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COURSE NUMBER: HIST 399
COURSE TITLE: Special Topics in History - 2010/11 Spring -Field Trip to Eastern Europe
NAME OF INSTRUCTOR: Dr Mark Sandle
CREDIT WEIGHT AND WEEKLY TIME DISTRIBUTION: credits 3(hrs lect 3 - hrs sem 0 - hrs lab 0)
COURSE DESCRIPTION: A course on a topic of figure of special interest to a member of the history faculty and offered on a non-recurring basis.

Prerequisites: HIST 202 or 204

2010/11 Spring

This course consists of an 8 day field trip to Budapest, Krakow and Prague.

You will be assessed on the basis of 3 pieces of work.

Attendance on all the visits and trips is compulsory.

The final deadline for all the work is June 28th.

The course is themed around the Holocaust, World War 2 and the Cold War.

There is a separate document which gives the details of the trip.

REQUIRED TEXTS:
  • Larry May, editor.  War: Essays in Political Philosophy (Cambridge, 2008)
    Rodney Stark, God’s Battalions: The Case for the Crusades (HarperOne, 2009)
    Additional course readings will be assigned throughout the semester.
MARK DISTRIBUTION IN PERCENT:
Assignment 1 (2500 words)30%
Reflective Journal 30%
Essay on the Auschwitz Site and Remembering the Holocaust (2000 words) 40%
100%

ASSIGNMENT 1:Assignment 1 2000 words

By way of introduction, you should watch the following documentary from the World At War series:

Final Solution (parts 1 and 2) (volume 10), available in the King’s library.

For the piece of work prior to going, I want you to read/watch one thing from each of the 3 lists attached to this sheet.

 As you are reading through/watching, I want you to think about the following questions:

-    why did the Holocaust happen?
-    Why did people carry out such atrocities?
-    Why was there not more resistance or struggle from the victims?
-    How did people survive?
-    How can we make sense of it?

Then I would like you to write a 2500 word paper which compares and contrasts the strengths and weaknesses of the three different types of source as ways of understanding the Holocaust:

-    Memoir accounts
-    film
-    academic/historical

All of the books below are in the King’s library.
LIST A:

Memoir Accounts of the Holocaust:
Anne Szedlecki, Album of My Life (Toronto, 2009)
Fred Mann, A Drastic Turn of Destiny (Toronto, 2009)
Paul-Henri Rips, E/96 Fate Undecided (Toronto, 2009)
Alex Levin, Under the Red and Yellow Stars, (Toronto, 2009)
William Tannenzapf, Memories from the Abyss (Toronto, 2009)
Rachel Shtibel, The Violin (Toronto, 2009)
Jack Weiss, Memories, Dreams, Nightmares (Calgary, 2005)
Terez Moses, Staying Human Through the Holocaust (Calgary 2005)
Anita Brostoff (ed.), Flares of Memory: Stories of Childhood During the Holocaust (Oxford, 2001)
Anita Lobel, No Pretty Pictures: A Child’s View of War (New York, 2000)
Manny Drukier, The Holocaust: A Boy’s Tale (Toronto, 1996)
David Sierakowiak, The Diary of Dawid Sierakowiak (OUP, 1996)
Felicia Karay, Death Comes in Yellow (Harwood Academic Publishers, 1996)
Elie Wiesel, All Rivers Run to the Sea (Knopf, 1995)
Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition (Doubleday 1995)
Eta Berk, Chosen (Goose Lane 1992)
Ruth Bondy, Elder of the Jews: Jakob Edelstein of Theresienstadt (Grove Press, 1989)
Benjamin Mendelkern, Escape From the Nazis (Lorimer, 1988)

LIST B:
Holocaust Films:
The Pawnbroker (1964)
Sophie’s Choice (1982)
The Music Box (1989)
Schindler’s List (1993)
Jakob the Liar (1999)
The Pianist (2002)
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)


LIST C:
Academic Works on the Holocaust:

