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Regular version of the site

The History of the Holocaust

2020/2021
Academic Year
ENG
Instruction in English
4
ECTS credits
Delivered at:
Department of Humanities (Faculty of Computer Science, Economics, and Social Sciences)
Course type:
Elective course
When:
3 year, 1 module

Instructor

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The discipline is realized with help of online-course “The Holocaust - An Introduction (I): Nazi Germany: Ideology, The Jews and the World” (https://www.coursera.org/learn/holocaust-introduction-1). About the online-course: “The Holocaust was an inconceivable historical event, which forever robbed Western culture of its innocence. As civilized human beings, we fail to understand how events of such horror could have taken place, and how an idea so inhumanly warped could have spread like wildfire through an entire continent, instigating the systematic annihilation of millions of Jews. This free online course was produced jointly by Tel Aviv University and Yad Vashem – the World Holocaust Remembrance Center. The course tracks the history of the Holocaust and has two parts. "The Holocaust - An Introduction (I): Nazi Germany: Ideology, The Jews and the World" is the first of the two courses and covers the following themes in its three weeks: Week 1: From Hatred to Core Ideology; Week 2: The World and the Jews in World War II; Week 3: The Isolation Abyss - the Perspective of the Individual” (https://www.coursera.org/learn/holocaust-introduction-1).
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • Study the history of the Holocaust.
  • Understand and study how Nazi ideology and the events of that time led to the systematic massacre of six million Jews.
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • As required by the online course
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • From Hatred to Core Ideology; From Democracy to a Totalitarian State; Nazi Germany and the Jews
    We will try to delve into Nazi ideology and the special place of Jews and Judaism in it. We will ask ourselves what, if anything, it renewed regarding traditional hatred of Israel and modern anti-Semitism and analyze Nazi documents to see how it reflects in them. Also, in this lesson we will discuss how the National Socialist Party succeeded in converting the German Democracy of the Weimar Republic into a totalitarian regime within a short period of time, and the significance of this process for its citizens - Jews and non-Jews alike.
  • The World and the Jews in World War II
    We will try to examine the broader contexts of the Holocaust and to position it as a part of a various global conflicts that took place during World War 2. In this context, we will focus in a number of unique realities that were formed and created in Occupied Poland and France using them to identify key practices of Nazi Germany, European companies and the Jews who lived among them. We’ll look at the different fates of Jews in various European countries before and during World War 2, through the lens of the enormous changes which the Jewish world underwent in modern times: emancipation, secularization, urbanization and emigration.
  • The Abyss of Isolation - the perspective of the individual.
    Instead of policy, state and society at large, we’ll focus on the individual, the family and the Jewish communities across Europe, using a broad range of wartime accounts: official documents, diaries, letters, artwork and more. In this context, we will try to reveal different aspects of Jewish life in the face of shame, ghettos and segregation, as well as the formation of individual, societies and leaders reactions in the face of consistent policy of dispossession and discrimination. A variety of sources will help us create a complex puzzle consists of Jewish life in those dark days. In this context, we will try to reveal different aspects of Jewish life in the face of shame, ghettos and segregation, as well as the formation of individual, societies and leaders reactions in the face of consistent policy of dispossession and discrimination. A variety of sources will help us create a complex puzzle consists of Jewish life in those dark days.
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • non-blocking Independent work (online course)
  • non-blocking Seminars
  • non-blocking Exam
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • Interim assessment (1 module)
    0.4 * Exam + 0.3 * Independent work (online course) + 0.3 * Seminars
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • Balkan genocides : holocaust and ethnic cleansing in the twentieth century, Mojzes, P., 2015
  • Holocaust, genocide, and the law : a quest for justice in a post-holocaust world, Bazyler, M., 2016

Recommended Additional Bibliography

  • Холокост : энциклопедия, , 2005