How does expanding the ‘boundaries’ of the Holocaust outside of continental Europe, and to include North Africa, change our understanding of this historical event?

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CASE STUDY

  • https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/labor-and-internment-camps-in-north-africa?series=17972
  • https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/anti-jewish-legislation-in-north-africa
  • https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/jews-of-the-maghreb-on-the-eve-of-world-war-ii?series=17972

Question 1. What varieties of “resistance” do we see manifest in the three primary sources assigned this week?

Question 2. How does expanding the ‘boundaries’ of the Holocaust outside of continental Europe, and to include North Africa, change our understanding of this historical event?

What do Bomba’s and Weiss’ testimonies teach us about the ways in which men and women might have experienced Nazi terror differently?

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DISCUSSION ESSAY

250 words for each question and must use information from attachments only

1. Question 1: Primo Levi (Italian Jewish chemist, writer, and Auschwitz survivor) uses the concept of “the gray zone” to speak of the space inhabited by prisoners of the Nazis who become their accomplices. Why is this a philosophically meaningful zone to Levi—and (in his view) to humanity?

2. Question 2: What do Bomba’s and Weiss’ testimonies teach us about the ways in which men and women might have experienced Nazi terror differently?

3. Question 3: Director Claude Lanzmann secretly records the testimony of SS officer Franz Suchomel using a lapel camera and a tech crew stationed in a VW van outside his building. Are Lanzmann’s clandestine methods justified by the results of the interview?

Historians Browning and Goldhagen analyze the actions of the same police battalion on the eastern front (using the same body of evidence), but reach different conclusions about the men’s actions and motives. Which account do you find the most compelling and why?

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Browning, Ordinary Men, pages 1-78, 133-191.

Daniel Goldhagen, “Police Battalion 101: Assessing the Men’s Motives,” in Hitler’s Willing Executioners. (attached)

1) Historians Browning and Goldhagen analyze the actions of the same police battalion on the eastern front (using the same body of evidence), but reach different conclusions about the men’s actions and motives. Which account do you find the most compelling and why?

2)Critically analyze this historical photograph ( photo link below) .from 1940 featuring two members of Police Battalion 101 and three imprisoned Jewish policemen in the ghetto of Lodz. What can you learn from this primary source about German attitudes towards violence and warfare, and/or the plight of the Nazis’ perceived enemies? Do you consider the image to substantiate either Goldhagen’s or Browning’s argument?

https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1134231

Why, in Gross’ telling, did the Christian Poles of Jedwabne attack their Jewish neighbors in the summer of 1941? What evidence does Gross amass to tell this story, and how does he determine the relative weight to assign to these sources?

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Jan Gross

1) Why, in Gross’ telling, did the Christian Poles of Jedwabne attack their Jewish neighbors in the summer of 1941?

2)What evidence does Gross amass to tell this story, and how does he determine the relative weight to assign to these sources?

How did Vladek’s experience change over time as a Jew in Poland?

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Maus volume 1

Prompt – How did Vladek’s experience change over time as a Jew in Poland?

Create a holiday for the Holocaust to commemorate the innocent people who lost their lives.

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Holocaust Day

Create a holiday for the Holocaust to commemorate the innocent people who lost their lives.

What events led up to the holocaust? Why did the Germans and jews do what they did? Did anyone resist if so why?

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Germans and jews holocaust

What events led up to the holocaust?
Why did the Germans and jews do what they did?
Did anyone resist if so why?

Why did so many stand by and let it happen? Fear? Hatred?

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Hist642 Research Paper

The research paper will be 12-15 pages, exclusive of title page and bibliography, and is due in week 7. It should include a title page, reference citations from at least four sources, and a bibliography. Footnotes are required for the reference citations, and all sources, as well as the corresponding bibliography, must conform to Turabian’s Manual for Writers of Term Papers style for notes and references. Substantial research other than the required course readings is necessary. Internet sources (web sites) should be rarely used, if ever. Exceptions are scholarly websites and documents available through the APUS Online Library. Wikipedia and encyclopedias are not valid academic sources. All research papers require footnotes or endnotes. The paper should have the following minimum elements: a title page, a strong introduction with a thesis statement, body, footnote citations, page numbering, a strong conclusion that relates back to the introduction and thesis, works cited page, and effective writing throughout. The paper must be posted to the Assignment list as a Word document attachment for grading. (Below is the prof feedback from the research topic that is attached. Please use the topic and feedback)// “You have an interesting topic here, but it is a very big one, and I do worry the scope might be a bit beyond what a relatively short term paper can actually accomplish. The fundamental question you ask is again a good one, and one that has been addressed many times in many books. Perhaps an additional bit of focus with that question would be helpful. Instead of “ordinary men and women”, perhaps focus on a more specific group of people, or a more specific aspect of the Holocaust. For example, one could focus on the early stages of persecution. Why did so many stand by and let it happen? Fear? Hatred? You could also focus on various sorts of people who helped with the actual murders, from rail operators down to camp guards. I just worry that you are biting off too much with such a vast topic.”

