HUM 455, Representations of the Holocaust

Hum 455
Representations of the Holocaust
Spring ‘12
B. Farley/brigitf2001@yahoo.com/bfarley@tricity.wsu.edu 541-276-6962 OFFICE HOURS 3:30-4:15 m-w, 24/7 in cyberspace. I MUCH PREFER email, in fact i HATE the phone and will always try to answer email as soon as possible. PLEASE send email to both addresses, so that I will receive it at ONE of them.

“What you do matters.” Unofficial motto of the United States Holocaust Museum, Washington DC

Welcome to Humanities 455, Representations of the Holocaust. This will not be the most light-hearted course you will ever take, but you will emerge from it wiser, in the sense that you will witness the best and worst that your fellow humans are capable of. At least, that’s the way I have learned to think about it. “Representations” is a Humanities course, taught primarily in past years from the standpoint of literature by Dr. Len Orr. Because I work in history, I will be teaching the course as primarily a history offering, all the while broadening its emphasis to include a variety of media and sources. In other words, we will examine the Holocaust historically, using and analyzing different media and sources in our journey, to include fiction, music, film and art in addition to the usual secondary readings, testimonies and documents/documentaries. The exams and exercises will offer options for those of you who have had the temerity to major in something else than history(cue the laugh track here, haha—there wont be many laughs when the course is underway).
This is my first time teaching the Holocaust, and I am sure it will show from time to time…I ask your patience and forbearance as we move through this dark wood together.

Goals: It is always desirable to have goals, whether you’re a triathlete, writer, student or professor. I have these as a foundation for us this term:

--to deepen our understanding of the events and experiences known as the Holocaust;

--per the course title, to examine and analyze representations of the Holocaust in diverse media, then and now
--
--to attempt some conclusions about what the Holocaust means to the world, 70 years on. How has the physical, moral, social and political landscape changed because of it?

--time permitting, to consider how and why people commemorate the Holocaust around the world, also why some individuals want the world to believe that it is a giant hoax, that it never really happened.

Invaluable resource: Whatever you are looking for in terms of course content, you will find it and so much more at ushmm.org, the official website for the United States Holocaust Museum. If I win the lottery, I will take us all there for spring break, but in case I don’t, the website is just outstanding. We’ll be leaning on it heavily all term long.

Readings: There are four required works for the course, all available in a number of venues: Art Spiegelman’s Maus, a unique comic book/graphic novel meditation on his own family’s history in the Holocaust; Yaffa Eliach, Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust, a collection of short stories based on survivor tales recorded by the author in the nursing homes of Brooklyn, NY; Gerda Weissman-Klein, All But My Life, a classic memoir by a survivor of the Holocaust, and Gita Sereny’s Into that Darkness, which will give you some good insight into the people who populated the Nazi killing machine and their motives. Unfortunately, they’re not very different from people you know here and now. You would like to think they are monsters.

Evaluation: You will have ample opportunity to showcase your strengths this semester. There will be a map quiz(20%), 2 response papers on “Maus,” Art Spiegelman’s unique take(a COMIC BOOK?!) on the Holocaust(20% each), and Peter Cohen’s “ documentary, “Architecture of Doom,” and a final exam, which will have take-home and in-class components(60%). There may be an additional option for those who want to pursue an aspect of the Holocaust in depth…details to follow.

Invaluable resource: Whatever you are looking for in terms of course content and/or personal interest, you will find it and so much more at ushmm.org, the official website for the United States Holocaust Museum. If I win the lottery, I will take us all there for spring break, but in case I don’t, the website is just outstanding. We’ll be leaning on it heavily all term long.

Caveats: Just a couple I am not in the habit of banning anything, but I want to discourage strongly the use of the words “inevitable” and “tragedy” in this course. This is because there was nothing “inevitable” about the Holocaust, and “tragedy” is probably the most overused term on the planet when it comes to describing this series of events. Maybe we can find some new, more appropriate vocabulary in our attempts to characterize it.

Second, this course is infused with upsetting subject matter, to put it mildly. I strongly advise you to avoid reading or thinking about it at night, as I have found in preparing it that it can and will invade your sleep. Three times recently, I have worked on the course in the evening, and twice I have had disturbing dreams, one about being discovered hiding Jews and the other about being arrested as a partisan and sent to Auschwitz. This material WILL affect you, so try to work on it only in the daylight and in small increments of time and attention.

Important announcement: The Nazis had no use for differently-abled people—in fact, they murdered, “mercy-killed,” a lot of them. If you weren’t a perfect physical specimen, too bad for you. At WSUTC, and in the United States generally by contrast, we welcome them and want them to succeed. And thus this Note from Disability Resources: Reasonable accommodations are available for students who have a documented disability. Classroom accommodation forms are available through the Disability Services Office. If you have a documented disability (even temporary) make an appointment as soon as possible with the Disability Services Coordinator Cherish Tijerina room 269 West Building. You will need to provide your instructor with the appropriate classroom accommodation form from Disability Services during the first week of class. Late notification may mean that requested accommodations might not be available. All accommodations for disabilities must be approved through the Disability Services Coordinator.

Schedule of topics…it’s impossible to know now how long each will take, so we will drive on through and see where we are at the end of April. Some of the films are tentative, too…in fact, most of the course will be TBA in this first incarnation. One thing for sure, it will not be boring or predictable.

Part I: Preconditions

Background to an outrage: antisemitism, racism, imperialism , war
Readings: Start Spiegelman, chapter 1; assorted documents TBA

Map quiz after this section…

Part II: Spark

Antisemitism in power: Nazi Germany, from theory to practice, l933-38
Readings: Sereny, part I, Spiegelman, chapter 2
Documentary film: Architecture of Doom
Other media TBA, e.g. possibly “Paragraph l74, “ about the persecution of homosexuals under the Nazis and/or Stand Firm, a film about the sufferings of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Nazi Germany.

First response paper due, on “Architecture of Doom.”

Radicalization and war, l938-39
Readings: Sereny, part II; Weissman-Klein, part I, chapters 1-8; Spiegelman, chapter 3
Film: Stand Firm
Other media TBA, including Nazi anti-handicapped films.

Part III: Inferno

Life and death under Nazi occupation: Poland and Russia
Readings: Eliach, Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust, all; continue with Weissman-Klein, part II, chapters 1-5; Sereny, part III; Spiegelman, chapter 4
Documentary film: Weapons of the Spirit
Film: “Come and See(excerpts)”
Music: Dmitrii Shostakovich, Symphony # 13, “Babi Yar,” with accompanying poem by Evgenii Evtushenko.
Other media TBA


From experimentation to systematic annihilation
Readings: Sereny, part IV, Weissman –Klein, part II, chapters 6-11; Spiegelman, chapters 4-5; others TBA
Film: Sarah’s Key(about the fate of French Jews, a horrifying story)

The concentration camp universe
Readings: finish Sereny and Weissman-Klein; finish Spiegelman.
Visual Arts: the drawings of Miriam Greenstein, survivor of Auschwitz

Second response paper due after this section, on Maus.

Rescue and resistance
Readings: TBA
Film: Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg

Part IV: Embers

Gotterdammerrung and aftermath
Readings: TBA
Music: various selections from Richard Wagner; should musicians be banned for their views?

70 years after the debut of the “Final Solution:” how and where to remember?
Readings: TBA.