This course is about two intertwined histories: the Nazis’ rise to power, politically in Germany and then militarily in the rest of Europe; and their murder of six million Jewish people during the last several years of the war. The goal of this class is to get students to understand how the Holocaust was possible: what traditions of antisemitism it grew out of; what techniques the Nazis used to implement it; and how people in conquered nations assisted, or resisted, the Nazi’s project of murdering all of their nation’s Jews. To do so, we will examine the Holocaust from a number of perspectives, including those of Jews who survived, bystanders who witnessed the events, and perpetrators – both German and non-German -who killed Jews. We will end by examining the attempts after the war to bear witness to the Nazis’ crimes, and to ask what the legacy of the Holocaust can teach us, 80 years later. 

Readings from this course will include Gerhard Weinberg’s World War II: A Very Short Introduction; Doris Bergen’s War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust; selections from Jan Gross’s Neighbors, and Christopher Browning’s Ordinary Men; a selection excerpts from first-person survival accounts, including those by Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi; and Art Spiegelman’s graphic history Maus.

The readings and multimedia assignments will come from a variety of sources.

I have ordered two books from the bookstore which I expect students to have access too: Doris Bergen’s War and Genocide, and Art Spiegelman’s Maus. The other texts will all be available online, either as links on public websites; via the CUHK library website; or on the course blackboard page.

Most weeks, there will be an assignment from a secondary text – usually Bergen’s War and Genocide, for the Holocaust, or Gerhard Weinberg’s World War II: A Very Short Introduction, which you can read via the library website, for the war. There will also be primary sources assigned, and/or a movie to watch or a podcast to listen to. When the movies are only available via private subscription services (Netflix, etc.) we will arrange a screening for the class outside of normal class time. Students can either watch then, or on their own time. The films will be a mix of Hollywood large-budget movies (Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan), documentaries (Ordinary Men: The Forgotten Holocaust); and footage from the time (Three Minutes in Poland). There will probably also be some videos included in class lectures.

There will also be several Zoom sessions over the course of the semester, where I talk with scholars who study the Holocaust or other aspects of Jewish studies. Students can join these sessions in real time and ask questions. They will also be recorded and made available on Blackboard for students who want to watch them later.

The tutorials will be focused on primary sources. The first three will be based on reports from the time; memoirs from survivors; and for the final tutorial, a graphic memoir (“graphic” as in “graphic novel”) by a son of survivors.

Students’ final grades will be determined by the following:

Tutorial, 20%

Response Papers/Discussion Board, 30%

Quizzes, 30% (3×10%)

Take-Home Final, 20%

Lecture Topics:

Introduction: Post World War I Europe

II: Jews and AntiSemitism

III: The Rise of the Nazis; Nazi Germany

IV: War: 1939-1942

V: Life (and death) in the Ghettos; The Einsatzgruppen

VI: Deportations and Death Camps; Perpetrators

VII: War: 1942-1944

VIII: Life, and Death, in the Camps

IX: Occupied Europe: Terror, Resistance, Collaboration

X: Heroes: Jewish Resistance and Rescue

XI: Bodies and Terror: Sexual Violence, “Excremental Assault”

XII: War: 1944-1945

XIII: Aftermaths: Refugees, Displacement, and the Nuremberg Trials

Note: Bergen’s War and Genocide, and Spiegelman’s Maus, are available at the university bookstore, as well as via all of the various booksellers. The other readings are all available online: those available via the course Blackboard site are noted; others include a hyperlink here; the rest are available via the CUHK library’s website. For the movies, we will schedule screenings for students, though students are also welcome to watch them on their own.

Week 1

Introduction, no assignments

Week 2

Readings, primary: Isaac Bashevis Singer, A Hanukkah Eve in Warsaw (Blackboard)

Readings, secondary: Doris Bergen, War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust, 1-4, 13-24

Movies/Videos/Podcasts, etc: Three Minutes in Poland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmXe7ojLvs4

Week 3

Readings, primary: Lucy Dawidowicz, A Holocaust Reader, 32-33, 45-47 (Blackboard)

Readings, secondary: Bergen, 45-6, 52-61, 65-7, 69-72, 76-80, 88-97, 107-114, 119-126

Movies/Videos/Podcasts, etc: (none)

Week 4

Readings, primary: Simcha Rotem, Memoirs of a Warsaw Ghetto Fighter: The Past Within Me, 6-11

