JS 211 The Holocaust
(GE Cat. VI Social Issues)
Spring 2014
Prof. Wolf Gruner Course will be on Blackboard
Phone: (213) 740-1668 email:
Office: SOS 262 Office hours: Tue 12.45-1.45 pm & by app’t.
38206R / Lecture / 2:00-3:20pm / Tue, Thu / Wolf Gruner / WPH B2738207R / Discussion / 4:00-4:50pm / Thursday / Mesrob Vartavarian / SOS B47
38208R / Discussion / 4:00-4:50pm / Wednesday / Mesrob Vartavarian / VKC 210
38209R / Discussion / 3:00-3:50pm / Wednesday / Mesrob Vartavarian / THH 110
38215R / Discussion / 11:00-11:50am / Tuesday / Mesrob Vartavarian / THH 106
Teaching Assistant: Mesrob Vartavarian
Office hours: Wed 2-3pm and Thurs 1-2pm (SOS 265)
The historical event we know today as the Holocaust occurred in Europe in the middle of the Twentieth century. Although it is one of the most intensively studied phenomena in modern history, it is also one of the most disputed ones.
This class studies the origins and radicalization of anti-Jewish persecution in the Third Reich as well its climax in systematic mass murder of millions of European Jews during World War II. Scholars still differ in their opinions about many of the historical aspects, especially about the decision-making process and the reasons for the killing of millions of people by a country like Germany, which was seen as one of the most advanced nations at the time.
Investigating the Holocaust, the course discusses fundamental questions of humanity: What led Germany to discriminate against a minority? Why did so many people follow a racial and fundamentalist ideology? Why would ordinary people participate in mass crimes? Were the majority of the people indifferent bystanders? How did lawyers, physicians, city officials and businessmen become involved in the persecution? And, what enabled some people to resist persecution and even systematic mass murder? The class will also illuminate the economic, social and psychological impact of the persecution on the Jews and their living conditions as well as address the question how individuals and Jewish representatives responded. During the course we will see how the Holocaust fits into the broader context of a Nazi “war of destruction” against social, political and racial enemies, as Roma, Slavic people, gays, Soviet POW’s, “asocials,” and disabled people.
Required Readings
Books (available at the USC bookstore)
Christopher Browning, The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939-March 1942 (Lincoln, NE: Bison Books, 2007 paperback)
David Engel, The Holocaust. The Third Reich and the Jews, 2nd edition (Pierson; 2013 paperback)
Saul Friedländer, Nazi Germany and the Jews, vol. I 1933-1939 (New York: Harper Collins, 1998 paperback)
Articles and book chapters
All are posted as PdFs on Blackboard page of our class!
Course Requirements and Grading
Attendance
Students are expected to attend all class meetings, complete assigned readings before the lecture class starts (you find the assigned reading in the syllabus below the topic heading of each day), and engage actively with the material in the discussion sections. Attendance will be taken during lectures and discussion sections. If you will miss a lecture or a section, you have to inform your TA as soon as possible via email, best before the absence. If you want to observe a religious holiday, please contact your TA before the date for the necessary accommodation. Attendance in the discussion section is a required part of the course. If you have more than one unexcused absence, your section grade will be lowered one step (e.g. from B to B-). The work you do in discussion section will constitute 20% of the final grade. The section grade will be evaluated on the basis of attendance, performance on short assignments given by TAs, readiness and ability to discuss the weekly readings and questions which arose from the weekly lectures.
There will be a midterm examination on topics covered by class lectures and readings during the first six weeks of the term and will constitute 20% of the final grade. The midterm will take place in class on Thursday, February 26th. Midterm format: 4 questions on terms and dates (each 10 per cent), one essay (60 percent).
There will be one research paper (12-15 pages, double spaced, 12 pt. Times New Roman) that constitutes 30% of the grade. The paper is due on Tuesday April 21th in lecture. (bring a hard copy to class and deliver one electronically via turnitin on black board)
A cumulative final examination, counting for 30% of the final grade, will take place on May 12th, 2 pm, during final exam week. Final exam format: 4 questions on terms and dates (each 10 per cent), one essay (60 percent)
Large blue (or green) books, unsigned and unmarked, are required for the mid-term and the final exam.
The grading scheme thus appears as follows:
a) Midterm Examination 20%
b) Term Paper 30%
c) Final Examination 30%
d) Discussion Section 20%
Students with Disabilities
Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me as early in the semester as possible and let me know if you need any assistance with this process (DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776)
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Additional Class Policies
You can contact the instructor and the teaching assistants, whether in person, during office hours or via email for an appointment. For the latter, please use JS 211 in the subject line. If you are on an athletic team, you must present a letter to your TA by the second week of class. No make-ups for midterm and final exams will be given. There will be no extensions given for submitting the term paper. All assignments are to be submitted in either lecture or section, and not by email, unless otherwise instructed. Cell phones or other electronic devices have to be shut off during class (not on silent mode)
Class Notes Policy
Laptop or tablet use by students for note taking is fine. The use of laptops or other electronic devices, incl. phones, for surfing the net, texting or checking email can be distracting for you and other students and is thus not allowed during class. If you are spotted using your device for purposes other than taking notes during class, you will be banned from using a laptop in class for the remainder of the semester. Frequent misconduct lowers the grade.
Notes taken by students in this class based on lectures or discussion sections may only be made for the purposes of individual or group study, or for other non-commercial purposes that reasonably arise from your membership in this class. Permission to make recordings falls within the discretion of the instructor and as informed by instructional purposes, classroom order, property interests, and other reasonable considerations arising in the academic context. Notes and recordings of this class may not be exchanged or distributed for any commercial purpose, for compensation, or for any purpose other than your personal study. Unless authorized by the University in advance and explicitly and in writing permitted by me, commercial or any non-personal use of class notes or recordings constitutes an unauthorized commercial activity in violation of the Student Conduct Code, and students who violate this policy are subject to University discipline. As the instructor in this course, I retain intellectual property rights in the lecture material pursuant to U.S. copyright law and California Civil Code 980(a)(1). Misuse of course notes or recordings derived from lecture material may also subject you to legal proceedings.
Academic Conduct
USC seeks to maintain an optimal learning environment. General principles of academic honesty include the concept of respect for the intellectual property of others, the expectation that individual work will be submitted unless otherwise allowed by an instructor, and the obligations both to protect one’s own academic work from misuse by others as well as to avoid using another’s work as one’s own.
The best way to avoid plagiarism is to be careful to document all your sources, even when you are only making use of data or ideas rather than an actual quote. If you use any outside sources, be sure to cite the sources properly in your paper.
As defined in the University Student Conduct Code, plagiarism includes: "The submission of material authored by another person but represented as the student's own work, whether that material is paraphrased or copied in verbatim or near verbatim form;" "The submission of material subjected to editorial revision by another person that results in substantive changes in content or major alteration of writing style;" and "improper acknowledgment of sources in essays or papers."
Plagiarism is a serious academic offense with serious consequences. Students who violate academic standards as outlined above will receive a failing grade in the course and be reported to the appropriate university authorities.
Please familiarize yourself with the discussion of plagiarism in SCampus in Section 11, Behavior Violating University Standards https://scampus.usc.edu/1100-behavior-violating-university-standards-and-appropriate-sanctions/. Other forms of academic dishonesty are equally unacceptable. See additional information in SCampus and university policies on scientific misconduct, http://policy.usc.edu/scientific-misconduct/.
For more on History at USC: http://dornsife.usc.edu/hist
For more on Jewish Studies at USC: http://www.facebook.com/JewishStudiesUSC; www.twitter.com/jstudiesusc
For more on the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research: http://sfi.usc.edu/cagr
For more on the interdisciplinary undergraduate minor “Resistance to Genocide”: http://dornsife.usc.edu/resistance-to-genocide/
(Tentative) SCHEDULE OF CLASSES
Attention:
Some of the film footage or the powerpoints shown in class may contain graphic images.
The Study of the Holocaust: Introduction
1. Tue Jan. 13: Class Introduction
Watching in class clips of the documentary: Triumph of the Will, (Nuremberg 1934), Riefenstahl
Watching in class short movie: Toyland, 2010
2. Thu, Jan. 15: Holocaust, Genocide: Terms and historical Interpretations
Primary sources
Definition of Genocide by Raphael Lemkin,
in: David Engel, The Holocaust. The Third Reich and the Jews, pp. 100-101.
Secondary texts
David Engel, The Holocaust. The Third Reich and the Jews, pp. 1-18, 90-97.
Watching in class clips of the movie: The Great Dictator, 1940, Charles Chaplin
How Did the Nazis Come to Power? Ideological, Political, and Social Factors facilitating the Rise of National Socialism
3. Tues, Jan. 20: Anti-Semitism, Nationalism, and Racism
Primary sources
Theodor Fritsch, The Racists’ Decalogue (1883), in: Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz (eds.), The Jew in the Modern World. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 3rd ed. 2011, pp. 327.
