HIS 400/HIS 440 THE HOLOCAUST
Kenneth J. Orosz Office Hours: T 1:30-2:30
Fall 2019 W 10:00-12:00
Class Meetings: Class B106 Office: Classroom Bldg C213
TR 10:50-12:05 Phone: 878-3203
E-mail: oroszkj@buffalostate.edu
Course Description:
There are few, if any, periods in history which can compare to the horror of the Holocaust. During the course of the Nazi regime and the Second World War, 6 million Jews were murdered. While they were not the only victims of Nazi genocide (others include Communists, homosexuals, Slavs and Gypsies), this course will focus primarily on the unfolding plight of the Jews in Europe between 1933 and 1945. Topics covered will include the personality of Adolf Hitler, the traumas of Weimar Germany, the birth and rise of the Nazi party, persecution of Jews in Europe, the policy of extermination, resistance, and world reaction to Nazi policies.
Requirements:
Academic misconduct (including cheating and plagiarism) will not be tolerated. Buffalo State College policies on academic misconduct, including the possible use of textual similarity detection software, are outlined on page 48 of the college catalog. Please note that the minimum penalty for cases of academic misconduct will be an F on the assignment.
Reading assignments are to be completed by the dates given. There will a midterm and a final examination. Students are required to provide their own blank examination booklets (available in the bookstore) for each exam. Please note that in order to earn more than a B on the essay portion of the exams you must make use of the relevant assigned readings and historical documents. Sample exam answers can be found at http://faculty.buffalostate.edu/oroszkj. Students will also write two 5 page analyses of assigned texts (Sierakowiak and Lengyel) and a 12-15 page paper on a topic of their choice. All topics for the research papers must be authorized by me and must conform to the geographic and temporal confines of this course. As part of this process students are required to submit their paper topics in the form of written proposals no later than September 26. Failure to submit a passing proposal means that your paper will not be accepted and you will earn an E for that portion of the course. All papers and reviews must conform to the History Style Sheet. Detailed instructions on the writing assignments, including the style sheet, can be found in Blackboard or by clicking the syllabi link at http://faculty.buffalostate.edu/oroszkj Help for Blackboard can be found at https://help.blackboard.com/en-us/Learn/Reference/Blackboard_Learn_Videos.
Please note that in order to pass this course you must make a good faith attempt to complete all components and requirements. LATE WORK WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED WITHOUT PRIOR ARRANGEMENT. Incompletes will be granted at the sole discretion of the instructor and require a written application outlining the rationale for granting an incomplete, a list of outstanding assignments and a timetable for their completion. This application must be signed and, if granted, will constitute a formal contract for the completion of the course.
Grades will be computed as follows:
Midterm 25% Final 25%
Sierakowiak Review 15% Paper 20%
Lengyel Review 15%
Books: The following books are required reading and are available in the Bookstore:
Lucy S. Dawidowicz, The War Against the Jews 978-0-553-34532-2
Israel Gutman, Resistance 978-0-395-90130-4
Donald Niewyk, The Holocaust: Problems and Perspectives, 4th ed. 978-0-547-18946-8 **
Richard Plant, The Pink Triangle 978-0-805-00600-1
Leni Yahil, The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry 978-0-195-04523-9
Dawid Sierakowiak, The Diary of Dawid Sierakowiak 978-0-195-12285-5
Olga Lengyel, Five Chimneys 978-0-897-33376-4
**I have 2 copies on reserve; otherwise buy used as it is expensive
Supplemental Readings:
Supplemental readings (indicated in italics on the syllabus) can be accessed in one of 3 ways: 1) if it is a website, there will be a link to it from the electronic version of the syllabus available in Blackboard or on my web page at http://faculty.buffalostate.edu/oroszkj. 2) Journal articles listed below can be accessed via the library’s Academic Search Premier or JSTOR databases; 3) highlighted readings are available in Blackboard under the Content tab.
Yehuda Bauer, “Negotiating for Jewish Lives,” in The Holocaust 2nd ed., edited by
Donald Niewyk (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997), 269-276.
Christopher Browning, “A Product of Euphoria in Victory,” in The Holocaust 2nd ed.,
edited by Donald Niewyk (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997), 39-49.
Taylor Downing, “Auschwitz: The Forgotten Evidence,” History Today 55, no. 2 (February 2005): 26-32.
Richard Glazar, “Surviving Extermination Camp Treblinka,” in The Holocaust 2nd ed.,
edited by Donald Niewyk (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997), 66-82.
Christian Goeschel, “Suicides of German Jews in the Third Reich,” German History 25, no. 1 (2007): 22-45.
Daniel Goldhagen, “Hitler’s Willing Executioners,”in The Holocaust 2nd ed., edited by
Donald Niewyk (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997), 184-197.
