The Holocaust: An Outline and Topics to Teach

The Holocaust in Global Perspective, 2020

This syllabus adopts a historical perspective “Taking historical perspective means understanding the social, cultural, intellectual, and emotional settings that shaped people’s lives and actions in the past. ... Indeed, taking historical perspective demands comprehension of the vast differences between us in the present and those in the past. We do not want to impose our own anachronistic standards on the past. http:// historicalthinking.ca/historical-perspectives This syllabus adopts a global perspective, that best advances our understanding of the complex history of the Holocaust. This syllabus also follows the historical methodology and “History’s Habits of the mind” - "To show the past as it really was.”

This book is a collection of seventeen scholarly articles which analyze Holocaust testimonies, photographs, documents, literature and films, as well as teaching methods in Holocaust education. Most of these essays were originally presented as papers at the Millersville University Conferences on the Holocaust and Genocide from 2010 to 2012. In their articles, the contributors discuss the Holocaust in concentration camps and ghettos, as well as the Nazis’ methods of exterminating Jews. The authors analyze the reliability of photographic evidence and eyewitness testimonies about the Holocaust. The essays also describe the psychological impact of the Holocaust on survivors, witnesses and perpetrators, and upon Jewish identity in general after the Second World War. The scholars explore the problems of the memorialization of the Holocaust in the Soviet Union and the description of the Holocaust in Russian literature. Several essays are devoted to the representation of the Holocaust in film, and trace the evolution of its depiction from the early Holocaust movies of the late 1940s – early 1950s to modern Holocaust fantasy films. They also show the influence of Holocaust cinema on feature films about the Armenian Genocide. Lastly, several authors propose innovative methods of teaching the Holocaust to college students. The younger generation of students may see the Holocaust as an event of the distant past, so new teaching methods are needed to explain its significance. This collection of essays, based on new multi-disciplinary research and innovative methods of teaching, opens many unknown aspects and provides new perspectives on the Holocaust

2019

On May 2, 2019 all of Israel came to a standstill as sirens blared for two minutes throughout the country with no other noise. Vehicles remained parked as traffic lights turned and the people on the street could be seen unmoving, some staring off into the distance and some even crying with no words being spoken. This moment shows how the past is still remembered and while long gone, is still painful as it is meant to represent the six million Jewish people who lost their lives during the Holocaust. In this paper, I am going to go into detail about one of the largest recorded genocides known to man, the Holocaust. I will explain the rationale behind the laws and policies that allowed the persecution of millions, discuss the experiences of those involved from multiple points and examine the significance of the Holocaust as it pertains to then and now. While some parts of this paper may be distressing and disturbing at times to read, they are things that should be studied and remembered. By scrutinizing the principles behind Nazi actions, listening to the experiences of those who survived and understanding the meaningfulness of the Holocaust on today's world we can then construe why we must take steps to never repeat these atrocities and if there are those who do commit them, why we should stop them.

If we accept Theodor Adorno's assertion that 'the premier demand upon all education is that Auschwitz not happen again,' 1then we will be bound to agree with Tony Judt's statement: that 'the history of Europe's brutal past must not simply be memorialized, but be taught again " afresh with each passing generation. " 2 Our teaching needs to reflect that each new generation looks at previous events from a different point of view, and that our own biases affect .how we understand and teach. The resources vital for the transmission of a refreshed understanding of the history of the Holocaust will incorporate appropriate new scholarship and interpretations. A recent shift in perspective of understanding nineteenth and early twentieth century German history comes from the expansion of our vision from both the national and European context to a global one, bearing in mind that in addition to her ambition for major expansion into Europe3, 'by 1890 Germany had a fully fledged overseas empire,' 4which they administered with a harshness notable even in the context of the behavior of other colonial powers of that time, such as the Belgians in the Congo. The genocidal mentality fostered by Prussian understanding of war as the complete destruction of enemy forces helped lead the Germans to respond to unrest and insurrection in Tanganyika during the Maji-Maji uprising with a ruthlessness that led to the death of 200,000. In Namibia, their treatment of the Herero and Nama peoples was even worse, meeting out death by expulsion, starvation and disease; and administering the colony under an apartheid system that forbade racial mixing, and

Office Hours: Tuesday, Thursday 1-2 p.m., and by appointment Course Introduction: Between 1939 and 1945, the Third Reich orchestrated the mass murder of nearly twelve million men, women, and children in Europe and the western expanses of the Soviet Union. This course will explore the history and memory of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. It will engage closely with historiographical debates that scrutinize the rise of Adolf Hitler, the evolution of his genocidal program, and the legacy of National Socialism in the world today. Questions that we will consider include: how did the National Socialist German Workers Party turn economic crisis, social unrest, and political gridlock into the largest murder campaign in history? What drove perpetrators to participate in acts of genocide? How do we comprehend notions of guilt and responsibility, and where do we see departures from customary answers to these queries? Course Significance: Nazism and its legacy continue to cast a menacing shadow around the globe. The growing popularity of alt-right ideologies and white nationalist groups, notably in Europe, Russia, and the United States, represent central threats to the foundational tenets of liberal democracy. I have no presumption that this course alone will prevent another " final solution " to a so-called " undesirable problem. " But I firmly believe that people in the twenty-first century must continue to learn about the history of the Holocaust in order to identify the conditions that helped make it possible. Democracy is a fragile thing, society an unstable construction, each threatening to spin wildly out of control. We can no longer comfort ourselves in a false logic that regards primordial racism as the exclusive property of Adolf Hitler and the distant past. Racism endures today in many forms and guises. Individuals who mask their nativist fantasies in subtle euphemisms, pejorative generalizations, and catch-all promises are particularly dangerous. History cautions us to be wary of such people. What comes next can be very frightening, even worse than imaginable. Objectives and Outcomes: This course will provide students an opportunity to engage critically with the history of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. Students have five primary tasks: 1) demonstrate analytical and critical thinking in group discussions; 2) incorporate primary and secondary sources in written assignments; 3) engage with relevant course themes, discussions, and readings; 4) sharpen reading, writing, and research skills; and 5) assess the importance of the history of the Holocaust—including the lived experiences of perpetrators, victims, and bystanders, and the diverse historical analyses about its origins, implementation, and legacy.

Holocaust Studies, 2005

KULT_online. Review Journal for the Study of Culture , 2020

This excellent book on Holocaust Memory and Racism challenges the widespread assumption that learning about the Holocaust automatically makes us better people. In fifteen contributions, the authors assembled in this volume look at various national case studies that demonstrate how, from the early postwar period up until today, it has been all too common to strongly oppose Nazism and its racist policies but at the same time keep racism as an unquestioned organizing principle of one's own society. To approach the universalization of the Holocaust that turned it into the ultimate "symbol of racism and injustice" (p.5) the publication focusses on societies that have not directly been affected by Nazism. Thereby the different chapters discuss issues of prevailing racism as well as anti-racist engagements and take into consideration the value of empathetic connections between victims of the Nazis and victims of Colonialism. A highly recommended read.