This course will be an electronically based investigation of the
Holocaust from historical, sociological and rhetorical perspectives.
Through e-mail lectures, readings, audio and video recordings, and
use of World Wide Web sites on the Holocaust (including the archives
at Jerusalem 1, Shamash, the US Holocaust Museum, and the Simon
Wiesenthal Institute) we will explore the roles of what Hilberg calls
the perpetrators, victims, and bystanders. Special emphasis will be
placed on understanding how the Nazis came to exterminate the bulk of
the Jewish population of Europe and the world wide acquiescence of
that extermination. We shall explore and discuss resistance and
rescue from a variety of perspectives. We shall also focus in a
significant fashion on Jewish cultural responses to the Nazis in the
form of poetry, drama, diaries, journalism, religious expression and
scientific inquiry. Finally we shall examine the aftermath of the war
including the war crimes trials, the creation of the State of Israel,
the Bricha (illegal immigration to Palestine starting during World
War II and ending with the creation of the state of Israel) and a
host of other topics.
We will see the extreme results of inter-ethnic and inter-cultural conflict represented in the examples of the course. This case study of genocide also provides examples of the use of modern technology without moral or ethical bounds. We will be forced to closely examine our own moral understandings in light of the realities of genocide in the 20th century. Our undersatnding of genocide leads us to an appreciation of the necessity for maintaining tolerance of cultural diversity and a refusal to let the hate-based policies of small groups become the policy of the nation. It is crucial that, through the examination of the extreme results of prejudice and ethnocentrism we begin to understand our individual and corporate responsibilities for moral and ethical acceptance of diverse peoples and perspectives.
Format: Each week, lectures and reading assignments will be
disseminated via e-mail and the VEE (Virtual Educational Environment
- see next paragraph for a short explanation) to all registered
students. Students will be able to either ask specific questions or
make reaction statements to the readings, lectures and other
materials via e-mail to the instructors. Responses to selected
questions will be sent out once a week by the instructors. Discussion
will also be integral to the course through the use of a VEE students
will be able to enter into a virtual classroom for discussion with
other students. This virtual classroom will have a number of tables.
The students will be divided up into discussion groups and will
virtually sit at a table at the same time with 5-10 other students.
Discussion topics will be given by the instructors over the course of
the semester; students are encouraged to add their own discussion
topics as well. The VEE is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; time
zone differences will not present an access problem. While the
instructors will organize certain times for groups of students to
meet at least once every other week on the VEE for 60-90 minute
discussions, students can also arrange to meet other students on the
VEE and use this interactive technology as often as they wish. The
instructors will occasionally join the discussion group and
participate in the discussions. The instructors can also download the
full transcript text of all the discussions and may do so
periodically.
Grading: There will be two exams in the course; both exams
will be essay questions that need to be answered and e-mailed to the
instructors within seven days of their being sent out. While your
performance on the essay examinations will be the major part of your
final grade in the course (this is true whether you choose to take
this course for a letter grade or for credit/no credit),
participation in the discussion groups will also be considered.
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