Understanding the Holocaust leads to understanding hate. Studying the rise of the Nazis and their extermination of the Jews and other social undesirables is an exploration into how ordinary people can, through mass persuasion and social structural constraints, be led into committing genocide, the ultimate horror in human behavior.
Through lessons sent out over the net, readings, email discussions, visiting www sites (including the archives at Virtual Jerusalem, Shamash, the Cybrary of the Holocaust -- one of our past students work -- the US Holocaust Museum, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and other web sources), and video, we will explore the roles of the perpetrators, victims, bystanders and rescuers during this horrific period in the 20th century.
Special emphasis will be placed on:
We will see the extreme results of inter-ethnic and inter-cultural conflict represented in 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 understanding of genocide leads us to an appreciation of the necessity for maintaining tolerance of cultural diversity and a refusal to let hate-based policies of small groups become the policy of a 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.
This is a course via the Internet. While Internet courses are for the most part new and experimental, this course is not. You are getting two experienced professors who were pioneers in Internet teaching. So not only will you be getting high quality content, but you will be working with tried professionals.
Having said that we want to also point out to you that the reality of Internet courses is that they are self-motivated. You get out of the course what you put in. If you put in a very little the chances are good that you will get little back. Because of the intense reading level and the demand on your own self discipline in reading, writing and thinking about the topics you will need to put in effort in independent research to get the full benefit of the course. We will act as your guides and helpers. We see ourselves as entering this endeavor as co-learners. We are partners in this activity. Another way to look at an Internet course is as if it is a tutorial. Tutorials work best when students are given reading lists and told to go read then come back and write and we as professors respond and critique your words. Many students feel that the tutorial form is one of the best forms of instruction available. So you get to sit at home in comfort, with your cup of refreshment, and get to write and think about a subject that is both dramatic and captivating, covering the whole spectrum of human values and moral ethical behavior. What could be better
This is an undergraduate course. However, this course can be taken for graduate credit by registering for SOCI 298C. For graduate students to receive credit for the course additional work must be done. If you wish to receive graduate credit you must be in contact with the instructors to discuss additional work options tailored to your needs and interests.
The course will involve reading several acclaimed books on the Holocaust and reading the lessons sent out by the instructors via email. All students will be able to ask questions of the professors and the others in the class via email. We will periodically send selected questions and comments to Holocaust survivors and noted scholars for response. The required books can be purchased through the university bookstore if you wish to do so.
With most lessons, we will be suggesting a short list of optional books and/or articles that you might want to read if you want to explore the topic of that lesson further. We also list titles of video documentaries and films that are worth viewing because of the important insights they provide.
Those who take this course for credit will be required to submit written work for grading. All of this will be conducted via email.
Twice during the course, you will write an essay in response to questions e-mailed to you by the instructors. In your essays, you will be expected to make use of the information in the lessons and the readings. These essays will make up half of your grade. If you are taking this course for graduate credit, you will have to complete these essays and complete the additional requirements that we decide on together for this half of your grade.
The other half of your grade will be based on short comments or questions that you submit to the instructors throughout the course. You will be expected to respond to every lesson and each required reading with short questions or comments. Some of your questions and comments may be shared with the other students taking the class. That way, your questions and comments will not only help us make sure that you are understanding the material, they will also get some interesting discussions going that will make this class even more exciting. To help facilitate this sharing, each of you will down load a copy of FirstClass.® FirstClass® is software that permits you to send and receive email from students in the course; you can each download special files that we put onto the server and you can each be involved in real time chat discussions (see the technical requirements for FirstClass® at the end of this syllabus).
We will follow the grading policy at the California State University, Chico. Letter grades will be based on the total points earned on your written essays and responses. To get an "A," you must earn at least 90% of the total possible points in the course. To get a "B," you must earn between 80% and 89% of the total possible points in the course, etc. (plus and minus grades will be given as well). To pass the class at all, you must earn a minimum of 60% of the total possible points in the course.
In accordance with university policy, withdrawal from the course after the deadline may be due to personal or family illness, work conflict, or other serious problem. Unsatisfactory work in the course is not an acceptable reason for withdrawal.
All assignments must be clearly and logically written as well as grammatically correct. Correct grammar and spelling are required and your grades will suffer for deficiencies in these. Papers that are not well written or that have excessive errors may be returned ungraded for correction.
One important warning: whenever you use someone else's ideas or facts, you must cite them in the appropriate form. This applies whether you rephrase their work in your own words or use their words exactly. Failure to use citations is plagiarism; in essence, by not using a citation, you are passing off their work as your own. Plagiarism will be dealt with severely in this class so be sure to cite your sources in the body of the paper and include a bibliography.
