Wesleyan University
HISTORY 376:   THE HOLOCAUST
Spring 2002             414 PAC -- ext. 2385             Mr. Morgan
E-mail:  dmorgan@wesleyan.edu                Home phone:  346-1522
Course website:  http://dmorgan.web.wesleyan.edu/holocaust/

Course Overview

This course seeks to contribute to an understanding of Nazi Germany's systematic attempt to exterminate the Jews of Europe between 1941 and 1945. The course stresses the historical study of the Holocaust: the course of events, and their origin and context. The geographical focus is on two regions of Europe: Germany, where the impetus for the extermination campaign was generated and the fateful decisions were made; and Eastern Europe, where over 90 percent of the victims lived and where most of the killing took place. We study not only the perpetrators of the Holocaust but the victims and intended victims, and also the "bystanders", those among whom the round-ups and extermination took place; and the relevant ideology, the administrative systems, and the general context of the 1930's and 1940's. The materials used include not only accounts by historians, but also historical documents, memoirs and literature written by survivors, and films.

Books

The following books have been ordered for the course through Atticus:

Documents, Literature and Memoirs

Tadeusz Borowski, This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen
Lucy S. Dawidowicz (ed.), A Holocaust Reader
Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz
Richard S. Levy (ed.), Antisemitism in the Modern World
Jiří Weil, Life with a Star

Christopher R. Browning, Ordinary Men
Jan T. Gross, Neighbors
Walter Laqueur, The Terrible Secret
Deborah Lipstadt, Denying the Holocaust
Michael Marrus, The Holocaust in History
Ezra Mendelsohn, The Jews of East Central Europe between the World Wars
Leni Yahil, The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry

Course work

The written work for the course consists of four short papers and a 20-page research paper, due at the end of the course. You are also expected to attend six of the twelve films shown on Friday afternoon. There is no final exam.

Short papers:  The dates for the four short papers are marked on the syllabus. The three two-page papers are discussion papers on the previous Friday's film; the five-page paper is on the current reading, with no additional research expected. Writing topics will be handed out in advance.  

Term paper:  The final assignment of the course is a term paper on a topic that you propose and I accept (perhaps after some negotiation).  This paper should be based on substantial research, and it requires full footnoting and bibliography.  A prospectus for the paper -- that is, a short statement of the topic with preliminary bibliography -- is due no later than Monday, April 8, so you should start thinking about interesting topics well before then -- ideally before spring break.  The paper is due at noon on Monday, May 13, the first day of exam period.

Films:  A film (on videotape) is shown nearly every Friday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. in 004 PAC. The syllabus gives the particulars of these films, and more information is available by clicking on the film's title. You are expected to attend films on at least six Fridays. Three must be those marked in the syllabus as "Required Films" -- you will write a short paper on each of these three films. Choose three other films to suit your interests or your schedule.

In-class film, Night and Fog (Alain Resnais, dir.; France, 1955; 31 mins.): The fundamental short documentary about the Nazi death camps. The script for the poetic, understated voice-over is by a camp survivor, and the score is by an émigré composer. This film's unforgettable visual images form the common vocabulary of our Holocaust imagination, and they are often quoted in other films.

The Dybbuk (Michał Waszyński, dir.; Poland, 1937; 123 mins.):  Here is a visual representation of the world of the small Jewish village or shtetl, in the form of a filmed version of a play that is probably the best-known piece of Yiddish theater. Though it's not a great film it's a good story, especially towards the end, and you will come away with images that give reality to the shtetl world that was about to be extinguished.

Michael R. Marrus, The Holocaust in History (1987), through ch. 4

Marrus, Holocaust in History, rest of the book

Triumph of the Will (Leni Riefenstahl; Germany, 1934; 110 mins.):  This depiction of the Nazi Party's 1934 Nuremberg Rally must be the most famous propaganda film of all time, admired even by people who abhor what it celebrates. It vividly conveys the image of power and purpose that attracted many Germans to Hitler and the Third Reich. Like Night and Fog, this film is quoted again and again in other films (including Night and Fog, in fact!).

Richard S. Levy (ed.), Antisemitism in the Modern World: An Anthology of Texts (1991), Introduction and documents 4-6 and 15-18

> > PAPER DUE:  2-page paper on Triumph of the Will < <

**Adolf Hitler, "Nation and Race," from his Mein Kampf, vol. I (1925)

**Sebastian Haffner, "Life," from his The Meaning of Hitler (1979)

**Eberhard Jäckel, "The Elimination of the Jews," from his Hitler's Weltanschauung: A Blueprint for Power (1972)

Jud Süss (Veit Harlan, dir.; Germany, 1940; 90 mins.):  This costume drama, filmed by one of the Third Reich's most active film-makers, is a classic example of "soft-sell" Nazi anti-Semitism. It was made in accordance with Joseph Goebbels' principle that mass propaganda is more effective when presented as entertainment.  

Leni Yahil, The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry (1990), ch. 1

**Sarah Gordon, Hitler, Germans and the "Jewish Question" (1984), Introduction and chs. 1 and 2

Yahil, Holocaust, ch. 3

Lucy S. Dawidowicz (ed.), A Holocaust Reader (1976), pp. 35-49 and section 5

**"Antisemitism 1933-39" (documents with text), from J. Noakes and G. Pridham (eds.), Nazism: A History in Documents and Eyewitness Accounts, 1919-1945, vol. 1 (1983), read pp. 521-47

David (Peter Lilienthal, dir.; Germany, 1979; 111 mins.):  The German-Jewish director, who emigrated as a child in the 1930's but returned to live in Germany after the war, gently celebrates the Jewish family world whose dissolution it follows through the vicissitudes of an adolescent. The film is unsentimental, small-scale, and surprisingly upbeat.

