NEW COURSE
HIST 33 – The Holocaust
Semester: Spring
Offered: 2026
Instructor: Jules Riegel
Meeting Time: T, Th 1:30-2:45pm
This course will examine the Holocaust—“the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its allies and collaborators,” to use the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s concise definition, as well as the persecution and murder of millions of people from other groups: Roma and Sinti (“Gypsies”), disabled people, some Slavic people, Soviet prisoners of war, Black people, and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. We will address topics including historical antisemitism, World War I, Weimar Germany, the Nazi rise to power, Hitler’s role in the Nazi dictatorship, the persecution and murder of European Jewry, Jewish responses to persecution, and the attitude of the Allied nations. We will also place the Holocaust in the larger context of mass murder and genocide, and address some of its theological, moral, and political implications.
Course Notes: This course meets the “Beyond North America” History Concentration requirement.
Class Notes: This class requires students to enroll in an untimed, placeholder section during registration and to submit time preferences. Sections will be assigned immediately after registration based on student interest and preferences.
For more details please visit the Harvard Course Catalog.