UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

HIST 307/JWST 345 Dr. M. Rozenblit

Spring 2001 2141 F. S. Key; X5289

Mr38@umail.umd.edu

Office Hours: Tu 10-11

Th 2-4

THE HOLOCAUST OF EUROPEAN JEWRY

Required Texts: Leni Yahil, The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry

Donald Niewyk, The Holocaust, 2nd ed.

Alan Adelson, ed., The Diary of Dawid Sierakowiak

Adam Czerniakow, The Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniakow

Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz

These books are available in paperback in the campus bookstores. They, and the other books and articles listed in the syllabus, are also on reserve in the Hornbake Undergraduate Library.

Course Requirements: Midterm, Thursday, March 15

Final, Saturday, May 19, 10:30 AM-12:30 PM or Thursday, May 17, 2 PM

Paper, 10 pages, due Thursday, April 26

Grades for the course will be based on the midterm (25%); final (35%); paper (25%); participation in discussion section, including quizzes there (15%).

Course Outline and Syllabus:

Part I: The Roots of Tragedy

1/30 Introduction: The Meaning of the Holocaust

2/1 TheAntisemitic Tradition

Kenneth R. Stow, "Hatred of the Jews or Love of the Church: Papal Policy toward the

Jews in the Middle Ages," in Antisemitism Through the Ages, edited by Shmuel Almog,

pp. 71-89.

2/6 Modern Antisemitism

Peter Pulzer, The Rise of Political Antisemitism in Germany and Austria

rev. ed., pp. 27-70 (29-73 in orig. ed)

handout: readings from Stoecker, Treitschke, Protocols

2/8 Racial Antisemitism

George Mosse, The Crisis of German Ideology, pp. 126-145

handout: readings from Fritsch, Chamberlain

2/13 The Nazi Rise to Power

Yahil, pp. 15-19

Martin Broszat, Hitler and the Collapse of Weimar Germany, pp. 37-91

2/15 The Nazi State: What were Hitler's Goals?

Yahil, pp. 34-60

Niewyk, pp. 9-49

handout: selections from Hitler's Mein Kampf

Part II: The 1930s: Prelude to Catastrophe

2/20 Nazi Policy to the Jews in the 1930s

2/22 Yahil, pp. 60-73, 88-91, 104-109

2/27 German Jewry Faces the Nazis

Yahil, pp. 19-33, 73-87

Marion Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany, pp. 50-73

3/1 Kristallnacht and the End of German Jewry

Yahil, pp. 109-116

Marion Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair, pp. 119-144

3/6 & The Refugee Crisis of the 1930s

3/8 Yahil, pp. 91-104, 117-122

Henry Feingold, The Politics of Rescue, pp. 3-89

Part III: World War and Annihilation

3/13 Overview: The War and the Jews

Yahil, pp. 125-145, 186-193, 243-252

3/15 Midterm Exam

3/20 and 3/22 No Class; Spring Break

3/27 Nazi Policy: From Genocide to “Final Solution”

Saul Friedländer, “The Extermination of the European Jews in Historiography,” pp. 79-91 and Götz Aly, “The Planning Intelligentsia and the Final Solution,” pp. 92-105, in Omer Bartov, ed. The Holocaust: Origins, Implementation, Aftermath

3/29 The Establishment of Ghettos

Yahil, pp. 146-185

Czerniakow, pp. 73-175

4/3 Life in the Ghettos

Czerniakow, 176-269

4/5 The Issue of the Jewish Councils

4/10 Yahil, pp. 193-224

Czerniakow, 270-385

4/12 Mobile Killing Operations

Yahil, pp. 253-287

4/17 Deportations to the Killing Centers

4/19 Yahil, pp. 288-335, 378-456

Niewyk, pp. 199-251

4/24 Gas and Death: The Killing Centers

Yahil, pp. 356-378

Niewyk, pp. 149-197

4/26 Life and Death in the Concentration Camps

Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz

Part IV: Resistance to the Nazis

5/1 The Issue of Physical Resistance

5/3 Yahil, pp. 457-498

Niewyk, pp. 107-147

5/8 The Issue of Spiritual Resistance

Yahil, pp. 543-572

5/10 World Response to the Holocaust

Yahil, pp. 573-652

Niewyk, pp. 253-291

5/15 Evaluation: Some Final Words on the Meaning of the Holocaust

HIST 307/JWST 345

The Holocaust of European Jewry

Dr. M. Rozenblit

Spring 2000

Paper Assignment

Papers Due Thursday, April 26

Students must write a ten-page paper that analyzes The Diary of Dawid Sierakowiak (Alan Adelson, ed.) and compares Sierakowiak's experience as a teenage boy in the Lodz ghetto either to Adam Czerniakow’s account of Jewish life in the Warsaw ghetto (The Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniakow) or to another diary which deals with Jewish life in Nazi-occupied Europe.

