbook.
Students submitting work which is not their own will receive an 'E' for
that assignment and will not be allowed to make it up.
3. Star Wars Technology: Recording
devices are not permitted during lectures and discussions, except for students
who have a valid physical reason for needing them (e.g., inability to take written
notes). Students wearing earphones
during class will be asked to go be bored somewhere else. Cell phones, PDAs,
beeping alarm watches must be turned off during class.
4. Written Assignments: Written assignments must be typed or done on
a word-processor. If you work on a
computer, be sure to keep a copy of your assignments until they have been
returned with a grade.
HISTORY
323: THE HOLOCAUST Summer Session II, 2005 PROF. J. POPKIN
Calendar and Check Sheet for
Graded Assignments
What’s the Deal?
Each student in this
course needs to complete a total of five short essays (4-6 pp.,
double-spaced, typed) before the end of the semester. Four of these will be “response essays,”
based on questions related to the assigned readings. One will be a review of a book or media
creation (film, play, memorial, museum) of your choice related to the course
theme
What’s the Schedule?
13 June.: turn in first essay (either
response essay or book review/media essay)
20 June: turn in second essay and term
project proposal
27 June.: turn in third essay (either
response essay or book review/media essay)
5 July.: turn in fourth essay (either
response essay or book review/media essay) and term-project progress report
7 July: last day to turn in film/media
review essay (may be turned in earlier)