AMERICA AND THE HOLOCAUST

Transcription

1 AMERICA AND THE HOLOCAUST History 357W/457 Fall 2018 W Rush Rhees 362 Robert Westbrook Rush Rhees 440 Hours: M 12-1 X59349 robert.westbrook@rochester.ed u! This seminar, a "capstone" course for history majors and others interested in developing advanced skills in historical research, interpretation, argument, and writing via a consideration of a particular topic: the American response the effort by the German state and its collaborators to exterminate Jewish populations in occupied territories during World War II (what later we came to call the "Holocaust"). We will consider both the role of the United States as a "bystander" nation during the destruction of European Jewry by the Nazis in World War II and the place of the Holocaust in postwar American culture. BOOKS The following books have been ordered at the UR Bookstore. They are also on 2-hour reserve in Rush Rhees Library. Many are available online in used copies at a substantial discount. Robert Abzug, Inside the Vicious Heart Anne Frank, The Diary of Anne Frank Edward Linenthal, Preserving Memory Deborah Lipstadt, The Eichmann Trial Michael Marrus, ed., The Nuremberg War Crimes Trial Peter Novick, The Holocaust in American Life W.D. Rubinstein, The Myth of Rescue Art Spiegelman, Maus Robert Wistrich, Hitler and the Holocaust

2 ! 2 David Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews Additional shorter readings are on electronic reserve via Blackboard (B). MOVIES Movies and the questions raised by historical narrative on film will be important to the course. These films will be on reserve in the Art and Music Library and some of them will be streamed via Blackboard. They are available as well at Netflix and other online outlets. Judgment at Nuremberg The Specialist Holocaust Two other films the subject of one of the course papers will also be on reserve in the Multimedia Center: Sophie's Choice and Schindler's List. They too may be found at Netflix and elsewhere online. WEBSITES We will devote a workshop specifically to the use of internet in historical study and research, but a website you should bookmark and begin to explore immediately on your own is that of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum ( COURSE REQUIREMENTS Participation Students are expected to attend every class and participate actively in our discussions. Let me know beforehand if you are unable to attend a session. Workshop Exercises Students will complete six research assignments over the course of the term to prepare them to submit a first-rate final seminar paper. These will range from a test of their knowledge of proper citation to a research paper bibliography to a draft of their research paper. A fuller description of these exercises will be forthcoming. Papers Three papers are required for the course two relatively brief review essays ( words) and a substantial ( words) research paper. One of the review essays will be on one of

3 ! 3 two important books on American press coverage of the travails of European Jewry: Deborah Lipstadt, Beyond Belief or Laurel Leff, Buried by the Times. This paper is due on 28 September. The other review essay will be on one of two significant Hollywood films on the Holocaust: Sophie's Choice or Schlindler's List. This paper is due 16 November. The culminating requirement of the course is a research paper ( words) on one of two controversial topics that have divided historians of the American response to the Holocaust: the decision of the United States not to bomb the extermination facilities of the Auschwitz death camp in mid-1944 or the firestorm of debate stirred up by Hannah Arendt's report on the trial of Adolf Eichmann (Eichmann in Jerusalem). A full draft of this paper is due on, and the final draft on. Graduate Students In addition to the work required of undergraduates, graduate students will be required to submit an additional brief book review essay on Richard Breitman and Allan Lichtman, FDR and the Jews (due 19 October) and to lead the discussion of a seminar session of their choice. GRADING Grading in the course will be weighted as follows: Research exercises (10% total); short papers (20% each); research paper (40%); and class participation (10%). ACADEMIC HONESTY All assignments and activities associated with this course must be performed in accordance with the University of Rochester's Academic Honesty Policy. More information is available at: CLASS MEETINGS, READINGS, AND FILMS 29 August Introduction to the Course America and the Holocaust (film in class). IN THE EVENT ( ) 5 September The Holocaust: An Overview

4 ! 4 Robert Wistrich, Hitler and the Holocaust, Introduction and chs September Bystanding: The Controversy Wistrich, Hitler and the Holocaust, ch. 7. David Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews, Preface, chs. 1-3, Afterword. W.D. Rubinstein, The Myth of Rescue, Introduction, ch September Closed Doors 26 September Rescue Wyman, Abandonment, chs Rubinstein, Myth, ch. 2. Workshop 1: Quotation and Citation Wyman, Abandonment, chs Rubinstein, Myth, chs September Book Review Due: Either Deborah Lipstadt, Beyond Belief or Laurel Leff, Buried by the Times. 3 October Evil Landscapes Robert Abzug, Inside the Vicious Heart. Wistrich, Hitler and the Holocaust, ch. 8. Death Mills/Nazi Concentration Camps (films in class) Workshop 2: Primary Sources 10 October Responsibility 17 October Judgment Wyman, Abandonment, ch. 16. Rubinstein, Myth, ch. 7. Michael Marrus, ed., The Nuremberg War Crimes Trial. Judgment at Nuremberg (film)

