COURSE GOALS

There are many reasons to study the Holocaust, which I understand to be the development and systematic implementation, in a country very similar to our own, of a program to eradicate entire groups of people. In this course, in addition to studying the historical "facts" of what happened, we will probe questions of causation (why did it happen?), motivation (why did people behave as they did?), and responsibility (who bears responsibility for what happened?). I also emphasize practicing historical skills: interpreting historical sources, understanding and assessing events, and writing history.

REQUIREMENTS

1. I expect you to attend all classes and both evening film screenings. Why take a course if you don't make the effort to learn what it teaches? Lectures include slides, videos, discussion and information not available elsewhere in the course. I will call roll in order to learn your names.
2. There will NOT be a midterm examination. Instead, you will be asked to write a short paragraph on a simple question about the assigned readings or films, roughly once every two weeks. These five questions will be announced one lecture in advance. They are worth 2 points each. You will need to bring your journal to class in order to submit your answers.
3. You must keep a journal with 1-2 entries per week, for a total of 10 entries. Each entry, averaging 450 words, will be based on your thoughts about newspaper or magazine articles that you relate to the course, or about my lectures, the course readings or films.
   (For further details, see the blue "Journal and Term Paper Assignment" handout.)
   These journals will be collected four times during the quarter (weeks 3, 5, 6 and 9). They are due at the beginning of class or will be collected with the answers to the five "midterm" questions in #2 above. (You will also write the answers to those questions in the journal.)
   Note: This course fulfills the General Education writing requirement. If you do not submit this journal and the term paper, you will not receive credit for this course (i.e., you will fail).
4. A term paper (1500 words, 5-6 pages) and a 1-2 page advance proposal. This paper will require some research. The proposal is due Thursday, November 4; the paper Tuesday, November 23, both at the beginning of class. Together they count for 40% of your final grade.
5. A two-hour final examination will have 3 IDs chosen from 5, one source interpretation, and one essay question from a choice of two. A study guide will be distributed in early December.

GRADING is on a point system. You can accumulate up to 100 points, distributed as follows:
questions: 5x2=10%; journal: 10x2=20%; term paper+proposal: 40%; final exam: 30%.
Late work will be graded down 1/3 grade per day (B+ to B) etc.

REQUIRED COURSE BOOKS

• Reader with 30 articles and documents, available at Graphikart on Pardall in IV, 126pp., $10. Table of Contents
• Textbook: Ronnie Landau, The Nazi Holocaust, $15 new/11 used [IV].
• Robert Abzug, America Views the Holocaust, 1933-1945: A Documentary History, $11/8 [IV].
• Alfons Heck, The Burden of Hitler's Legacy, $11/10/7; DD253.5.H35 1988.
• Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz: The Nazi Assault on Humanity [1947], $11/8 [IV].