Syllabus
Course Objectives:
The objectives of this course are: 1) to expose students to the controversies and debates encountered by historians, film makers, visual artists and playwrights in their depiction of the events of the Nazi period in German history; 2) to be able to identify and then analyze the arguments of critics engaged in debates about particular works; 3) to develop skills in critical thinking and writing through participation in class discussions and debates, presenting oral reports to the class, exams and a final paper. An additional writing assignment will involve students in taking turns at being the class "scribe" to take minutes of each class discussion or lecture. These minutes will become part of the web page for this course.
Course Evaluation:
- Class Participation 25%
- Oral and Group Reports 25%
- Mid Term Exam 25%
- Final Paper or Exam 25%
Course Schedule:
I: Debates Among Historians in Germany and the US
Week 1: Introduction to the Course
Jan. 24: Ernestine Schlant, Introduction to her book: The language of Silence. CR 1-12
Peter Demetz, On Auschwitz and on Writing in German: a Letter to a Student. In: After the Fires. CR 13-28
Time magazine article on E. Schlant
Scribe: Daniel D'Isidoro
Week 2: The Historians Debate (Historikerstreit) in W Germany
Jan. 29: Michael Stürmer, History in a Land without History.
Ernst Nolte, The Past that will not Pass.
Christian Meier, Condemning and Comprehending
Jürgen Habermas, Apologetic Tendencies. CR 31-49
Handout: Peter Schneider. Hitler's Shadow (Harper's 1987)
Scribe: Phillippa Allebon
Feb. 31: Ernestine Schlant: "Speeches and Controversies" chapter 8 of The Language of Silence CR 50-70
Charles S. Maier."Epilog: Whose Holocaust? Whose History?" p. 160-172
Saul Friedlander. "A Conflict of Memories?" The New German Debates about the "Final Solution" Leo Baeck Memorial Lecture. CR 71-76
Roundtable disussion to "historicize" the Historikerstreit: Bitburg, Jenninger Affair, Grass vs. Walser, etc.
Scribe: Anthony Aniello
Week 3: The Historians Debates in the US:Responses to Daniel Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners
Feb. 05: Readings: Finkelstein and Birn. A Nation on Trial: The Goldhagen Thesis and Historical Truth.
Daniel Goldhage. Germans vs. The Critics. CR 121-123
Scribe: Felicia Berenson
Feb. 07: Christopher Browning's Afterword to the 1998 edition of Ordinary Men. CR 77-96
Peter Schneider. "For Germans, Guilt isn't Enough" NY Times
Dec. 5, 1996. CR 97
Scribe: JP Corry
Week 4: Is the Holocaust Unique?
Feb. 12: Readings in Course Reader
Steven T. Katz. "The Uniqueness of the Holocaust" CR 140-151
Seymour Drescher. " The Atlantic Slave Trade and the Holocaust" CR 152-162
Scribe: Anthony Delgado
Feb 14: David Stannard. "Uniqueness as Denial: The Politics of Genocide Scholarship" CR 163-186
Scribe: Andrew Dubno
II: Public Monuments
Week 5: Public Art Memorializing the Holocaust in Germany and the US
Feb 19: Readings: James E. Young. The Texture of Memory
Scribe: Erik Eichhorn
Feb 21: Readings: James E. Young. The Texture of Memory
Scribe: Meghan Everett
Saturday Febuary 23: "I Will Bear Witness", an adaptation for the Theater of Victor Klemperer's Diaries performed by George Bartenieff at 8 pm in the Bernhard Theater at Skidmore College.
Week 6: Memory and History
Feb. 26: Natasha Goldman, Professor of Art History, will speak on Hans Haacke and Anselm Kiefer.
Scribe: Aretha Witham
Mar. 28: Readings: James E. Young. The Texture of Memory
Documentary Films: Video Testimony of Jack Stein and Jeckes
Scribe: Christie Fejeran
III: Representing the Holocaust in Film and Theater
Week 7: Documentary Film Representations of the Holocaust
Mar. 05: William Schurtman will speak about his escape to and life in the Jewish Community in Shanghai
Christine Schurtman will speak about her experiences as a "half Aryan" Catholic schoolgirl (Catholic mother, Jewish father) in wartime Munich.
Readings: William Schurtman's Report on the Jewish Refugee Community in Shanghai. CR 203-227
Christine Schurtman: Ein Schülerschicksal 1933-45
Film by Joan Grossman and Paul Rosdy. The Port of Last Resort
Scribe: Michael Godlewski
Mar. 08: Alain Resnais: Night and Fog 1955
Spring Break
Week 8: Comic and Marxist Representations of Nazi Germany before the End of World War II
Mar. 19: Charlie Chaplin. The Great Dictator 1940
Ernst Lubitsch. To Be or Not To Be 1942
Scribe: Patricia Grisafi
Mar. 21: Jurek Becker. Jacob the Liar. a novel
Frank Beyer: Jacob the Liar (made in East Germany and based on Jurek Becker's novel) 1977
Peter Kassovitz: Jakob the Liar (with Robin Williams, a Hollywood remake) 1999
Scribe: Craig Hyland
Week 9: Italian, American, and German Representations of "Ordinary People"
Mar. 26: Mary-Beth O'Brien, Prof. of German, will speak about the representation of Jews in films made in German under Nazi rule.
Scribe: David Janec
Film screenings in the evening:
- Roberto Benigni's La Vita Bella 1999
- Steven Spielberg Schindler's List 1993
- Michael Verhoeven, The White Rose 1982
- Margarete von Trotta, Marianne and Julianne 1980
Mar. 28: Performance of Bertolt Brecht's The Jewish Wife
Scribe: Jennifer Lee
IV: Poetry after Auschwitz
Week 10: "writing poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric"
Apr. 02: Readings: Selections of essays by and in response to Theodor Adorno and poems in the Course Reader
Scribe: Jordan Legg
Apr. 04: Pierre Joris will speak about Paul Celan.
Scribe: Noel Miner
V: The Cultural and Sociological Role of the Holocaust
Week 11: The Holocaust in American Life
Apr. 9: Readings: Peter Novick: The Holocaust in American Life
Scribe: Rebecca Ostrov
Apr. 11: Readings: Peter Novick: The Holocaust in American Life
Scribe: Yamilett Pichardo
Week 12: The Holocaust in American Theater
Apr. 16: Readings: Peter Novick: The Holocaust in American Life
Scribe: Jessica Rubin
Apr. 18: Readings: Peter Novick: The Holocaust in American Life
Scribe: Jessica Sauer
Week 13: Presentation of Group Projects
Apr. 23: Group Presentations
Scribe: Lauren Sher
Apr. 25: Group Presentations
Scribe: Jessica Simon
Apr. 30: Final Class Discussion
Scribe: Tara Sugarman
Suggestions for possible Group presentations.
Lawrence Graver. On Obsession with Anne Frank: Meyer Levin and the Diary. (University of California Press) 1995
Allison Owings. Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich. (Rutgers University Press) 1999
Art Spiegelman's comic strip Maus
Lawrence Langer. Holocaust Testimonies (Yale University Press) 1991
Benjamin Wilkominski's memoir Fragments.
Geoffrey Hartman. Bitburg in Moral and Political Perspective. (Bloomington Indiana) 1986
Karl Jaspers. The Question of German Guilt. 1947
Alan Dershowitz. Just Revenge. a novel. 1999.
The David Irving vs Debroah Lipstadt trial in London in the Spring of 2000.
