Spring Semester 2008
Professor Geoffrey J.
Giles
Phone: 392-0271 Ext.
245
Webpage:
www.clas.ufl.edu/users/ggiles
Prof. Giles’s office hours in Keene-Flint 208:
Tuesday 2.30-4.30
p.m. & Thursday 10.30-11.30 a.m.
EUH 3033
& JST 3930
The History of the
Holocaust
Updated 22 February 2008
Tuesday/Thursday 3rd period
(9.35-10.25 a.m.) FLI 50,
plus discussion sections
Teaching Assistant
Steve Gallagher—dgallagh@history.ufl.edu
Sections
2153 & 7422 F5 (11.45 a.m.-12.35
p.m.)
FLI 121
2193 & 7655 F6 (12.50-1.40 p.m.)
FLI 121
2097 & 6359 F8 (3.00-3.50 p.m.)
FLI 121
Steve’s office hour: Fridays, 10.30-11.30 a.m.,
FLI 22
Teaching Assistant Maury Wiseman—mwise@ufl.edu
Sections
2186 & 7452 F3 (9.35-10.25 a.m.)
MAT 114
2165 & 7451 F4 (10.40-11.30 a.m.) MAT
114
2139 & 6388 F7 (1.55-2.45 p.m.)
MAT 112
Maury’s office hour: Thursdays, 10.30-11.30 a.m.,
FLI 22
Teaching Assistant Nicole Milano—aquangel@ufl.edu
Sections
2299 & 8057 F4 (10.40-11.30 a.m.) FLI
121
2298 & 7697 F7 (1.55-2.45 p.m.)
MAT 119
2129 & 6381 F8 (3.00-3.50 p.m.)
AND 19
Nicole’s office hour: Tuesdays, 1-2 p.m., FLI 9
Terrorism and warfare have dominated the
headlines
of the 21st century so far, which makes the study of hatred
all the
more important. The Nazis themselves
tried to bring Germans to believe that martyrdom (in fact, to die for Hitler) was the noblest thing they could do. This course explores the roots of the
Holocaust in European anti-Semitism, and traces the development of
discriminatory attitudes toward their horrible outcome during the
Second World
War. The goal of studying what is
arguably the most crucial event in twentieth-century history is to
provide
students with a solidly-grounded appreciation of the need for the
respect and
tolerance of others. The irrational
basis of anti-Semitism will be analyzed, as will the methods by which
the
murderous rhetoric was literally put into practice, not simply by SS
thugs, but
also by the German army, by the police, and by “ordinary men.” The main victims of the Holocaust were
unquestionably the Jews, but this course will also consider Nazism’s
murderous
intentions toward other victims. If it
can be arranged, a survivor will come and speak to the class during the
semester.
Reading list
All are in paperback. It
is especially important not to buy earlier
editions of some of the titles noted below, because the content has
changed or
expanded.
Required purchase:
Doris L.
Bergen, War and Genocide: A Concise
History of the Holocaust (Lanham:
Rowman & Littlefield, 2003) ISBN 0847696316
Donald Niewyk, The Holocaust: Problems and
Perspectives of Interpretation, 3rd
edition (Boston & New York:
Houghton Mifflin, 2002) ISBN
0618214623
Christopher Browning, Ordinary
Men. Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the final solution in Poland
(New York: Harper
Perennial, 1998—not the 1993 edition!)
ISBN 0060995068
Alan Adelson
(Ed.), The Diary of Dawid Sierakowiak:
Five Notebooks from the Lodz
Ghetto (New York: Oxford U.P., 1996) ISBN 0195122852
Art Spiegelman, Maus:
A Survivor’s Tale. Volumes I & II Boxed set (New York: Pantheon, 1991)
Richard Glazar, Trap with a Green Fence: Survival in
Treblinka (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1995)
Recommended
purchase:
Mary Lynn
Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History, 5th Edition (Boston
& New York:
Bedford/St. Martins, 2007) ISBN 031244673X
Assignments
and grades
Each of the following will count toward the
final
grade:
·
A
1,500-word paper, discussing the testimony of a victim of Nazi
persecution, based on the extensive collections of the university
library (book
requires prior approval by Professor Giles—through
your TA, unless it
is a title not on the posted list). The UF library possesses over 1,450
such
titles (over 1,000 of them in English, if that is your only language),
and each
student must take a different book [20%]
·
A
1,500-word analytical essay on a topic assigned by the instructor
[20%]
·
Four
250-word summaries of issues in the readings, assigned by the TAs
[10%]
·
A
mid-term examination (short essay and short questions) [25%]
·
A
final examination (short questions—cumulative for whole semester)
[25%]
- More detailed advice on the presentation of
these assignments will be provided in class, and at my website
[www.clas.ufl.edu/users/ggiles].
