HISTORY 323: THE HOLOCAUST
Spring
2005
Tu Th 2-3:15 pm Professor
Jeremy Popkin
301 Dickey Hall Dept.
of History
1725 POT Tel.: 257-1415
Email: popkin@uky.edu Off. hrs. Tu 3:30-5 pm, W 3:30-4:30 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.
B. Required
Primo Levi, Survival
in
Sebastian Haffner, Defying
Hitler. Picador. ISBN 03-312-421-133
Marion Kaplan, Between
Dignity and Despair
Christopher Browning, Ordinary
Men. HarperPerennial, ISBN 0394-710-355
Lucy Dawidowicz, Holocaust
Reader Behrman House, ISBN
0-874412366
Bernhard Schlink, The
Reader Vintage, ISBN 0-375-707-972
Donald Niewyk, The
Holocaust, 3rd. ed. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0618-214-623
Gerda Weissman Klein, All
But My Life. Hill and Wang, ISBN
0-8090-1580-3
C. Written Assignments: (1) Four
essay papers based on assigned readings (4-6 pp double-spaced, typed); (2)
short ungraded assignments based on readings (counted as part of
class-participation grade); (3) an individual or joint project related to the
course. Such projects may take the form
of a longer research paper on a subject of special interest, preparation of a
dramatic presentation, a presentation for a public audience (church or
synagogue, Sunday school, public school, general audience), or an original
creative work inspired by the subject.
Course participants are encouraged to propose joint projects, in which
two or more class members work together.
D. Grading: Participation in class meetings and
discussion, 35%, essay papers 40%, project 25%.
There are no mid-term or final exams in this course.
Schedule of Topics and
13 Jan.: Introduction to the course
18 Jan.: A Survivor’s Testimony: Levi, Survival
in
20
Jan.: Christian and economic origins of antisemitism: handout, Niewyk, 9-24;
Dawidowicz, 28-30
25 Jan.: Hitler and the
27
Jan.: Hitler Comes to Power: handout, Haffner, 94-193
1 Feb.: Adjusting to Nazism: Haffner,
194-309
*3
Feb.: Fate of the German Jews: Kaplan,
3-49; Dawidowicz, 35-54
Term
Project Proposals due
8
Feb.: Public and Private Responses of the German Jewish community: Kaplan,
50-118; Dawidowicz, 143-70
*10 Feb.:
Kristallnacht and Wartime:
Kaplan, 119-172
15 Feb.: Moving Toward Genocide: Niewyk, 39-55, Kaplan, 173-237
17 Feb.: Jewish life in prewar eastern
Europe (handout and lecture)
22 Feb.: The Occupation of
24 Feb.: The East European Ghettoes: Dawidowicz,
171-234
1
Mar.: The Killing Campaign in
*3 Mar.: The Death Camps: Dawidowicz, 97-119; review Primo Levi
2nd
essay due
8 Mar.: Interpreting the Death Camp
experience: Niewyk, 105-38; “Night and Fog”
10 Mar.: Recruiting Killers: Browning, 1-70
15 Mar.: Spring Break, no class
17 Mar.: Spring Break, no class
22 Mar.: The Perpetrators: Browning,
71-142, Niewyk, 57-76, 91-104; Dawidowicz, 130-40
*24 Mar.:
Judging the Perpetrators: Browning, 143-223
3rd essay assignment due
29 Mar.:
Jewish communities and Jewish Councils: Dawidowicz, 235-88; Niewyk,
163-176
31 Mar.: A Survivor’s Story: Klein,
93-210
*5Apr:.
Jewish Responses to Annihilation: Dawidowicz, 289-328; Niewyk, 139-163
progress report on term
project due
7 Apr.: Resistance: Dawidowicz, 120-30, 329-80
12 Apr.: Jews and Gentiles: Niewyk
179-207
*14 Apr.: Testimony on film: Lanzmann’s Shoah
(excerpts)
4th essay
assignment due
19 Apr..: The Holocaust in
21 Apr.:
The Rescue Debate: Niewyk, 233-274
26Apr.: Facing the memory of the
Holocaust (Schlink, The Reader, all)
28 Apr.: Concluding discussion
Term projects due by
Fri., Apr. 29.
THERE IS NO FINAL EXAM FOR THIS COURSE
COURSE
ASSIGNMENTS
Comment Cards Come to each class with
a filled-out 4" x 6" “comment card”.
In addition to your name and the date, write down on the card (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 on one side of
card, and write legibly. We may use
cards as bases for discussion.
Completion of comment cards will be counted as part of your
participation grade for the course.
Graded Written
Assignments
Each student will write 4 short (4-6pp, double-spaced typed) papers during the
semester. Of these, three will be
response essays on 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.
(a) Response essays: there will be 4
opportunities for response essays during the semester. You may choose to do any 3 of the assignments
based on the assigned readings. You
substitute your book/media review essay for the one of the 4 assignments based
on the assigned readings that you do not do. All four of your essays must be completed by
the due date of the last essay based on the assigned readings.
