The University of Florida has a superb collection in its Judaica Library, which is designated a Special Collection. The collection is housed on the ground floor of Smathers Library West, but some books may be in storage.  Determine where books on the Holocaust are grouped, and then browse! This is always a useful strategy in a library, and you are sure to turn up at least ten other books that you would love to read if you had the time! You may also carry out a keyword "advanced" search online at the library's website, for a combination of the words "holocaust" and "personal". You’ll find over 1,450 titles; more than 1,000 of these are in English, and others are in German or Hebrew, Czech,Polish, Russian and other languages.

A further hint: you may find pertinent materials under the call number DS 135, but do not assume that this is the only place. Survivors from different countries will be in different spots, because of the way the Library of Congress catalogs books.  Choose a book that represents the memoir of a single person, not one of the several collections containing many brief reminiscences of only a few pages. And please do not pick the well-known books by Elie Wiesel or Primo Levi as your assignment. You have probably already read these in high school. I’d like you to find another, perhaps unknown person as your survivor. Please also do not borrow more than one book from the library, but remember that there are almost 180 people in our class, all trying to find one too.

What next? Please check the list of testimonies on my website, in order to see that no-one else has taken your chosen title. I really do want the class to review 180 different books. The TAs will collect titles and forward them to me for weekly updating of the website list. If someone else has already chosen your title that week, then you will have to pick another book. For most books there is only one copy in the library, however, so that this will only arise infrequently. The best way to ensure that your choice is approved is to bring it to me personally in my office hours. Every title must ultimately be approved by me (in order to avoid duplication). The absolute deadline for completing approval of your book is Friday, 8 February 2008, or your grade will be lowered for this assignment. The list of books posted on my web page is a partial one.  You are perfectly at liberty to take a book that is not on this list. Please do not just show it to me after class, but stop by during my office hours, so that I can add it to the list in my computer. I am very happy to do this, and it gives me a welcome opportunity to meet you and chat a bit.

In your paper, I would like you to give some of the details of the survivor’s experience, without however simply regurgitating whole pages of direct quotations. Where possible, paraphrase in your own words. Direct quotations in any paper should only be more than five lines long in exceptional cases (-- they should also be indented and single-spaced).

Beyond that, I expect you also to check secondary sources to fit these memories into a broader picture of what we know about a particular action, or event, or camp, or prison. In other words, place the testimony in context through some extra research of your own. Again, the Judaica Library is the place to go, but please do remember your fellow-students, and refrain from borrowing armfuls of standard works on the Holocaust. You already have some reference sources among the books you have bought for this course. If, for example, your witness mentions the Nuremberg Laws, then you will need to explain briefly what these were. There is no need to quote the text of the laws in their entirety, but the reader needs to be made aware that you know what you are talking about. Similarly, if there is a mention of Reichskristallnacht, then please explain in a sentence what this was. Finally, you need to weave into all of this some of your own commentary, reaction, or even criticism: the memories of older people play tricks on them -- does it lessen the value of the testimony, if some of the facts are wrong, according to your research in the secondary literature?

To sum up: summarize the testimony (tell the story, but in your own words, and not in full), place it in context, and comment on these events and this person from your own perspective. This is also an exercise in editing your thoughts—papers should not exceed 1,500 words. Many students find this the most rewarding piece of reading for the whole class, but please do not write more than the limit. If everyone were to write just one extra page, that makes 200 pages more to grade, and we want to strive to return papers to you in as timely a fashion as possible.

I assume that you know what plagiarism is. If uncertain, please ask me or your TA, or check the Dean of Students website. We will use the latest web-based technology to identify academic dishonesty. You should know that I react with enthusiastic severity against cheaters, as a means of rewarding the integrity of the overwhelming majority of you.