5 ! 5 POSTWAR ( ) 24 October Everybody's Victim Anne Frank, The Diary of Ann Frank. Peter Novick, The Holocaust in American Life, Introduction and Part Two. 31 October The Man in the Glass Booth Deborah Lipstadt, The Eichmann Trial. The Specialist (film) 7 November The Making of "The Holocaust" Holocaust (TV series) Peter Novick, The Holocaust in American Life, Part Three. Imaginary Witness (film in class) Workshop 3: Research Paper Bibliography 14 November Memory and History Edward Linenthal, Preserving Memory. If you have not already done so, spend a couple hours familiarizing yourself with the web site of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum: 16 November Movie Paper Due: Either Sophie's Choice or Schindler's List. 28 November Art and Genocide Art Spiegelman, Maus (I and II) 30 November Workshop 4: Research Paper Outline 5 December Never Again Peter Novick, The Holocaust in American Life, Parts 4-5. Jeffrey Alexander, "The Social Construction of Moral Universals" (B). 12 December Workshop 5: Draft of Research Paper Due

6 ! 6 14 December Workshop 6: Individual Meetings on Research Paper Draft 19 December Final Research Paper Due: Either "(Not) Bombing Auschwitz" or "The Banality of Evil"

7 ! 7 History 357W/457 THE AMERICAN RESPONSE TO THE HOLOCAUST WORKSHOP EXERCISES The requirements for the course include completion of these four brief workshop exercises. Each student is required to complete all of these three exercises by the date due. WORKSHOP EXERCISE 1: QUOTATION AND CITATION Citation and quotation exercise. Find a quotation from each of the following: a primary source related to the American response to the Holocaust, a book about the American response to the Holocaust, a scholarly journal article about the American response to the Holocaust, and a web site dealing with the American response to the Holocaust. Reproduce the quotation and provide it with a footnote. One quotation should be a block quotation, at least one other quotation should be a divided quotation, and one quotation should be embedded in a sentence of your own prose. Leave at least three spaces between each example, and format them as you would were they part of a paper you were writing. Due 19 September. WORKSHOP EXERCISE 2: WORKING WITH PRIMARY SOURCES Last week, we discussed the debate between David Wyman and William Rubinstein over the effectiveness of the operations of the War Refugee Board in Hungary in As you will recall, these two historians are agreed that ,000 Budapest Jews survived the war and the efforts of the Nazis and their allies to exterminate them. Their disagreement centers on the extent to which the WRB can be credited with a role in this outcome. Important primary sources germane to adjudicating this debate are collected in the eighth volume (War Refugee Board: Hungary, Documents 1-26, pp. 1-61) of Wyman's thirteen-volume set of documents, America and the Holocaust. (Rubinstein uses these documents himself, and praises Wyman for collecting them. His objections are to the manner in which Wyman reads and uses the documents.) I will put this volume of Wyman's series on two-hour reserve. Check it out, read the documents (1-26) carefully, and pick out any of them that you believe have a significant bearing on the debate. For each such document provide me with notes (typewritten, please) on it of the sort that

8 ! 8 you would need to have to hand were you to write a paper attempting to adjudicate the Wyman/ Rubinstein debate on the Hungarian issue (including bibliographical information). That is, take note not only of what you take to be important information in the documents you choose but also why you think, the evidence in is relevant to the controversy. These notes are due on 3 October. WORKSHOP EXERCISE 3: BIBLIOGRAPHY Provide me with the working bibliography for your research paper, both primary and secondary sources. You may add to this bibliography after you submit it, as you continue to work on your paper, but it should include all the sources you plan to use as of the due date, which is 7 November. WORKSHOP EXERCISE 4: OUTLINE Provide me with your working outline for your research paper. This too is not set in stone, and may change as you continue to work on your paper. Yet it should lay out the framework for your entire paper as it stands on the due date, which is 28 November.