Michael Marrus, “Bystanders,” in The Holocaust in History (New York: Meridian, 1987)
156-183.
John Keegan, “What the Allies Knew,” New York Times, November 25, 1996.
Rafael Scheck, “The Killing of Black Soldiers from the French Army by the Wehrmacht
in 1940,” German Studies Review 28, no. 3 (October 2005): 595-606.
CLASS SCHEDULE
August 27 Roots of European Anti-Semitism
Read: Timeline;
August 29 Adolf Hitler: Early Life and Personality
Read: Dawidowicz Ch 1-3;
September 3 World War I and Weimar Germany
Read: Dawidowicz Ch 4; Treaty of Versailles Excerpts;
Weimar Constitution Excerpts; Hitler’s first anti-Semitic writings
September 5 Birth and Rise of the Nazi Party
Read: Dawidowicz Ch 5; Plant Ch 1-2; Nazi Party Program;
Hitler’s 1927 Speech to Nazi Party; Enabling Act
September 10 The Hitler Myth
Read: Dawidowicz Ch 6; Yahil Ch 2
September 12 Persecution of Jews in Germany
Read: Dawidowicz Ch 8-9; Yahil Ch 1 & 3; Nuremberg Decrees
September 17 The Tightening Noose
Read: Dawidowicz Ch 10; Yahil Ch 4; Kristallnacht Order
September 19 Outbreak of War
Read: Dawidowicz Ch 11-12; Yahil Ch 5; Gutman Ch 1
September 24 Deportations
Read: Yahil Ch 6-8; Gutman Ch 3-5
Goeschel, “Suicides;” Deportations; Ghettoization Oral Histories
September 26 Life in the Ghettoes
Read: Sierakowiak memoir; Starvation in the Ghetto; Smuggling; Lodz Ghetto
Research paper proposals due
October 1 Operation Barbarossa
Read: Yahil Ch 9-10; Tec Ch 1-3
October 3 Advent of Extermination: Policy and Practice
Read: Dawidowicz Ch 14-15; Sterilization; T4 program;
Euthanasia; Gas Vans; Einsatzgruppen
October 8 The Wansee Conference
Read: Dawidowicz Ch 13; Wansee Conference Minutes;
Sierakowiak analysis due
October 10 Midterm Exam
October 15 No Class
October 17 Kingdom of Death: The Camp System
Read: Dawidowicz Ch 7; Yahil Ch 11-12; Arrival at Auschwitz
October 22 Kingdom of Death: The Camp System II
Read: Niewyk part III; Yahil Ch 13, 15; Glazar, “Surviving Treblinka;”
October 24 The Holocaust Experience
Read: Lengyel memoir; Yahil Ch 19
October 29 Non-Jewish Victims
Read: Dawidowicz Ch 16; Non-Jewish Victims; Gypsies: One; Two;
October 31 Non-Jewish Victims
Read: Plant Ch 3-5; Scheck, “Killing Black Soldiers;”
Homosexuals: One; Two; Jehovah’s Witnesses; Soviet POWs
November 5 Perpetrators and Collaborators
Read: Niewyk part II & V; Goldhagen, “Hitler’s Willing Executioners”
November 7 Resistance
Read: Niewyk IV; Yahil Ch 17; Gutman Ch 8-11; Call to Resistance
Lengyel analysis due
November 12 The Intentionalist/Functionalist Debate
Read: Dawidowicz Introduction; Niewyk part I; Browning, “Product;”
Madagascar Plan; Hitler’s comments; Hans Frank’s comments
November 14 German Allies: Italy, Hungary, Rumania
Read: Dawidowicz Appendices;
November 19 West European Responses: France, Benelux, Denmark
Read: Yahil Ch 14, 16
November 21 Bystanders: US, Britain and the Vatican
Read: Bauer, “Negotiating;” Downing, “Auschwitz;” Marrus,“Bystanders;”
Keegan, “What Allies Knew;” Pius XII; War Refugee Board;
November 26 Rescue Efforts
Read: Niewyk part VI; Yahil Ch 20-21; Danish Rescue;
Dutch and Japanese Rescue Efforts; Irina Sendler
November 28 No Class
December 3 Death Marches and Liberation
Read: Yahil Ch 18; Lewy Part IV; Dachau Liberation;
December 6 Coming to Terms with the Holocaust
Read: International Military Tribunal; Search for Perpetrators;
Final Papers Due
December 10 Final Exam 9:40-11:30
Guidelines for Writing Assignments
While your papers will be graded primarily on content, grammatical accuracy, style, presentation and organization will also be taken into account. All papers are required to adhere to the History Style Sheet. Failure to do so will result in significant penalties; these consist of at least the loss of a full letter grade for each category of violation (i.e. use of contractions will cost you a letter grade, reducing an A paper to a B). This includes paper length, non-standard fonts, margins and line spacing. Please note that a short paper is not necessarily a bad paper; I am primarily interested in what you have to say, how well you say it and if you have developed your thesis and argument sufficiently.
