Introductory Seminar
Fall 2008
This course addresses one of the major questions of the modern age: why was Germany, a land of finely developed humanistic traditions, also the land which perpetrated the Holocaust? We will attempt to answer this question by engaging with a wide range of historical sources documenting German-Jewish relations in the 20th century. We will study manifestations of German anti-Semitism and formations of modern German-Jewish identities before 1933, as well as the marginalization, exclusion and murder of Jews during the Third Reich. We will then turn to the complex phenomenon of German-Jewish relations after the Holocaust. We will explore various attempts in East and West Germany to “come to terms” with the Nazi past, the heated debates surrounding the forms and functions of German commemorative culture after unification in 1989/90, and the emergence of new German-Jewish identities in the Berlin Republic. Course materials will draw on memoirs, philosophical texts, political tracts, literary works, and selections from scholarly literature. This course is designed to introduce first and second-year students to reading and writing about history. Requirements include regular participation in class discussions, one brief in-class presentation, and three short essays (5-6 pages). There will be no mid-term or final examinations.