The Holocaust in History & Culture

Catalog description

The Holocaust in History and Culture will examine the Holocaust as one of the most massive violations of justice in European history. It will look at the way that Jews, as well as gay men, disabled individuals, and Sinto and Roma, were systematically excluded from civic and political life in Germany and elsewhere. Historical analysis of the Holocaust will examine how and why it came about, placing it within the frameworks of modern German history, European anti-semitism, and the Second World War. The course will cover the history of the National Socialist party and ideology of Adolf Hitler. We will trace the rapid radicalization and intensifying violence of Nazi policies against Jews during the first two years of the war. We will discuss how historians' explanations of the Holocaust have been shaped by the mountain of new evidence that has been discovered since 1945. Cultural analysis will examine the ever-evolving place of the Holocaust within German, Jewish, and Eastern European postwar cultures, and it will consider the ways that writers, filmmakers, and other cultural producers have understood the challenges posed by the Holocaust in the context of their own time and cultural milieu.