As you write your papers feel free to paraphrase or quote suitable passages that illustrate your points. However, if you quote or paraphrase, you must cite the relevant passage. You must also cite detailed information (i.e. statistics or items that are not common knowledge). The only exception to this rule is material gleaned from my lectures; you may assume that this is public knowledge and requires no citation. Proper citation formats can be found in the History Style Sheet. Please note that in addition to enforcing Buffalo State College’s policies on academic misconduct, including the possible use of textual similarity detection software, the minimum penalty for plagiarism is an F on the assignment. For more information on plagiarism, how to footnote, or how to write a research paper consult the relevant sections of Benjamin’s A Student’s Guide to History. If you are still unclear about when or how to cite please come see me during my office hours. That is why I am there.
Since much of what is out on the internet is of dubious quality, the use of web pages as source material is strictly forbidden unless authorized by me in writing. The only exceptions to this rule are the individual web sites that I have assigned as required reading material. On a similar note, the use of encyclopedias is also forbidden. While they may be useful reference tools or for providing an overview of a particular topic, encyclopedias have no place in college level work. Articles in historical encyclopedias (i.e. The Encyclopedia of European Social History) may be acceptable, but must first be cleared by me in writing.
I am obviously a firm believer in written assignments since they help develop your organizational, analytical and communication skills, all of which are things you will need in the workplace. Consequently, I expect you to treat all graded assignments (in this or any other class) as preparations for your future career. Turning in business reports that are filled with grammatical errors, failures in logic, poor argumentation and lack of evidence portrays a degree of incompetence, even if it is undeserved, and will probably get you fired. Get in the habit now of proofreading your work to catch typos, misspellings and nonsensical statements. Read your papers aloud to see how they sound. Better still, have a friend or roommate read your work since they are more likely to notice any problems. Most of you will be writing your papers on wordprocessors. No matter what program you use, they all have spell checkers. It is silly and self-defeating not to make use of them.
While I do not allow rewrites once papers have been graded, I will read and comment on rough drafts if I am given enough time. Alternatively, you may want to consult either the campus writing center or some of the history tutors for help or advice. Keep your notes and copies of your paper to facilitate rewrites and to safeguard against loss, computer errors, random destruction by pets and similar catastrophes. Finally, and most importantly, if you are having any problems in this course come see me.
Book Reviews
All students will write 2 five page (1500 word) analyses of assigned texts (Sierkowiak’s Diary and Lengyel’s Five Chimneys). Since these are analyses and not “book reports” I am not interested in plot summaries. Similarly, I am not interested in whether you liked the book or found it interesting. Your review should analyze and critique the author’s portrayal of some of the historical events or themes covered in this course. As you critique the books use the following questions as a rough guide: How do the authors portray historical events or issues covered elsewhere in the course? Do these works depict typical Holocaust experiences or problems? How accurate are these depictions?
As you will discover, 5 pages provides barely enough room to introduce a topic, let alone go into much detail. Hence, your papers should have a narrowly defined thesis and must be very selective in both their use and presentation of supporting evidence or examples. Since these papers are so short keep quotations to a minimum so that you will have more room to
develop your own thoughts and arguments. To strengthen your argument(s), however, your reviews should draw upon and cite specific examples from the novel as well as corroborating evidence. There is ample material on which to base your papers in my lectures and your textbooks; outside materials, although always welcome, are not required.
Research Paper
In addition to the book reviews, all students will write a 12-15 page (3600-4500 word) paper on a topic of their own choosing. While the actual topics for your papers are up to you, they must remain within the geographical and temporal confines of this course. The paper should analyze some facet of the Holocaust in detail. To that end, and to help you identify sources, all paper topics must be cleared with me first in the form of a written paper proposal due no later than September 26. Complete proposals will outline your topic, the specific issues you intend to address, and must include a bibliography. Bibliography entries must include author, title, and complete publication information. If, after you have begun researching and writing your paper, you choose to use additional sources, you must submit an amended bibliography to me in writing. Papers that use unauthorized materials will not be accepted. Similarly, papers that deviate significantly from your research proposal will also not be accepted. This does not mean, however, that you are permanently locked in to a particular paper topic; if you change your mind and opt to pursue some other topic you must submit a new paper proposal which may or may not be accepted at my discretion. Completed papers are due in class on December 6
Possible paper topics include:
Pre-war persecution of Jews Jewish resistance
Collaboration in Occupied Europe Techniques for survival in the camps
Rescue efforts American Jews and the Holocaust
Bystanders The Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal