HISTORY 302 THE HOLOCAUST: PERPETRATORS, BYSTANDERS, VICTIMS SPRING 2006 MWTh 1- 4:30, Peterson 104 Linfield College, Portland

Jack Boas, Ph.D. jboas@linfield.edu

To be discussed: the aftermath of World War I and the rise of the Nazis, the historical roots of anti-Semitism, the evolution of the Final Solution and its coordination in Nazi-occupied Europe, the victims of Nazi policies, the camps, the perpetrators, bystanders, and resistance. Videos, documents, speaker(s) (if available).

 

Required Texts:

Rita Steinhardt Botwinick, A History of the Holocaust: From Ideology to Annihilation (2004, Pearson/Prentice Hall, third edition).
Donald L. Niewyk, ed., The Holocaust: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation (2003, Houghton Mifflin Company, third edition).

E. Wiesel, Night

 

Course Requirements:

Regular attendance; class participation; assignments; paper; take-home final

 

Course Outcomes

Upon completion, students will be familiar with: roots of anti-Semitism; rise of the Nazis; “twisted road to Auschwitz”; the victims of Nazi policies, the camps, the perpetrators, the bystanders, rescue and resistance; Nuremberg Trials and aftermath.

These outcomes will be assessed as follows: attendance and class participation (20); assignments (20); 5-page paper (40); take-home final (20). Class participation includes timely completion of assignments.

 

A Note On Assignments:

Assignments come under the heading Summary, Reflection, Insight. Every two weeks students summarize the most important aspects covered during that time, along with their reflections and insights (if any). Are there issues left uncovered, further questions? (5 assignments, 10 points each; 500-750 words)

 

Grading Scale:

Linfield’s grading scale applies.

 

Paper: 40% (see below)

 

Class Participation: 10%

 

Flexibility Statement: This is an organic document and may be revised as class dynamics DICTATE.

 

Rules of Discussion

The classroom should be a safe haven within which individuals should feel free to discuss the widest range of topics without fearing retribution, ridicule, or attack. In order for this to happen, we must assume that we are all persons of intelligence and good will who may ultimately disagree, sometimes to a profound degree, with one another but whose characters are not impugned or intelligence disparaged because of this disagreement. The classroom is not a forum for proselytizing, nor is it a soapbox for diatribes by either students or faculty. For the academic endeavor to succeed, we must treat each other with civility, courtesy, and respect. All perspectives and questions are welcome, as long as they are impelled by a genuine desire for knowledge, can be articulated thoughtfully, and supported by sound reasoning.

 

Cheating and Plagiarism: Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated. Any student found to be engaging in either of these activities at any point in the course will receive a failing grade for the assignment and/or the entire course and may be subject to further college sanctions. “Plagiarism is using other people’s ideas and words without clearly acknowledging the source of that information.” It is a serious breach of academic conduct and subject to penalization as the instructor sees fit.

 

Students with disabilities:

Students with documented disabilities who may need accommodations, who have any emergency medical information the instructor should know of, or who need special arrangements in the event of evacuation, should make an appointment with the instructor as early as possible, no later than the first week of the term.

 

Course Schedule

 

1: B preface, introduction, dear student

2: B 1

3: N, Introduction, Part 1

4: B 2

5, B 3, 4

6: B 5, 6

7: B 7, 8

8: B 8, 9

9: N III; NIGHT

10: N II

11: N IV, V

12: B 10, N VI

13: B Epilogue

14: Nuremberg Trials

15: wrap up

 

FILM: Shop on Main Street; Triumph of the Will; Jud Suess, and others

 

RESEARCH PAPER:

“The law of crimes against humanity and genocide--is, in a very real sense, the law of universal conscience...”[1]

 

Genocide did not disappear with the Holocaust. Genocide, and the threat of genocide, is constantly with us. Your paper will focus both on the Holocaust we are studying and on a twentieth-century or ongoing genocide. For this, your principal resource is the USHMM (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum), specifically its COMMITTEE OF CONSCIENCE (COC). www.committeeonconscience.org.

 

The Committee on Conscience is the department of the museum that works on preventing genocide and alerting the national conscience to threats of contemporary genocide. It was created as part of the President's Commission in 1979. In order to honor the past, as the President's Commission stated, a memorial to Holocaust victims had to address contemporary threats of genocide.

 

Size: 7-8 pages, double-spaced, reasonable margins, 12 pt font.

 

The ideal paper is an integrated, properly researched and documented entity, giving due weight to the Holocaust we’re studying and the genocide you have chosen to compare it with.

 

PROCESS:

 

1. To acquaint yourself with the USHMM, take a leisurely tour of its website (www.ushmm.org).

 

2. That done, go back to the homepage, scroll down to INSIDE: CONSCIENCE. This is the component you will need to work with in order to do your paper. Take your time exploring this part of the site – every part. Thoroughly explore the topic “What is genocide?” Also, note the “Analysis” section and the podcasts.

 

3. By the end of the second week, you should have picked your area of study (Darfur, Rwanda, Balkans, Chechnya, Armenia, Cambodia, etc.), which you will submit to me.

 

4. By the end of the fifth week, you’ll have summarized the basic information pertaining to your area of concentration: Who are the victims? Perpetrators? Bystanders? Who authorized the violence? What are the causes? Political, ideological, racial, religious, or some combination thereof? What was/is the international attitude? What agencies were/are available to intervene?

 

Additional elements to consider: What are the international laws, agencies, or instruments in place that could deter current and future genocides. How effective are they? (Depending on which genocide you choose, this category may not apply.)

 

5. Sources:

a. Many of your sources will be available at the USHMM website.

b. Two articles related to your subject. The article has to be analytical in nature and written by a qualified individual. Some USHMM interviews and articles have links that will take you to such desirable articles. Where subscription is needed for access, you can get it at the library for free. Ebscohost is the best place to find these articles. Ask a librarian to help you locate a suitable article if you are not familiar with Ebscohost.

c. One primary document.

d. Class texts, though they may be used, will not be counted as sources, nor will encyclopedias.

 

6. Documentation:

www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/ provides examples of documentation styles. You can use either MLA or Chicago style. The documentation has to be cited within the paper itself.

 

7. Quotations: your paper is expected to include quotations from the materials you are using.

 

 

8. Schedule: topic and bibliography: end of week 2; summary of research: end of week 5; first page: end of week 8; draft (optional): week 9; final: second to last week.

 

9. Alternative choices MUST be approved by the instructor

 

10. Documentation: MLA or Chicago style