The Holocaust: The Third Reich and The Jews

Catalog description

The Holocaust is perhaps the defining event of the twentieth century. The destruction of European Jewry challenges assumptions about progress and modernity and raises fundamental questions about human behavior. This class will provide an analysis of the encounter between the Third Reich and the Jews, discussing the persecution and murder of European Jews from the vantage point of Germans, Jews, collaborators, and bystanders. We will investigate the ideological roots of the decision to implement the Final Solution, discuss the nature of the Third Reich and the development of Nazi policies, and address Jewish responses to these policies. Finally, we will evaluate some of the problems and controversies that characterize scholarship on the Holocaust.