HIST 420: The Holocaust

Spring Semester 2005	Office: 230 Brown Hall
Dr. Christopher Blackburn, Instructor	Hours: 11-12 (TTh)
Office Phone: 342-1538	(or by appointment)
E-mail: blackburn@ulm.edu	Web page: http://www.ulm.edu/~blackburn

Scope of the Course:

This course will confront the background, events, and consequences of the extermination of European Jews during World War II. Students will be introduced to traditions of European racism and anti-Semitism, as well as the cultural, political, diplomatic, and social conditions in Germany and elsewhere that helped to make the Holocaust possible. We will then turn to a study of the rise of National Socialism, its vision for a new Europe, and the role of anti-Semitism in Nazi ideology and practice, culminating in an analysis of both the politics and the machinery of genocide. Finally, we will address issues of resistance, aid to the victims and, ultimately, the ways in which our culture and others remember, commemorate, or even forget the Holocaust.

Textbooks:

Tadeusz Borowski, This Way For the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang Wippermann, The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945.

Art Spiegelman, Maus: A Survivor’s Tale II (And Here My Troubles Began).

Elie Wiesel, Night.

Course Requirements/Grade Composition:

25% Mid-Term Exam

30% Final Exam

30% Review Essay of Borowski, Spiegelman, and Wiesel

15% Reading Notes (Journal)

Lectures and Readings:

This course will combine lectures, discussions of assigned readings, films and presentations from outside speakers. You are expected to have completed the assigned readings before the relevant material is covered in class. This will make the lectures clearer to you and enable you to contribute and discuss more coherently and effectively.

Assignments, Examinations & Grading:

I. Grades for the semester will be based on a journal, writing assignments, and examinations.

II. There will be one exam at about mid-semester and a partially comprehensive examination during the final exam period. Both exams will be essay and identification in nature, and will constitute 55% of your final grade for the semester. Anyone who misses a scheduled exam may take a make-up if a valid excuse is presented within one (1) week of returning to class (all excuses will be verified). All make-ups will be administered on the afternoon of last day of class.

III. All students will write an extended review essay (the essay will cover Borowski, Spiegelman, and Wiesel), and will be worth 30% of your final grade. Essays must be typed and double-spaced in a standard font (12 cpi), with a 1-inch margin on all sides. Be careful of misspellings and bad grammar! Reviews should be approximately 10 typed pages in length. All review essays are due on the dates indicated on the syllabus. Extensions will be given only under circumstances so extraordinary that you could not possibly imagine them. A penalty of ten (10) points will be assessed for each day (or part thereof) that a paper is late.

IV. For those students taking the course for graduate credit, an annotated web bibliography of Holocaust resources will be required. You must complete this assignment to receive a grade for the course, as it will be graded on a Pass/Fail basis. Otherwise, the performance of graduate students will be measured according to standards appropriate to graduate study, that is, at a higher level.

V. Letter grades are based on a ten-point scale (i.e., 90-99=A).

Attendance:

Attendance will be taken on a daily basis. Although it will be difficult to perform well without regular attendance, no penalty as such will be factored into the final grade for poor attendance. Attendance will, however, be considered as a determining factor in the case of borderline grades.

Schedule of Lectures, Readings, and Assignments

January 18-20	How & Why Should We Study the Holocaust?
January 25	Some Aspects of Jewish History Reading: The Development of Modern Anti-Semitism (on-line).
January 27- February 1	The Emergence of Modern Anti-Semitism Reading: Burleigh, chapters 1-3.
February 3	The Collapse of Democracy & the Rise of National Socialist Germany Reading: Program of the National Socialist German Workers' Party & Selections from: Julius Streicher (on-line).
February 8	Mardi Gras Holiday!!!
February 10	The Rise of National Socialist Germany (continued)
February 15-22	Nazi Purification Policy, 1933-1939 Reading: Burleigh, chapters 4-6; Kristallnacht Order (on-line). Film: The Architecture of Doom (2/17-2/22)
February 24	The Völkisch State Reading: Burleigh, chapters 7-9.
March 1-3	Poles and Jews Before the War
March 10	Mid-Term Exam (25%)
March 15	The German Invasion and Occupation of Poland Reading: Address by Adolf Hitler - September 1, 1939 (on-line).
March 17-22	Jews and Gentiles in Occupied Poland Reading: Govenor General Hans Frank’s Speech from Krakow, 1941, Emanuel Ringelblum's Description of Warsaw Ghetto and Shtetl Transcript (on-line).
March 24	Einsatzgruppen, T-4 and the Wannsee Conference Reading: The Wannsee Protocol & The Jager Report (on-line).
March 29-31	Spring Break Holidays!!!
April 5-7	Deportation for the Final Solution Film: Shoah (4/7)
April 12-19	Auschwitz and Majdanek as Case Studies Reading: Night and Fog Decree (on-line). Film: Night and Fog (4/14) Review Essay Due (4/19): Maus II, Night, This Way for the Gas… (30%)
April 21	Perpetrators, Victims, and Bystanders
April 26-28	Resistance and Rescue Film: Schindler’s List (4/21-4/26)
May 3-5	History, Memory, and the Holocaust Reading: Jan Blonski’s “The Poor Poles Look at the Ghetto” & The Jedwabne Debate (on-line). Reading Journal Due (5/5): (15%) Graduate Bibliography Due
Dec. 9	Final Examination (30%): 3:00-4:50