Explain the nature of the relationship between the various military and police organizations, as well as the impact that mass murder had on the men in question. Explain the varying degrees of German complicity with the mass murder, and identify those groups who appeared to have the most culpability.

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Week 5 discussion hist 642

Block A

Explain the nature of the relationship between the various military and police organizations, as well as the impact that mass murder had on the men in question. Explain the varying degrees of German complicity with the mass murder, and identify those groups who appeared to have the most culpability. Analyze how Hitler organized his government, how the departments functioned, and how this method of control assisted in the development of the Final Solution. Describe and contrast and perceptions and attitudes of the participants within the German military. The more difficult question is: how was it humanly possible that ordinary men and women, loving fathers and husbands, could participate willingly in the murder of innocent men, women, and children?

Block B

One common observation made in regard to German policies of this nature is that had the Germans invaded the Soviet Union as “liberators”, to free the people from communism, they could well have caused the rapid collapse of the Soviet government, and gotten them the quick victory they desired. Why then did they come as exterminators rather than liberators? Given the nature of Hitler, the Nazi Party, and the German state was it even possible for the Germans to be “liberators” of the Soviet Union? Is this even a valid question – in other words, was there any conceivable set of circumstances under which Hitler, his Nazi Party, and the Wehrmacht would have invaded the USSR to “liberate” it rather than exterminate it?

Block C

Einsatzgruppen means “task forces.” The SS set up such units before they entered Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the Soviet Union. The task of the Einsatzgruppen in Poland was to terrorize the local population and murder anyone whom the SS deemed undesirable. The most infamous Einsatzgruppen of all were formed before the invasion of the Soviet
Union in June 1941. Their primary task was to destroy what they regarded as the ideological infrastructure of the Soviet Union: political commissars, members of the Communist party, and above all, Jews. Which German units took part in the murder of the Jews? What were the gas vans? When and where were they used? What role did non-German civilians play in the murder of Jews? What happened at Babi Yar? How did the Nazis try to hide their atrocities?

Does the author clearly state goals and achieve them? What are the goals? Is the work sound scholarship? How does the work contribute or add to the field? What is the significance of the book to the field?

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Book Review

 

In addition to the sources assigned to the class, you are required to write a critical review ( examination) of one other book (you must find a book). Your choice must be approved by the end of week 2, please send a message with your book choice for my approval. Critical book review IS NOT a summary of the book. In that review, you should look at the author’s background, purpose for writing the book, the argument of the book, organization of the book (topical versus chronological), a brief summary of the book, sources and evidence, and critical analyze if the author(s) succeed in making the argument. The book review is due by the end of week 5.
My suggestion is to review one of the books used for your research paper. Your paper should be a Word document, in 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, and structured according to Turabian or Chicago style rules. The maximum length of the paper is 2 pages.

Assignment Guidelines:

Book Review Guidelines: Historians often contribute to the scholarly discourse in the form of a book review, which I strongly encourage you to do. The guidelines for book reviews for this course closely follow those of the Journal of Military History. When writing a professional book review, following guidelines is essential for success, so these guidelines are important; Use them for evaluation of the book review for the course.Also include a successful sample book review. Recommend you choose and read the books for your review as early as possible since a good review might require more than one close reading of the book.

I. Appraisal: Keep the scholarly interests of the reading audience in mind as you write the review.

· Does the author clearly state goals and achieve them?

· What are the goals?

· Is the work sound scholarship?

· How does the work contribute or add to the field?

· What is the significance of the book to the field?

· Is the writing clear and free of jargon?

· Is the book worth buying? Reading? By whom?

II. Tone: Scholarly disputation is best handled in a courteous manner. Criticism, both positive and negative, must be substantiated. Personal attacks on the author, as opposed to strong disagreement with the book, are always inappropriate and will not be published.

III. Footnotes: Do Not Use. Indicate exact pagination for direct quotes as in the following example: “The military genius of Napoleon is best demonstrated in his capacity for situational flexibility” (p. 323). If it is necessary to translate a foreign-language quotation, include the original on a separate sheet. Quoted material, especially lengthy ones, are not a good idea, though.

IV. Names: Give the full names of persons you mention in the review.

V. Minor Errors: Unless errors or fact, typography, or spelling and grammar detract in a major way from the quality of the book, it is hoped that the limited number of words in the review can best be expended more profitably in other ways.