9 ! 9 History 357W/457 America and the Holocaust BOOK REVIEW ASSIGNMENT Your first paper for the course will be a critical book review. You are to write a review of relatively brief length ( words) of one of two books that consider American press coverage of the Holocaust: Laurel Leff, Buried by the Times: The Holocaust and America's Most Important Newspaper (2005) or Deborah Lipstadt, Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust, (1986). Prepare and write your review with the strictures in mind outlined in our workshop on book reviewing. That is, read the book as you would any secondary source: carefully, actively, and critically. "Pre-read" the book; determine the book's central argument or arguments; interrogate its logic and evidence; take notes and then highlight for yourself the material in your notes (including direct quotations) that you think might be most useful for your review. In your review, do not assume that your reader has read the book. Give the review a "punchy" title and try to begin with a paragraph that will draw the reader into your essay. You should summarize the substance of the book fully but succinctly, emphasizing its argument(s) and the most significant supporting evidence it offers. Evaluate the argument and evidence, noting what you find to be the book's principal strengths and weaknesses. If you find the book's prose worthy of comment, say as much. Above all, aim to be fair and analytical in your review. A "critical" review is not necessarily a negative review, but rather a review that takes a book apart, exposes its architecture, weighs its merits, and advances judgments backed by clear arguments of its own. Your enthusiasms warrant as much care as your adverse views. This review is due on 28 September. If I am not in my office to receive it, leave it with one of the administrative assistants in the History Department (364 Rush Rhees).

10 ! 10 History 357W/457 America and the Holocaust FILM AS HISTORY ASSIGNMENT Your second paper for the course will be a critical essay on a film. You are to write an analysis of relatively brief length ( words) of one of two American movies that attempt to contribute to the history of the Holocaust: Sophie's Choice (1982) or Schindler's List (1993). These movies have been streamed for you, and can be accessed on the course Blackboard page. Or they are available on reserve in the Multimedia Center or on DVD from Netflix. Both these films are good examples of what Robert Rosenstone terms the "dramatic feature film" or "mainstream drama." In such films, as he says, "the accuracy of fact is hardly the first or even the most important question to ask about the kind of historical thinking that takes place on the screen." This is all the more the case with these two films, which are based on novels (by William Styron and Thomas Keneally). In your essay consider how and how well one or the other of these two films makes use of the characteristic features and conventions of such historical movies. As you do so, keep in mind Rosenstone's conclusion that "to consider the knowledge gained from [watching these films] as anything other than historical is to ignore the evidence of three major conduits of learning one's eyes, body and heart." Although your task here is to consider one of these films as a work of history, you may, as you would in a consideration of any secondary source, venture some arguments about how the point of view of the film may have been shaped by the moment of its making. Some of the course readings (especially Peter Novick's book) may be helpful here should you wish to do this. You are not required to venture outside the syllabus for additional material for your paper, but may do so if you wish. Be sure to cite any sources other than the film itself that you use in your analysis. This review is due on 16 November. If I am not in my office (RR 440) to receive it, slip it under the door or in my mailbox outside the History Department (364 Rush Rhees).

11 ! 11 History 357W/457 America and the Holocaust RESEARCH PAPER ASSIGNMENT The most substantial and important writing requirement of this course is a research paper ( words) in which you will have the opportunity to put to use the skills in research, analysis, and writing that we have been addressing in our workshops this semester. We have placed considerable emphasis, not only in the workshops but also in our discussion of the literature on the American response to the Holocaust on the often controversial debate among historians that takes place within their community of inquiry. This assignment asks you to address yourself to one of two major controversies that have occurred among historians and others and have, in important fashion, shaped the American response to the Holocaust in the last half century. In each case, your task is to find and analyze the most important documents surrounding the controversy and use them to narrate, explain, and evaluate the significance of the controversy. That is, the questions that should guide your research are what were the origins of the controversy, how did it develop, who were the principal antagonists, what were their arguments and the most important evidence to which they appealed, how might one explain why the controversy emerged when it did and developed as it did, and what role has the controversy played in situating the Holocaust in American cultural life. You are not required to try to resolve the controversy in any conclusive fashion, yet you are free, indeed encouraged, to render your own critical judgment on the strengths and weaknesses of the competing views in the controversy. Topic One: The Eichmann in Jerusalem Controversy The controversy here is the heated debate that followed the publication of Hannah Arendt's account of the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem (1961), published first in The New Yorker and then as a book, Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963). In addition to Arendt's book and other evidence your research uncovers, your paper should make some use of the Hannah Arendt Papers in the Library of Congress, which are available on line. Topic Two: The (Not) Bombing Auschwitz Controversy The controversy here is the debate that began in the late 1970s over an event that did not happen, but that some have argued should have happened: Allied bombing in 1944 of the gas chambers and crematoria at Auschwitz.

12 ! 12 In addition to research into the principal contributions to this debate, your paper should make use of the documents in the twelfth volume (Bombing Auschwitz) of David Wyman's collection of primary sources, America and the Holocaust (1990), which will be on two-hour reserve in Rush Rhees Library. A full draft of this paper is due on 12 December, and the final draft on 19 December.