Seeking Justice After the Holocaust

Catalog description

This course will examine the ways in which individuals and societies in Europe, America, and Israel struggled with and sought justice for the victims of the Nazi crimes after the Second World War. Topics will include the Nuremberg trials in postwar Germany, the Eichmann trial in Israel, and similarities and differences between the Holocaust and other experiences of intolerance. As such, we will define genocide and apartheid and understand how these terms relate to the Holocaust, other historical events, and current discourse. Through the course, we will observe the changes in the attitudes of societies toward the Holocaust over the years; including Germany as the society that has grappled with its Nazi past. We will thus deal with the Nuremberg Trials and its perception, later trials up to the Demjanjuk Trial after the turn of the millennium. Questions surrounding compensation and restitution will also be examined. Finally, we will examine different educational approaches regarding lessons to be learned from the Holocaust, confronting Holocaust denial, and growing antisemitism.