Yahil, Holocaust, ch. 4

Dawidowicz, Holocaust Reader, pp. 49-53

**"Antisemitism 1933-39" (from Noakes and Pridham), read pp. 547-67

Ezra Mendelsohn, The Jews of East Central Europe between the World Wars (1983), Introduction and ch. 1

The Eternal Jew (Fritz Hippler, dir.; Germany, 1940; 68 mins.):  The Third Reich's Propaganda Ministry issued this "documentary" to influence public opinion as the Jews were herded into ghettos. It is a skillful compendium of Nazi images of the Jews: as Asiatic aliens in our midst, as unproductive parasites, as systematic corrupters of Aryan culture, and so on. Be warned: by design, this is a very unpleasant film. The voice-over is in German without subtitles.

Mendelsohn, Jews of East Central Europe, chs. 2 and 3

Yahil, Holocaust, chs. 5 - 6

**"The Persecution of the Jews 1939-1941", from Noakes and Pridham (eds.), Nazism, vol. 2 (1988), ch. 37

Łódż Ghetto (Alan Adelson, prod.; USA, 1989; 118 mins.):  One of the most effective Holocaust documentaries, this American-made film focuses on life in the longest-lasting of the big-city ghettos that the Nazis set up in Poland, dissolved only in August 1944. Most of what we see is photographs and films made at that time, and all of what we hear is in words recorded by inhabitants of the ghetto.

Yahil, Holocaust, chs. 7 - 8

Dawidowicz, Holocaust Reader, section 6

> > PAPER DUE:  5-page paper on an assigned topic < <

Tadeusz Borowski, This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen (1947), Introduction and the first four stories (through "Auschwitz, Our Home")

Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz (1947), the whole book

Yahil, Holocaust, sections 9 - 11 and 13 - 14

The Shop on Main Street (Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos, dirs.; Czechoslovakia, 1964; 128 mins.):  This funny, tragic film shows us a provincial Slovak town under the clerical-fascist puppet regime that ruled during World War II. This is a classic story about the role of casual anti-Semitism and indifference in facilitating the Holocaust, with stunning performances by Jozef Króner and Ida Kaminská. It won an Academy Award.

Jan T. Gross, Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland (2001), the whole book

**Ian Kershaw, "Hitler: 'Master in the Third Reich' or 'Weak Dictator'" and "Hitler and the Holocaust", from his The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, 4th ed. (2000)

**"The Transition to the Systematic Extermination of the Jews 1941-1942," from Noakes and Pridham (eds.), Nazism, vol. 2, ch. 38

The Wannsee Conference (Heinz Schirk, dir.; Germany, 1984; 87 mins.):  An eerie, matter-of-fact dramatic reconstruction (in German, with subtitles) of the famous meeting of January 20, 1942, in Berlin where the modalities of the intended annihilation of the European Jews were worked out among the government departments that would be involved.

Jiří Weil, Life with a Star (1947), the whole book

Yahil, Holocaust, sections 15 - 16

Transport from Paradise (Zbyněk Brynych, dir.; Czechoslovakia, 1963; 93 mins.):  The "paradise" of the title is the ghetto-style camp at Theresienstadt (Terezin) in northern Bohemia, which the Nazis cleaned up and put on display to the Red Cross to prove how well they were treating the Jews.  However, the camp also served as a transit camp on the way to Auschwitz. The director brings lyrical and surreal touches to his harsh material, which comes from short stories by Terezin survivor Arnošt Lustig (some of which we read later in the course).

Christopher R. Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (1992), Preface and chs. 1 - 9

Browning, Ordinary Men, read at least chs. 15 -18, esp. ch. 18

**Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust (1996), ch. 8

Shoah (Claude Lanzmann, dir.; France, 1985; 9½ hours, but only the first part [about 3 hrs.] is shown):  This meditative documentary uses no historical footage, though the camera visits the sites of the death camps as they are today. It features quiet but probing interviews not only with survivors but with bystanders, with the marginally involved, and (using a secret camera) with a few perpetrators. This is surely the most effective long film on the Holocaust, as Night and Fog is the finest short one.

Yahil, Holocaust, sections 17 and 18 (17 is actually by Israel Gutmann)

**Arnošt Lustig, "The Second Round," "The Old Ones and Death," and "The Last Day of the Fire," from Diamonds of the Night (1958)

Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg, dir.; USA, 1993; 195 mins.):  Like its source, Thomas Keneally’s fact-based novel, Spielberg's film honors and tries to understand the shady German businessman Oskar Schindler, who responded to the Nazi extermination campaign by risking his wealth and his life to protect his Jewish workers in Cracow.

Walter Laqueur, The Terrible Secret: Suppression of the Truth about Hitler's Final Solution (1980), Introduction and chs. 1 - 3

Laqueur, Terrible Secret, chs. 4 - 6 and Conclusion 

The Garden of the Finzi Continis (Vittorio de Sica, dir.; Italy, 1971; 96 mins.):  This delicately crafted story shows us privileged Jewish families in Fascist Italy who only gradually have to face the implications of their country's alliance with Hitler. The tone -- elegiac -- is unusual, and the national and social milieu is different from the other Holocaust films we see in this course. 

Deborah Lipstadt, Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory (1993), chs. 1 - 3 and 7 - 8

In-class film, Night and Fog (Alain Resnais, dir.; France, 1955; 31 mins.)

Term paper due Monday, May 13, at noon