- Please note that attendance
at every class and discussion session is mandatory.
Non-attendance will lower your final
grade. If you are unable to attend on
medical grounds, you must provide documentation.
- A make-up examination is
only ever granted by prior agreement with me before the exam takes place.
- Cell-phone policy: If I hear a cell phone ringing during
class, I will immediately suspend my lecture and give a pop quiz on the
readings for that week to the entire class, the grade
for which will be figured into everyone’s final grade! You can imagine
how unpopular this will make you with the rest of the 180 students in
this class. Every semester I have to give
some of these, at which many students do very badly.
So please learn to respect your
peers, in order to avoid this drastic solution. Make sure that your cell phone is turned off before entering
the classroom!
- In
writing papers, be certain to give proper credit whenever you use
words, phrases, ideas, arguments, and conclusions drawn from someone
else’s work. Failure to give credit by quoting and/or footnoting
is PLAGIARISM and is unacceptable. Please review the
University’s honesty policy at http://www.dso.ufl.edu/judicial/academic.php.
- Some
students will bring a laptop to class in order to take notes. That is fine, but it is extremely
disrespectful to sit there, doing your email or surfing the web or
playing a card game, while I am trying to relate some searing story of
the appalling suffering of victims of the Holocaust.
The TAs will be at the back of the room, and can take note
of students of who do this. Such an
incident gave me a near-apoplectic fit last semester, and the student
is still recovering from my tongue-lashing!
- Please
do not hesitate to contact the instructor during the semester if you
have any individual concerns or issues that need to be
discussed. Students requesting classroom accommodation must first
register with the Dean of Students Office
(http://www.dso.ufl.edu). The Dean of Students Office will
provide documentation to the student who must then provide this
documentation to the instructor when requesting accommodation.
Course outline
Readings
January
8 Introduction,
goals of course, and
explanation of assignments
10 Social
anti-Semitism around 1900
15 The Jews as
outsiders in Germany
and the US
17 Student
fraternities and anti-Semitism
B
Preface & 1
22 The
origins
of Adolf
Hitler’s anti-Semitism
24 Political
and economic turmoil: the Weimar Republic
N I & II
29 The Nazi
seizure of power
31 Propaganda
as a political weapon in the Third
Reich
B 2-3
February
5 Dachau—the
first concentration camp
7
“Legal” measures against the Jews
N III
CHOOSE TESTIMONY BOOK BY TODAY
12 Profiles of
perpetrators
14 Physical
otherness: the so-called “Rhineland Bastards”
B 4-5
TOPICAL PAPER DUE
19
Socio-economic otherness: the gypsies
21 Sexual
otherness: homosexuals
B 6
26 Racial
imperfection: the mentally handicapped
28 The
ghettoization of the Jews
Adelson (whole book)
March
4 Operation
Barbarossa
6 MID-TERM EXAMINATION (CHANGE OF DATE)
No
discussion sections this Friday
10-14 SPRING BREAK—NO
CLASSES
18 The
complicity
of the German army
20 The first
death camps:
Chelmno
B 7
TESTIMONY PAPER DUE
25
Why Auschwitz?
N IV
27
Images
of Auschwitz
April
1 The
coordination of the Holocaust: the Wannsee conference
3 The Mischling question
Browning (whole book)
8
Presenting terror through cartoons: Maus
Spiegelman
(both books)
10 The
“privileged” ghetto: Theresienstadt
15 Rescue
17 Le Chambon
B
8, N V, B Conclusion, N VI
22 Conclusions
Tuesday
29 April, 5.30-6.45 p.m. FINAL EXAMINATION