2014-2015 Academic Catalog

Apr 29, 2024

2014-2015 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

HIST 274 - Public History of the Holocaust

Maybe more than any other historical event, the Holocaust has drawn enormous and still increasing attention of broader audiences all over the world. Apart from ten to twenty thousand mostly academic books on the Holocaust, the murder of the European Jews during the Second World War is the subject of popular television documentaries, box office hits, bestselling memoirs and novels, overcrowded museums, memorials and exhibitions, controversial curricula, spectacular trials, and professional or not so professional websites. Legions of archivists are striving towards saving the material remains of Holocaust for future generations, and politicians as well as demagogues invoke the Holocaust as that one cautionary tale, whatever their respective interest is. This course introduces into the manifold ways in which bloggers, journalists, movie makers, curators, educators, and other practitioners create and present the Holocaust in the public arena. Exploring the contested nature of history itself and the continuous dialogue that the present engages with the past, the course trains students’ awareness of the chances and pitfalls of using historical knowledge in the public sphere.

Anticipated Terms Offered: Bi-annually