The World Must Know by Michael Berenbaum. 1993, Little Brown and Co. ISBN 0-316-09134-0
Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning. 1992, Harper Collins Publishers. ISBN 0-06-019013-2
The Abandonment Of the Jews by David Wyman. 1984, Random House. ISBN 0-394-74077-7
Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi. 1958, Macmillian Publishing Company. ISBN 0-02034300-0
Trap With A Green Fence: Survival in Treblinka by Richard Glazar. 1992, Northwestern University Press. ISBN 0-8101-1169-1
The Altruistic Personality by Samuel Oliner and Pearl Oliner. 1990 New York, Free Press. ISBN 0-02-923829-3
The books listed above are basically in the order in which we will be reading them in the class. The Berenbaum book is our textbook and you will be reading it over the whole course. Each of the remaining books will be read in conjunction with the appropriate lessons, as indicated below.
These books were chosen, not only because of their high quality and insight, but also because they cover a wide range of special topics on the Holocaust. Ordinary Men is a powerful book on the perpetrators, not the high ranking Nazis that we usually think of in conjunction with the Holocaust, but the ordinary guys who ending up doing the mass murdering. From this book, we get a vivid picture of how the murdering was organized. We also get some important insight into how these men, who were not filled with ideological hate, who were not criminals, who had never murdered anyone before, transformed themselves into mass murderers and how certain psychological and social pressures aided in that transformation. The Abandonment Of the Jews is a fascinating study of the role of the United States and the other Allied nations in letting the Holocaust happen. While many refer to the US as a bystander to the slaughter, this book and our lessons on the bystanders (like the churches, the media, and the nations outside Europe) takes a very different view. We learn from the book that the US was not a neutral spectator to the events, that it had many opportunities to take action to retard the genocide but chose not to, and that its actions encouraged and supported the genocide in many ways. The next two books are survivor accounts of the Holocaust; Levi writes about Auschwitz and Glazer writes about Treblinka. Both are riveting accounts of the horrors of the death camps from the victim's perspectives. The last book we read together is on the rescuers, those people who risked their lives and the lives of their families to hide Jews from the Nazis. One of the authors, Sam Oliner was himself a survivor of the Holocaust who was hidden by a non-Jewish woman, though he does not talk about his personal experiences in the book. The authors have done a very large and thorough study of rescuers and we learn a lot about these people, the heroic and good people in this uncivilized and evil time. When studying the Holocaust, people focus almost exclusively on the evil that was done, forgetting the good side of the human spirit that emerged in a few people. But in this course, we don't want to make that same mistake. That makes this book very important reading.
The general topics that will be discussed in the course are:
Lesson 1 Introduction: History of Hate in Europe.
Lesson 2 Hitler and the Nazi Party's Rise to Power.
Lesson 3 Planning and Implementing the Final Solution. (Read Browning)
Lesson 4 Implementing the Final Solution -continued.
Lesson 5 Implementing the Final Solution-continued.
Lesson 6 Nations & Religions Within & Outside the Reich Controlled Area React. (Read Wyman)
First Essay to be completed by those taking the
course for credit.
Lesson 7 Armed Resistance in Response to Persecution.
Lesson 8 Additional Victim Responses to their Persecution. (read Levi and Glazer)
Lesson 9 Additional Victim Responses-continued.
Lesson 10 The Rescuers: Individuals and Groups. (read Oliner)
Lesson 11 The War Ends: Nazi Hunting After W.W.II, the War Crimes Trials, the United Nations Genocide Convention, and the Creation of Israel.
Lesson 12 Anti-Semitism and Hate in the 1980's and 90's. The Holocaust Deniers
Second Essay to be completed by those taking
the course for credit.
Required Technical Equipment: Participants need access to either a Mac or PC. Mac 3.5 client minimum requirements are System 6.04 or later, 1.2 MB of RAM (for Power PC, 1.7 MB RAM) and at least 2MB of free disk space. For PC users minimum requirements are Windows 3.1 or later, 2MB of free disk space (486 with minimum of 16MB RAM recommended). Software requirements are communication software to access the World Wide Web, a web browser (Netscape 3.0 or higher is recommended), and FirstClass®, an e-mail and collaboration software product which can be downloaded from CSU, Chico. The latest FirstClass® client (3.5) runs on Windows (3.x, '95, NT) and Macintosh (system 6.04 or later) computers; versions are available for earlier OSs, including DOS machines and character-based terminals, but are not recommended for this course. User ID and password to access FirstClass® provided upon registration.
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Dr. Carol Edelman |
Dr. Sam Edelman |
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Sociology and Social Work |
Communication Arts and Sciences |
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California State University, Chico |
California State University, Chico |
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Chico, CA 95929-0445 |
Chico, CA 95929-0505 |
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phone: 916.898-4646 or 4767 |
phone: 916.898-4336 or 6201 |
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fax: 916.898-4571 |
fax: 916.898-4096 |
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e-mail: |
e-mail: |