NEW COURSE
FRSEMR 49G – The Holocaust in History, Literature, and Film
Semester: Fall
Offered: 2022
Instructor: Kevin Madigan
Meeting Time: M 3:45pm-5:45pm
This seminar will approach the Nazi persecution of European Jewry from several disciplinary perspectives. Initially the seminar will explore the topic historically. In these weeks, the seminar will use a variety of historical materials dealing with the history of European anti-semitism, German history from Bismarck to the accession of Hitler, the evolution of anti-Jewish persecution in the Third Reich, and the history of the Holocaust itself. Sources to be used will include primary sources produced by the German government 1933-1945, by Jewish victims-to-be or survivors, documentary films, and secondary interpretations. The aims of this part of the seminar will be to understand the basic background to and narrative of the Holocaust, to introduce freshmen to the use of primary historical sources, and to familiarize them with some of the major historiographical debates. Then the members of the seminar will ponder religious and theological reactions to the Holocaust. Here the seminar will use literary and cinematic resources as well as discursive theological ones. The seminar will also consider the historical question of the role played by the Protestant and Catholic churches and theologies in the Holocaust. The seminar will conclude with an assessment of the role played by the Holocaust in today’s world, specifically in the United States. Throughout the seminar, participants will use various literary and cinematographic sources and test their limits in helping to understand and to represent the Holocaust.
Course Notes: The instructor is the Faculty Dean of Eliot House and the seminar will meet in the Dean’s Residence, 967 Memorial Drive.
Course Requirements: Course open to Freshman Students Only
For more details please visit the Harvard Course Catalog.