GERMANY AND THE HOLOCAUST AFTER 1945

Catalog description

This course delves into the complex relationship of postwar Germans with the history and legacy of the Holocaust. We will examine the ways in which both Communist East and Democratic West Germany dealt with this past. Topics will include judicial measures against war criminals, reparations and restitution, political reforms, memorials, commemorations, cultural treatments and controversies. German-Jewish and German-Israeli relations will also be discussed. Interwoven with the main topics will be questions of turning points, as well as the dynamics of generational and political fault lines in German Vergangenheitsaufarbeitung (working through the past).