Donald Bloxham, The Final Solution: A Genocide (OUP, 2009).
Ian Kershaw, Hitler, the Germans and the Final Solution (Yad Vashem, 2008)
Michael Berenbaum, The World Must Know (USHMM, 2006)
Shirli Gilbert, Music in the Holocaust (OUP, 2005)
Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews [3 vols.] (YUP, 2003)
David Cesarani, The Final Solution: Origins and Implementation (Taylor & Francis 2002)
Yehuda Bauer, Rethinking the Holocaust (YUP, 2001)
Omer Bartov, Mirrors of Destruction: War, Genocide and Modern Identity (OUP, 2000)
Omer Bartov, The Holocaust (Routledge, 2000)
Omer Bartov, Murder in Our Midst (OUP, 1996)
Giorgio Agamben, Remnants of Auschwitz (Zone Books, 1999)
Gotz Aly, Final Solution: Nazi Population Policy and the murder of the European Jews (OUP, 1999)
Wolfgang Benz, A German Historian Examines the Holocaust (Columbia University Press, 1999)
Daniel Goldhagen, Hitler’s Willing Executioners (Random House, 1996)
Christopher Browning, The Path to Genocide: Essays on Launching the Final Solution (CUP, 1992)
Deborah Dwork, Children with a Star: Jewish Youth in Nazi Europe (Yale University Press, 1991)
Antony Polonsky, Jews in Eastern Poland and the USSR 1939-46 (St. Martin’s Press, 1991)
Antony Polonsky, My Brother’s Keeper: Recent Polish Debates on the Holocaust (Routledge, 1990)
Michael Marrus, The Holocaust in History (University Press of New England, 1987)
Martin Gilbert, The Holocaust (Rinehart and Winston 1986)
Carol Rittner, The Courage to Care (NYUP, 1986)
ASSIGNMENT 2:Reflective Journal

In this piece of work I want you to record your thoughts on the trip, and the historical places that we visit. In particular, I want you to think and write about:

-    what you have learned each day from the places you visited?
-    what are the benefits of a field trip and visits to specific sites and locations as a way of understanding the past? (use specific examples from the places on this tour)
-    what are the three most important things you have learned on this trip?

Please also include some photos in your journal. E-mail the completed journal to me by June 20th 2011.
ASSIGNMENT 3:Essay on the Auschwitz Site and Remembering the Holocaust 2000 words

When we go to Auschwitz, I would like you to think about the role of museums/memorial sites in helping us to understand the past. In particular, as we walk around, reflect a little on the following issues:

-    Who is the audience for the exhibits?
-    Whose story is being told?
-    Which stories are not being told?
-    Are there any silences in the exhibition?
-    Is there sufficient historical contextualisation?
-    What is the purpose of the Auschwitz museum: Education? Commemoration? Historical narrative? Tourism?

Please read the article by Isabel Wollaston, “Negotiating the Market-Place: the role(s) of Holocaust museums today” in Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, vol. 4, no. 1 March 2005.

When we get back, please answer ONE of the following questions:

1.    How effective is the Auschwitz museum in helping us to understand the Holocaust?
2.    What problems are there in remembering the Holocaust from a Christian perspective?
3.    Assess the arguments for and against the idea of the Holocaust museum as an educational institution designed to provide moral lessons for living in the present. Do you believe that a Holocaust museum should be explicitly educational in its mission?

Please note:
1.    Assignments must be submitted on or before the due date. Late assignments will only be accepted with the prior consent of the tutor, or in cases where there are clear mitigating circumstances to explain the late submission.
2.    Work submitted in another course and/or university will not be accepted in this course.
3.    Students should read a range of material – textbooks, monographs, journal articles – for their assignments. The more you read, the better your work will be.

4.    Work must be submitted hard copy (paper). It must:

•    Be typewritten
•    Be double-spaced
•    Be in 12 point font
•    Have a bibliography
•    Have references/notes
•    Include a word-count

5.    Students should use the Chicago system of referencing and stick to it.


Required texts, assignments, and grade distributions may vary from one offering of this course to the next. Please consult the course instructor for up to date details.

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