Readings, secondary: Gerhard Weinberg, World War II: A Very Short Introduction, chapters 2-4

Movies/Videos/Podcasts, etc: The Pianist (2002)

Week 5

Readings, primary:

1. Elie Wiesel, Night, pages 3-7; https://archive.org/details/eliewiesel-nightfulltext/page/n27/mode/2up
2. https://www.yadvashem.org/education/educational-materials/lesson-plans/babi-yar/primary-sources.html

Readings, secondary: Bergen, 130-140, 145-159, 180-206

Movies/Videos/Podcasts, etc: (none)

Week 6

Readings, primary: (none)

Readings, secondary: Yisrael Gutman: “Nothing to Lose”  from Peter Hayes, How Was it Possible? A Holocaust Reader;  Jan Gross, “Neighbors,” The New Yorker (March 12, 2001), 64-77 (Blackboard)

Movies/Videos/Podcasts, etc: 1001 Histories interview with Omer Bartov, at https://open.spotify.com/episode/01G7yvzGyx3CgYwhBtsmlc?si=070bdb7fb68a4389 or https://player.fm/series/1001-historys-best-storytellers/anatomy-of-a-genocide-1001-interviews-author-omar-bartov

Week 7

Readings, primary: Rotem, 32-42, 45-6, 62-4

Readings, secondary: Weinberg, Ch 6 (Skip the parts on Japan); Bergen, 207-22, 225-230

Movies/Videos/Podcasts, etc: Ordinary Men: The Forgotten Holocaust (Netflix)

Week 8

Readings, primary: Wiesel, 21-27, 29-34, 52-54, 69; Primo Levi, “Camp Labor,” from Hayes, ed., How Was it Possible?

Readings, secondary: Bergen, 237-263

Movies/Videos/Podcasts, etc: (none)

Week 9

Readings, primary: (None)

Readings, secondary: Nechama Tec, “The Forests,” from Defiance: Jews and Christians who Defied Nazi Terror”

Movies/Videos/Podcasts, etc: Casablanca

Week 10

Readings, primary: Dawidowickz, 334-336,359-380; Rotem, 118-127

Readings, secondary: Bergen, 263-273

Movies/Videos/Podcasts, etc: Schindler’s List

Week 11

Readings, primary: Art Spiegelman, Maus

Readings, secondary: Terrence Des Pres, The Survivor, pp. 53-65 (Blackboard); Helene Sinnreich, The Rape of Jewish Women during the Holocaust, from Sonja M. Hedgepeth and Rochelle G. Saidel, eds, Sexual Violence against Jewish Women during the Holocaust

Movies/Videos/Podcasts, etc:  (none)

Week 12

Readings, primary: (none)

Readings, secondary: Weinberg, Ch 8 (skip parts on Japan); Bergen, 275-295

Movies/Videos/Podcasts, etc: Saving Private Ryan, first hour (available via the library website)

Week 13

Readings, primary: Primo Levi, The Reawakening, 1-7, 92-103 (Blackboard)

Readings, secondary: Bergen, 281-310

Movies/Videos/Podcasts, etc: https://thisiscriminal.com/episode-214-palace-of-justice-a-conversation-with-benjamin-ferencz-4-14-2023/

Tutorial Topics:

I:  Child Narration

II: Alternative History

III: Micro-storytelling

IV: Micro-storytelling II: Maus

請注意大學有關學術著作誠信的政策和規則，及適用於犯規事例的紀律指引和程序。詳情可瀏覽網址：https://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/。

學生遞交作業時，必須連同已簽署的聲明一併提交，表示他們知道有關政策、規則、指引及程序。

• 如屬小組習作，則所有組員均須簽署聲明；所有組員（不論有否簽署聲明及不論有否直接或間接撰寫有問題的內容）均須負上集體責任及受到懲處。
• 如作業以電腦製作、內容以文字為主，並經由大學「維誠」系統 (VeriGuide) 提交者，學生將作業的電子檔案上載到系統後，便會獲得收據，收據上已列明有關聲明。

未有夾附簽署妥當的聲明的作業，老師將不予批閱。

學生只須提交作業的最終版本。

學生將作業或作業的一部份用於超過一個用途（例如：同時符合兩科的要求）而沒有作出聲明會被視為未有聲明重覆使用作業。學生重覆使用其著作的措辭或某一、二句句子很常見，並可以接受，惟重覆使用全部內容則構成問題。在任何情況下，須先獲得相關老師同意方可提交作業。