Mr. Avery-Peck Class: Thursday, 1:00-3:00
Office: 436 Stein Office Hours: T, Th, 12:00-1:00,
Phone: X-3411  3:00-4:00, or by appointment

 “Auschwitz is a no-man’s land of the mind, a black box of explanation; it sucks in all historiographic attempts at interpretation, is a vacuum taking meaning from outside history.  Only ex negativo, only through the constant attempt to understand why it cannot be understood, can we measure what sort of occurrence this breach of civilization really was.  As the most extreme of extreme cases, and thus as the absolute measure of history, this event is hardly historicizable.” — Dan Diner

This course is about the struggle to interpret an event that, because it has no historical parallels, defies representation and lacks discernible logic or meaning.  By evaluating how others have depicted, attempted to create meaningful narratives about, and drawn conclusions from the Holocaust, we hope ourselves to reach some understanding of this event, of its significance for modern society, and of its potential for helping us to recognize our own responsibilities in a world in which ultimate evil is possible.

The course unfolds in three sections: I. What Happened?, II. How Could It Happen?, and III. What Does It Mean?  Beyond the first, historical, section, each unit offers a number of different perspectives, each represented by a seminal book.  Completion of the course-work will provide a solid introduction to the larger field of Holocaust studies and, it is hoped, will comprise a firm foundation for the development of a personal response to the lessons of the Holocaust.

Requirements:
1) Reading of assignments by the date on which they are to be discussed, and Class participation, which accounts for 15% of your grade.

2) Beginning on September 24, a weekly one or two page statement on the materials discussed the preceding week, worth a total of 20% of your grade.

3) A 15 minute in-class presentation, written up as a 5-6 page essay/book review, worth 25% of your grade.

4) A final paper, fifteen pages in length, prepared according to the following procedure:
A) A one page prospectus describing the paper’s topic and thesis and including an initial bibliography is due in class on Thursday, October 8, 1998.
B) Completed papers are due in class on Thursday, November 12, 1998.
C) Graded and annotated papers will be returned on Thursday, November 19, 1998.
D) Rewritten papers are due in the Religious Studies office by 1:00 PM on Friday, December 11, 1998.  The final draft is worth 40% of your course grade.  Please hand in the original with the rewrite.

Books for Purchase:
Arendt, Hannah, Eichmann in Jerusalem
Berkovitz, Eliezer, Faith after the Holocaust
Dawidowicz, Lucy, The War Against the Jews: 1933-1945
Goldhagen, Daniel, Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary People and the Holocaust
Hayes, Peter, ed., Lessons and Legacies: The Meaning of the Holocaust in a Changing World
Proctor, Richard, Racial Hygiene
Roth, John, and Michael Berenbaum, eds., Holocaust: Religious and Philosophical Implications
Rubenstein, Richard, After Auschwitz
Wiesel, Elie, The Night Trilogy

Photocopied excerpts:
Fackenheim, Emil, Jews and the God of History
Fleischner, Eva, Auschwitz: Beginning of a New Era?
Neusner, Jacob, “A Holocaust Primer”
Peck, Abraham, Jews and Christians after the Holocaust
Ruether, Rosemary, Faith and Fratricide: The Theological Roots of Anti-Semitism
Weisbord, Robert and Wallace Sillanpoa, The Chief Rabbi, the Pope, and the Holocaust

I. What Happened?
September 3: Course Introduction

September 10: A History of the Holocaust
Reading: Dawidowicz, The War Against the Jews: 1933-1945, pp. 3-223
 Hayes, Lessons and Legacies, pp. 23-35

September 17: Nazism and the German Scientific Community
Reading: Proctor, Racial Hygiene, pp. 1-94, 177-281

September 24: The Church and the Holocaust
Reading: Weisbord, The Chief Rabbi, the Pope, and the Holocaust
 
II. How Could It Happen?
October 1: The Origins of Antisemitism
Reading: Ruether, Faith and Fratricide, pp. 53-95, 117-165, 183-225
 Roth, Holocaust, pp. 99-200
 Hayes, Lessons and Legacies, pp. 47-89

October 8: The Banality of Evil (Paper prospectus due)
Reading: Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem

October 15: Morality and Genocide
Reading: Goldhagen, Hitler’s Willing Executioners
 Hayes, Lessons and Legacies, pp. 141-224

October 22: Catch-up, film day

III. What Does It Mean?
A. Traditionalist Jewish Approaches
October 29: Orthodox Judaism in the Camps and after Genocide
Reading: Berkovitz, Faith after the Holocaust

B. Progressive Jewish Approaches
November 5: Death of God/The Commanding Voice of Auschwitz
Reading: Rubenstein, After Auschwitz
 Fackenheim, Jews and the God of History
 Neusner, “A Holocaust Primer”

November 12: A Theology of Protest (Term papers due)
Reading: Wiesel, The Night Trilogy
 Roth, Holocaust, pp. 349-370

November 19: Religion and Religious Values after the Holocaust
Reading: Roth, Holocaust, pp. 1-97
 Peck, Jews and Christians After the Holocaust, pp. 25-107
 Fleischner, Auschwitz: Beginning of a New Era?, pp. 109-148

December 3: The Future and Genocide
Reading: Hayes, Lessons and Legacies, pp. 227-328

Friday, December 11: Rewritten term papers due, along with first draft, 1:00 PM, Religious Studies Office