This course focuses on the destruction of Jews in Europe by Nazi Germany, but the true scope of the course is much broader; exploring also the shifting historical conditions from which the Holocaust emerged. Students will explore memoirs, historical documents, poetry, documentary footage, filmic representations, novels, and other media that help to illustrate the multiplicity and variety of human experience during this important historical episode.
By the end of the course, you will have an expanded knowledge and understanding of Eastern and Western Jewish communities, the origins and development of antisemitism, the formation and operation of concentration camps, the resistance movements, and the Holocaust as a problem for world-history. Additionally, you will have engaged with the problematics of representation, memory, "the memorial", and witnessing.
This course is supported by the Neufeld-Levin Chair in Holocaust studies.