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 Europe's Jews and of several other minority groups during the Second World War.  Readings, discussion, and audio-visual materials will cover topics including the history of anti-semitism and racialist theory, the ways in which Nazi policy against the Jews and other victims was implemented, the various Jewish reactions to Nazi policy, including Jewish resistance, and the response of non-Jews and of other governments to the Holocaust.

 

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 Readings (to be purchased by all students)

D. Bergen, War and Genocide,   ISBN 0-847-696

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 Reading Assignments

 

9 June.: Introduction to the course; slide lecture on the Jews of Europe

 

*13 June:  A Holocaust survivor’s story.  Readings: Blatt, whole book. First essay due (click here for topic)

14 June.: (a) Backgrounds to the Holocaust.  Readings:  Bergen, 1-28; handout on Christian teachings about Jews; Niewyk, 9-24; Dawidowicz, 28-30. (b) Hitler’s antisemitism.  Readings: Bergen 29-40, handout on Hitler’s antisemitism, Dawidowicz 30-3, Niewyk 24-39.

15 June.: Hitler’s rise to power and the fate of the German Jews, 1933-38.  Readings:  Bergen, 40-100; Dawidowicz, 33-54; Dawidowicz, 143-70.

16 June: Rising violence, Hitler’s first conquests and the creation of the Polish ghettos.  Readings:  Bergen, 101-29; Niewyk, 39-55, Dawidowicz, 55-83 and 171-97, Tec, 1-37

.

*20 June.: The fate of Polish Jewry.  Readings:  Bergen, 131-59, Dawidowicz, 197-234, Tec, 38-119.  Second essay due

*21 June.: The Final Solution in practice.  Readings:  Bergen, 161-204; Dawidowicz, 97-119;

22 June: The death camp experience.  Readings:  Niewyk, 105-36, Tec, 119-204, xeroxed reading.

23 June: Video screening of excerpts from Claude Lanzmann, Shoah

 

*27 June: The problem of the perpetrators.  Readings:  Browning, xv-xxii, 1-103.  Third essay due

28 June: Analyzing the perpetrators.  Readings:  Browning, 104-223, Niewyk 60-75, 91-103.

29 June: Life in the wartime ghettos.  Readings:  Dawidowicz, 235-88, Niewyk, 163-76, Tec, 205-55

30 June: Debates about Jewish resistance.  Readings:  Dawidowicz, 289-328; Niewyk, 139-63

 

4 July:  University holiday, no class meeting

*5 July: The Warsaw ghetto uprising.  Readings:  Dawidowicz 120-30, 329-80; Tec, 256-339; Niewyk, 179-206  Fourth essay due

6 July: (a) The Holocaust in western Europe.  Readings:  Niewyk, 207-231.  (b) The final period of the Holocaust and the possibilities of rescue.  Readings:  Bergen, 205-19; Niewyk, 233-74.

*7 July: Conclusion. Readings: Tec, 340-54, Bergen, 221-8, Dawidowicz, 130-40

            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 9 am on the day the assignment is to be discussed; comments sent in later will not receive credit.  Questions and comments from these emails will be the basis for some of our in-class discussion.

 

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 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (www.ushmm.org).  This site contains both source materials, such as a large collection of photographs, and resource guides, including a valuable guide to other Holocaust-related Web sites.  Be aware that a significant number of Holocaust-related Web sites are in fact set up by neo-Nazi organizations trying to encourage Holocaust denial.  Refutations of neo-Nazi claims can be found at www.nizkor.org.

 

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: America and the Age of Genocide; R. Gellately, ed., The Specter of Genocide.

 

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

 

Whats 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)