(b) Book review/media essay: you may
review any of the books listed in the accompanying bibliography, or any other
book that I have approved. Your review should explain the content of the book,
the author’s main thesis or point of view, how effectively that thesis or
viewpoint is supported, and what the book contributes to our knowledge of the
Holocaust. If 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.
TERM
PROJECT
Each student will be
required to complete a term project, which may be either individual or
collective. The following list of
suggestions is not intended to limit your imagination, but to give you some
ideas; you are strongly encouraged to work out your own project (in
consultation with the instructor, of course!).
I. Types of projects
A. Research paper: you may propose a research paper on some
aspect of the Holocaust about which you would like to learn more. The project would culminate in a paper of
12--15 pp, with bibliography and
notes. A collective project would be
expected to be somewhat longer (exact length subject to agreement between
authors and instructor). Suitable topics
might include: the history of antisemitism in Germany, the role of the German
army in the Holocaust, German doctors and the Holocaust, the SS and the
Holocaust, the Warsaw ghetto, Jewish resistance, how the news of the Holocaust
reached the outside world, the experience of Jews in one particular part of
Europe, the motivations of people who helped rescue Jews, comparison of the
fate of the Jews with that of other groups persecuted by the Nazis, the debate
about American policy during the Holocaust, etc. Students doing a research paper will agree
with instructor on a schedule for completing bibliography, submitting rough
draft, etc.
B. Performance
project: you may propose a project to
express something about the Holocaust through any creative medium (poetry,
drama, fiction, artwork, etc.). The
nature and extent of the project and the standards of evaluation will be agreed
upon with the instructor. It would be
expected that your commitment of time would be approximately equal to what
would be expected if you did a research paper.
The purpose would be to express some significant insight about the
course material and/or your reaction to it through art.
C. Communication
project: you may propose a project
aiming at communicating knowledge about some aspect of the Holocaust to
others. The object would be to create an
effective presentation or informational resource, such as a teaching
guide. Presentations do not necessarily
have to be delivered to an audience, although this would certainly be a
worthwhile objective and many students in this course have done so in the
past. Projects could include a
presentation intended for a school or Sunday-school audience, general public,
church group, professional audience (e.g., presentation intended for teachers,
psychological counselors, etc.) or any other group you may define, and means of
presentation could include lecture, preparation of discussion materials,
audio-visual materials, preparation of exhibit, etc. Evaluation would include judgment of
effectiveness of materials and presentation, and appropriateness for intended
audience (e.g., what would be appropriate for middle-school age children, or
for senior citizens?).
Bibliography
Almost any project you
will undertake will involve some further reading. The following suggestions are not a complete
bibliography of the subject, but may give you some ideas about where to start.
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.
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); 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; 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)
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
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 and turned in as ‘hard copy,’
not sent as email attachments. 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 S2005 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 four short essays (4-6 pp.,
double-spaced, typed) before the end of the semester. Three 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. Details about these assignments
are in the syllabus (see p. 4 and p. 10, “Guidelines”) In addition, each student in History 323 must
complete a term project.
What’s the Schedule?
3 Feb.: turn in term-project prospectus
10 Feb.: turn in first essay (either
response essay or book review/media essay)
3 Mar.: turn in second essay (either
response essay or book review/media essay)
24 Mar.: turn in third essay (either
response essay or book review/media essay)
5 Apr.: turn in term-project progress report
14 Apr.: turn in fourth essay (either
response essay or book review/media essay)
29 Apr.: deadline for completion of term
projects (may be turned in earlier)
Checklist (for your records)
Response Essay turned in:
_____________________________
Response Essay turned in:
_____________________________
Response Essay turned in:
_______________________________
Book Review/Media Essay turned in:
________________________________
Project Proposal turned in:
_____________________________
Term Project completed:
_______________________________
Guidelines for book
review and media essays
If reviewing a book:
Explain the content of the book, the author’s main thesis or point of view, how
effectively that thesis or viewpoint is supported, and what the book
contributes to our knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust. Is it well written? What sorts of readers would you recommend it
to? If appropriate, you may want to
compare the book with others you have read on the subject, including the
assigned readings for the course. If you
are reviewing a work of fiction, explain how the plot reflects the author’s
understanding or point of view on the subject.
Book reviews should include a bibliographic citation for the book and
source citations for quotes.
If reviewing a film or
play: explain the plot (or, for documentary, the content). What aspects of the Holocaust does the
film/play emphasize, and how does it help us understand them? Is the film/play effective as drama? What sort of audience would it be appropriate
for? You may want to compare it with
other films/plays/books on the subject that you have seen.
If reviewing a Web site:
What information does it contain? How
reliable is this information? How is the
site accessed and used? For whom would
it be useful?
If reviewing a work of
art: what message about the Holocaust does the work convey? How is this message communicated? How effective is it? What audience does it strive to reach? our essay should indicate where you found the
work of art under review, when it was done, and other relevant
information. If you use books and
articles in your research on a work of art, you should give citations for them.