Please address either question 1 or question 2.

1) How does Dawid Sierakowiak's experience as a teenage boy in the Lodz ghetto during World War II elucidate our understanding of how Jews responded to Nazi persecution? What does he tell us about the experience of ordinary Jews in the ghetto? What was his central concern? What is the main way he responds to the terrible situation in which he finds himself? How does his family respond? What is his understanding of what the Nazis were trying to do to the Jews in Poland? What is his attitude to the Judenrat? How does his understanding--of Jewish life in the ghetto and of Nazi policy--compare to Adam Czerniakow’s understanding as presented in The Warsaw Diary ? How does Czerniakow’s position as chairman of the Judenrat shape his understanding both of the Jews and of the Nazis? How would you compare both diaries as sources for our understanding of the Holocaust?

2) How does Dawid Sierakowiak's experience as a teenage boy in the Lodz ghetto during World War II elucidate our understanding of how Jews responded to Nazi persecution? What is Sierakowiak's central concern? What is the main way he responds to the terrible situation in which he finds himself? How does he understand Nazi policy? What is his attitude to non-Jews outside the ghetto? How does his attitude compare with the attitude of the author of the other diary or memoir which you have read? What is that author’s attitude to the Nazis? to other gentiles? How would you compare Sierakowiak's diary with the other diary or memoir as sources for our understanding of the Holocaust?

Which ever question you chose to do, please make sure you address only that question. Your papers, naturally, must be written in good English style, free of grammatical errors and stylistic infelicities. Papers must be typed, double-space, with appropriate margins. You must number your pages. If you quote from the books (a rare occurance), please indicate the author and page number in parenthesis after the quotation.

If you compare Sierakowiak to someone other than Czerniakow, you must choose a diary or memoir that deals with Jewish life in a ghetto or in hiding, but not with a memoir about the experience in the concentration and death camps or a memoir solely about resistance activity. You may choose a book on the following list, or you may choose a book not on the list. In the latter case, please show the book to me. I must approve all books by April 5.

Diaries and Memoirs of Jewish Life in Nazi-Occupied Europe

Mary Berg, Warsaw Ghetto: A Diary

Janina David, A Square of Sky/A Touch of Earth: A Wartime Childhood in Poland

Lucjan Dobroszycki, The Chronicle of the Lodz Ghetto

Alexander Donat, The Holocaust Kingdom

Moshe Flinker, Young Moshe’s Diary

Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

Saul Friedländer, When Memory Comes

Clara Isaacman, Clara’s Story

Chaim Kaplan, Scroll of Agony

Victor Klemperer, I Will Bear Witness

Abraham Lewin, A Cup of Tears: A Diary of the Warsaw Ghetto

Marga Minco, Bitter Herbs: The Vivid Memories of a Fugitive Jewish Girl in Nazi-Occupied

Holland

Emanuel Ringelblum, Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto

Blanca Rosenberg, To Tell At Last: Survival under False Identity, 1941-45

Aranka Siegal, Upon the Head of the Goat: A Childhood in Hungary, 1939-1944

Nechama Tec, Dry Tears

Avraham Tory, The Kovno Diary

HIST 307/JWSY 345

The Holocaust of European Jewry

Dr. M. Rozenblit

Spring 2000

Discussion Sections

Week:

1 Basic Introduction

Antisemitic Thinkers I: Handout: Stoecker, Treitschke, Protocols

2 Antisemitic Thinkers II: Racists: Handout: Fritsch, Chamberlain

3 Hitler's Views: Handout: Selections from Mein Kampf

Niewyk, pp. 9-49

4 Nazis and Jews in the 1930s: Selection from Marion Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair

5 The Refugee Crisis: Feingold, pp. 3-89

6 Midterm Review

7 Life in the Ghettos: Czerniakow, pp. 73-269.

8 The Jewish Councils: Czerniakow, 270-385

9 Life in the Ghettos: David Sierakowiak

10 Deportations and Death: Nazis, Gentiles, Jews

Niewyk, pp. 149-251

11 Life in the Concentration Camps:

Primo Levi: Survival in Auschwitz

12 The Issue of Resistance

Niewyk, pp. 107-47

13 Final Review