HIST 223 - The History of the Holocaust

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

(Same as JWST 223) This course examines one of the most formative and cataclysmic events of the modern era: the Holocaust. By positioning the subjective experiences and actions of perpetrators, victims, bystanders, and outside observers as the foundation of our inquiry, we seek to answer pressing questions about its origins, evolution, and aftermath. Among other topics, we discuss: the rise of political antisemitism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, links between German colonial violence and the Holocaust, the Nazis’ instrumental use of propaganda, the transition from persecution to genocide, forms of resistance, and the place of Holocaust memory in postwar politics. The course emphasizes that although the Nazis’ persecution and mass murder of Jews and other minorities occurred in Europe between 1933 and 1945, the Holocaust was shaped by global historical processes. It also has had significant and lasting impacts on historical developments beyond the European theatre. Throughout the semester, students learn how to work with primary source materials such as survivor and perpetrator testimony, diaries, memoirs, material objects, memorials, and photographs. Anna Solovy

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS