UCSB Hist 133D, Fall 1996 Prof. Marcuse
THE HOLOCAUST IN GERMAN HISTORY HSSB 4221, 893-2635
HSSB 1174, T-Th 2:00-3:15 Office hours: Mon. 10-12
& by appt.
[10/10/05: please see my more recent Holocaust course web sites: Hist 33d, Hist 133d]

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Attendance is mandatory. Biweekly questions (see next item) indicate regular attendance.
Lectures include slides, videos, information and interpretation not available elsewhere in the course materials. Of course you must also read the books and attend the evening films.

There will NOT be a midterm examination. Instead, you will be asked to write a few sentences on a simple question about the assigned readings or films, roughly once every two weeks. These five questions will be announced in advance. They are worth 2 points each.

There will be two "reaction papers" of 1-2 pages in length. They are based on your thoughts about the required paperbacks, and they are due at the beginning of class on the set date. During class discussion I will read from randomly chosen student papers.
This course fulfills the General Education writing requirement. If you do not submit either of these papers or the term paper you will not receive credit for this course (i.e., you will fail).

The term paper (1300 words, ca. 5 pages) will be about one of the topics listed on the blue handout. The topic must be selected BEFORE OCT. 14. A first draft is due TUESDAY, NOV. 5, before class in the TA's office. The final version is due on the Monday before Thanksgiving. This paper counts as 35% of your final grade (ungraded draft: 10 pts., paper 25%).

From all students doing each term paper topic, subgroups of 2-3 students will be formed. During the final two lectures each subgroup will make a brief (3-5 minute) final presentation about a question pertaining to their topic, and entertain questions from the audience (5%).

The final exam consists of 3/5 IDs, one essay question, and one source interpretation. A study guide will be distributed in early December. This is a two-hour examination.

GRADING: questions: 10%; reaction papers: 10+10%; term paper: 35%; presentation: 5%; final: 30%.

TA: Traci Heitschmidt, HSSB 3226, tracih@humanitas.ucsb.edu; office hours: T & Th, 1-2pm.

REQUIRED COURSE BOOKS (all on 2 hour reserve at the library)

Reader with map, sources and essays, available at Alternative Copy in Isla Vista, 54pp., $3.70.

Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang Wippermann, The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945 (1991), $20/15; DD256.5.B93 1991. This is the course textbook.

Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz, $11/8; D805.P7 L4413 1993
This is the memoir of a Jewish Italian chemist who survived the Auschwitz camp. Primo Levi's writings are noted for their powerful frankness and keen perception of human behavior.

Tadeusz Borowski, This Way for the Gas Ladies and Gentlemen, $12/9; PG7158.B613 A28
This is a collection of essays by another survivor of Auschwitz, a (non-Jewish) Pole.

OPTIONAL BOOKS (one of these is required for the term paper­­see blue handout)

Alison Owings, Frauen: German Women Remember the Third Reich (1993) $17/13.

Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition (1995) $13/10.

Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (1992) $12/9.

David Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941-1945 (1984) $16/12.

Deborah Lipstadt, Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory (1993) $11/8.

DATE L# TOPIC ASSIGNMENT:

26 Sept. 1R. Introduction: Why study the Holocaust? / film "Night and Fog" (1955)

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1 Oct. 2T. Antisemitism and Adolf Hitler / intentionalism-functionalism B/W 23-73

3 Oct. 3R. Turbulent Times?: Germany 1900-1930

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8 Oct. 4T. The Nazi "Seizure" of Power / Concentration Camps, 1933-36 B/W 199-295
Reader: Wieviorka
10 Oct. 5R. Life under Fascism / historical sources Reader: Owings

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14 Oct. MON. 8-10 Traci, 10-noon Professor: deadline select a paper topic
15 Oct. 6T. "Aryan" and Jewish Women in Nazi Germany review B/W 242-66

17 Oct. 7R. Nazis and Jews, 1920-1938 / Crystal Night B/W 77-96

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22 Oct. 8T. The Racial State: "Euthanasia" and Minorities B/W 113-197
22+23 T+W 7pm: FILM "EUROPA, EUROPA," 115 mins., HSSB 1174
24 Oct. 9R. World War II: From Warsaw to Stalingrad (1939-1943) B/W 295-303

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29 Oct. 10T. From Ghettoization to Extermination / Discussion of Browning Reader: Browning
B/W 96-113
31 Oct. 11R. The Wannsee Conference, 20 January 1942 / film Reader: Wannsee

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5 Nov. 12T. Image before my Eyes (film); turn in outline and draft to TA before class term paper draft due
->1-2pm, TA office
7 Nov. 13R. Representing the Holocaust in film and literature P. Levi: Survival

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12 Nov. 14T. Auschwitz, 1900-1945 / Discussion of "Survival in Auschwitz" reaction paper due
12+13 T+W 7pm: FILM "ESCAPE FROM SOBIBOR," 120 mins., HSSB 1174 Reader: Sobibor
14 Nov. 15R. German and Jewish Resistance Borowski: This Way

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19 Nov. 16T. German and Jewish Collaboration / Discussion of "This Way for the Gas" reaction paper due

21 Nov. 17R. The United States and the Holocaust / Liberation Reader: Wyman

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25 Nov. Mon. 10-12 noon, professor's office term paper due
26 Nov. 18T. Bringing the Perpetrators to Justice
28 Nov. no class, Thanksgiving

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3 Dec. 19T. Group presentations / Remembering Genocide, 1955-1995 Reader: Lipstadt
Reader: Wieviorka
5 Dec. 20r. Group presentations / Final remarks and discussion

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10 Dec. TUESDAY, 4-6PM: FINAL EXAMINATION

You must select a topic by Monday, Oct. 14, and have it recorded by the professor (or the TA). You will suffer a grade penalty of 1 point per day if you have not selected a topic by then.
On Tuesday, Nov. 5, a one page outline and a five page draft of your paper is due in the TA's office. At this time you will form groups of 2-3 students to prepare the brief final presentations to the class.
A final draft of at least 5 pages (1300 words) is due Monday, Nov. 25, by 12 noon in the professor's office. Late drafts and papers will be penalized 1 pt/day.

This is an important paper which counts for a substantial part of your grade and learning in the course.
Please select the topic which interests you most, not the one whose primary book is cheapest or has the fewest pages. Note that some topics require auxiliary readings. (Most of these are on reserve.) If, after reading the book, you would like to write about a different issue than the ones suggested below, that is possible. Please discuss your new topic with me or Traci and have it approved.

Topic 1. The Perpetrators: Why do men commit mass murder?

Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland D804.3.B77 1992

• Why, according to Browning, do people commit mass murder? In your discussion, compare the reasons suggested by Browning to those given by Daniel Goldhagen: Hitler's Willing Executioners (1996)[D804.3.G648], pp. 203-283.
  Stanley Milgram, Obedience to Authority [HM271.M598o, on order] may be of interest.

Topic 2. Women in Nazi Germany: Did they help or hinder the Holocaust?

Alison Owings, Frauen: German Women Remember the Third Reich D811.5.O885 1993

• Drawing on these interviews, discuss why many German women supported the Nazi regime, what options women had to subvert its policies, and what motivated some women to take advantage of those opportunities. (Textbook chapter 8 should be helpful as well.)

Topic 3. The Bystanders: Why did the Americans ignore the Holocaust for so long?

David Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941-1945 D810.J4.W95

• Discuss the role American antisemitism played in the US government's (non-)reaction to the Holocaust. How prevalent was antisemitism in the general public? In the government?

Topic 4. Remembering the Holocaust: How do historical events change in our memories?

Alison Owings, Frauen: German Women Remember the Third Reich D811.5.O885 1993

• Examine these interviews carefully in comparison to what you have learned about Nazi Germany. Find instances where these women portray things differently than the documentary record suggests. Explain these discrepancies in terms of the shortcomings of "history according to documents," and with reference to the motivations of the human psyche in remembering. Does "history" record everything? Do people remember other people's "bad" behavior more clearly than their own? (Note also Owings' introduction and Wieviorka in the course reader.)

Topic 5. Teaching the Holocaust: How can the Holocaust be taught in the schools?

Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition DS135.N6 F73313 1995
This book is widely used in grammar and high schools, and is the most widely read book about the persecution of the Jews by Nazi Germany. Lipstadt, Denying, pp. 229-235 [D804.35.L57]
You may choose from among several topics:

1. Draw up a guide for high school social studies teachers using the Diary of a Young Girl as the primary book their students will read in a curriculum unit on the Holocaust. Suggest which themes can be taught, and which lessons drawn from the Diary, pointing out specific examples from the text. For historical contextualization, refer teachers to specific information from Ernst Schnabel's The Footsteps of Anne Frank [D810.J4 S3 1959].
2. Assume that you are a high school English teacher planning a unit on creative writing. You know that your students will be reading Diary of a Young Girl in social studies, and you would like to use Anne as an example of a budding writer. Select passages from the Diary which help explain why Anne is writing it, and discuss whether and how this changes over time. You may wish to refer to the "critical edition" of the diary [DS135.N6 F73313 1989], which shows changes Anne made to the text (as well as those her father made before he first published it). You may also select some of Anne's short stories [Tales from the Secret Annex, PT5881.16.R26 V413 1984, also in bookstores; Works, PT5834.F68 A53].
3. Assume that you are a member of a California State School Book Commission assigned to review a statewide mandate to teach the Holocaust in the public schools. Only one book can be assigned to high school students in curriculum units on the Holocaust. Assess the proposal that the Diary of a Young Girl be this sole book. Is it an appropriate book to be used as the first text about the Holocaust for 13-15 year olds? Of the possible lessons to be learned from the Holocaust, which one(s) can it be used to convey? How?

Topic 6. Denying the Holocaust: Why do some people claim that the Holocaust did not happen?

Deborah Lipstadt, Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory D804.35.L57 1993
I have ordered two additional books: Mel Mermelstein, By Bread Alone: The Story of A-4685 [D810.J4.M426], and Andrew Macdonald, The Turner Diaries [PS3563 M144t]. The former is the story of a Holocaust survivor who proved to the deniers that mass gassings had indeed taken place, was refused the "reward" they had offered for the proof, sued the deniers, and won. The latter is a neo-Nazi novel about a race war which can only be won if all of the enemies are killed. The war begins when a truck with a fertilizer bomb explodes in front of a federal office building. If these books arrive on time and you are interested in incorporating them into your paper, please see me.

1. According to Lipstadt, what motivations do Holocaust deniers have for claiming that the Holocaust did not occur? Discuss each one and weigh its importance relative to the others. What impact have the deniers had on scholarship about the Holocaust? On public opinion?
2. Write an op-ed piece for the Daily Nexus explaining why (or why not) the newspaper should print an advertisement from the Institute for Historical Review. Reason carefully, taking into consideration Lipstadt's arguments about how to respond to this kind of antisemitism. Include a brief historical overview of Holocaust denial and examples of how deniers erroneously interpret historical documents.