Secondary texts
Richard s. Levy, Antisemitism, in: Peter Hayes/John Roth (eds.): The Oxford
Handbook of Holocaust Studies, New York: Oxford University Press 2010, pp. 23-38.
Eric D. Weitz, Nationalism, in: ibid, pp. 54-67.
4. Thu, Jan. 22: Germany after World War I and Adolf Hitler
Primary sources
“Speech of the German delegation in Versailles 1919,”
in Steinhardt Botwinick, A Holocaust Reader, pp. 50-51.
“Hitler speech 1920,”
in David Engel, The Holocaust. The Third Reich and the Jews, pp. 101-102.
Secondary texts
Schleunes, The Twisted Road to Auschwitz, pp. 36-61.
Alan Steinweis, Hitler und Himmler, in: Hayes/Roth, The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies, pp. 113-127.
David Engel, The Holocaust. The Third Reich and the Jews, pp. 19-30.
Persecution in Nazi Germany 1933-37
5. Tue, Jan. 27: Boycotts, Attacks and Laws
Primary sources
The Times, 3 April 1933
“Nuremberg Laws 1935,” in: Mendes-Flohr/Reinharz, The Jew in the Modern World, pp. 730-731.
Secondary texts
Friedländer, Nazi Germany and the Jews, vol. I, 9-30, 137-151.
Watching in class part of the documentary: Triumph of the Will, (Nuremberg 1934), Riefenstahl; as well as other original film footage
6. Thu, Jan. 29: The Role of the Churches
Secondary literature
Kevin P. Spicer, Catholics, in: Hayes/Roth, The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies, pp. 233-249.
Robert P. Ericksen, Protestants, in: Ibid, pp. 250-264.
Introduction of the Holocaust and Genocide studies collection at Doheny Library
7. Tue, Febr. 3: The Role of Local Institutions and its Personnel
Primary sources
Decrees excluding Jews from German life, in: Mendes-Flohr/Reinharz, The Jew in the Modern World, pp. 723-725.
Memorandum CV head office, 16 July 1935, in: Jewish Responses to Persecution, Vol. 1: 1933-1938. (Lanham, Maryland, 2010), pp. 164-165.
Secondary texts
Gruner, “Local Initiatives, Central Coordination: German Municipal Administration and the Holocaust,” in Feldman/Seibel, Networks of Persecutions, pp. 269-294.
Kenkmann, “Looting of Jewish Property and the German Financial Administration,” in Feldman/Seibel, Networks of Persecutions, pp. 148- 167.
8. Thu, Febr. 5: Reactions in Germany and abroad
Primary sources
Robert Weltsch, “Wear It With Pride …1933,”
in Steinhardt Botwinick, A Holocaust Reader, pp. 112-113
The New York Times, 27 March 1933
The New York Times, 12 June 1933
Letter by Adolf Adler to CV head office, 9 July 1934, in: Jewish Responses to Persecution, Vol. 1, pp. 112-114.
“Wanted” ad by Jewish Community Sandersleben, July 1934, in: Ibid, pp. 115.
Secondary texts
David Engel, The Holocaust. The Third Reich and the Jews, pp. 44-55.
Wolf Gruner, “The Germans Should Expel the Foreigner Hitler”. Open Protest and Other Forms of Jewish Defiance in Nazi Germany, in: Yad Vashem Studies, Vol. 39 (2011), No. 2, pp. 13-40.
Persecution and Life in Greater Germany
RESEARCH PAPERTOPIC DUE: Tuesday Feb. 10th.
Submit hard copy in section with half a page abstract on the chosen topic and half a page with a list of literature and other sources you have found so far.
9. Tue, Febr. 10: The Annexed Austria, 1938-1943
Primary sources
Gedye, Fallen Bastions, London 1939, pp. 300-311.
Secondary texts
Friedländer, Nazi Germany and the Jews, vol. I, pp. 241-268.
10. Thu, Febr. 12: Guest lecture by Crispin Brooks: Introduction of the Shoah foundation Visual History aArchive with 52000 video testimonies on the Holocaust at USC
11. Tue, Febr. 17: The November Pogrom 1938 in Germany and Austria
Primary sources
Diary entrees Luise Solmitz, 10 and 12 November 1938, in: Jewish Responses to Persecution, Vol. 1, pp. 352-353.
Preliminary report by Heydrich to Goering (12. November 1938), in: Mendes-Flohr/Reinharz, The Jew in the Modern World, pp. 735-736.