Course Syllabus

Holocaust and Genocide

Auschwitz Concentration Camp, 1945. Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Learning Objectives

• Develop Historical Understanding: Students will gain a comprehensive understanding of the Holocaust, with a specific focus on its events, key figures, and the impact on different groups.
• Engage with Primary Sources: Students will learn to use physical locations, such as Holocaust sites and stumbling stones, as primary sources for historical research, enhancing their ability to interpret and analyze material culture and spaces.
• Analyze Memory and Representation: Students will critically examine how the Holocaust is remembered and represented in various contexts, including museums, memorials, and public spaces, with attention to the narratives of individuals versus groups.
• Conduct Biographical Research: Through focused projects, students will develop skills in biographical research, reconstructing individual stories to understand broader historical phenomena.
• Enhance Critical Thinking and Interpretation: By engaging with diverse sources and perspectives, students will improve their ability to critically analyze historical events and their representations, considering ethical and moral implications.

Faculty

PhD (Modern History, Northwestern University, 2007). MA (Modern History, Northwestern University, 2002). BA (Modern History, Oxford University, 2001). For two decades, I have taught courses in modern history at Northwestern University in the United States and Qatar in the Middle East. My teaching emphasises creative approaches to learning that build bridges to the past. I am passionate about bringing history to life and introducing students to new places, people and ideas through innovative, student-focused pedagogy. Secretly, my goal is to turn all students into historians! I am continuing my academic journey in Denmark as a teaching and learning specialist and a faculty member focusing on 20th-century Europe at DIS. 

Readings

1. Yehuda Bauer, Rethinking the Holocaust, 2002
2. Simone Gigliotti, et al, The Holocaust: A Reader 1st ed. 2005
3. Jon E. Lewis, Voices from the Holocaust, 2006
4. Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men: Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland, 2017
5. Laurence Rees, The Holocaust, 2018  

Note: The instructor will provide additional primary and secondary sources, which will be uploaded to Canvas in the Calendar below. 

Approach to Teaching

"What would I have done?" This is the best question you can ask about the past. My teaching focuses on building bridges to the past that encourage students to leave behind the modern world and immerse themselves in the past. My goal is to reconstruct the past through primary sources and put students at the centre of major moments in history. To achieve this, I avoid lectures and focus on a combination of discussion, investigations, roleplaying and many other forms of interactive class that encourage students to become historians for a term (and hopefully longer).    

DIS Accommodations Statement 

Your learning experience in this class is important to me.  If you have approved academic accommodations with DIS, please make sure I receive your DIS accommodations letter within two weeks from the start of classes. If you can think of other ways I can support your learning, please don't hesitate to talk to me. If you have any further questions about your academic accommodations, contact Academic Support acadsupp@dis.dk. 

Expectations of the Students

Students often complain that history classes are boring because they spend all their time learning the dates on a timeline. In this course, I am not interested in what you remember. Instead, I am much more interested in what you can say about the past. This is what I call your "historical voice". I encourage students to actively engage with the history and be willing to develop and share their findings with the class. 

Specifically, active engagement in this class is defined as your active participation in the learning process, as well as your willingness to take responsibility for your own learning. In this course, you will be expected to attend all lessons, participate in class discussions, and complete assignments on time.

By actively engaging in this course, you will not only develop a deeper understanding of the subject matter, but you will also develop critical thinking skills, communication skills, and a passion for lifelong learning.

Assignments and Evaluation

Participation: 20%

 Your discussion grade requires you to attend classes and actively engage in class discussions in person and online, demonstrating a good knowledge of the material. You will be given two discussion grades over the term, the first worth 10% in the middle of the term and a second worth 10% at the end of the term. You can read more about your discussion grade in assignments.

Swedish Project 10%

In the final months of the Second World War, the Swedish Red Cross organised the White Buses rescue operation. Led by Folke Bernadotte, it transported more than 15,000 concentration-camp prisoners to safety, many of whom arrived in Sweden severely ill and separated from their families.

Working in small groups, students will investigate an individual, family, or group connected to the White Buses or the arrival of Holocaust survivors in Sweden. Research should consider their experiences before and during the Holocaust, their journey to Sweden, their reception, and their lives afterwards.

Using the collections, objects, and testimonies of the Swedish Holocaust Museum in Stockholm, each group will create a brief three-slide presentation. It should introduce the chosen story, explain its Swedish connection, and consider what it reveals about rescue, refuge, memory, and Sweden’s relationship to the Holocaust.

Long Tour Assignments 20%

Reflective Travel Journal – 10% Throughout the long study tour, students will keep a daily reflective journal documenting their observations, questions, and personal responses to the places visited. Rather than summarising events, the journal encourages students to connect course themes with their own experiences and developing historical understanding. Journals are submitted after the tour and assessed on consistency, depth of reflection, and engagement with the learning experience.

Auschwitz Field Investigation – 10% Building on their semester-long research project, students will investigate Auschwitz as a historical source through the experiences of the individual they have studied. Using observations, photographs, and guided reflection, students will evaluate how the site deepens, challenges, or reshapes their understanding of their subject and their original research question. Findings will be incorporated into the final presentation.

Research Assignment: 50% (Individual)

Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps established in 1940 near Oświęcim, Poland. The complex included Auschwitz I, the administrative centre; Auschwitz II-Birkenau, a major site of mass murder opened in October 1941; and Auschwitz III-Monowitz, a labour camp. Over 40 sub-camps were also part of this network. the first transport of Polish prisoners in June 1940 and the arrival of the first mass transports of Jews in 1942. Approximately 1.1 million people were killed at Auschwitz, the vast majority being Jews, alongside Poles, Roma, Soviet POWs, and others. The camp was liberated by Soviet forces on January 27, 1945. Studying Auschwitz is crucial for understanding the mechanisms and scale of the Holocaust, providing insight into this tragic period of history.

This project will involve reconstructing the experiences of individuals or representative groups at Auschwitz, offering a biographical analysis to deepen our understanding of the Holocaust. By focusing on personal stories, students can explore the diverse perspectives and roles within the camp, from guards and their collaborators to different groups of prisoners, such as Jews, Poles, Roma, and Soviet POWs, as well as the varied experiences and jobs these prisoners had, such as forced labourers, medical experiment subjects, or members of the Sonderkommando. Additionally, students can examine the role of local bystanders and the broader community’s response. This approach is valuable because it humanises the historical narrative, moving beyond statistics to emphasise the personal and emotional dimensions of the Holocaust. It allows for a more nuanced understanding of the complex social dynamics and moral choices faced by individuals, enriching our comprehension of this tragic period in history.

The project will consist of several key stages. Initially, students will engage in an ungraded brainstorming session to develop their research ideas. This will be followed by a two-page research proposal, providing an introduction to the chosen subject and its context within the Holocaust. Students will then create a research plan using a storyboard format, outlining the narrative structure and key points of their study. Finally, they will present their findings on the experiences of individuals at Auschwitz in a multimedia format, combining visual and textual elements to convey a comprehensive biographical analysis.

• Research Idea – ungraded
• Research Proposal - 10%
• Research Plan – 10%
• Presentation - 10%
• Final Draft - 20%

AI Statement:

How you use AI changes from assignment to assignment. Each assignment in Canvas tells you what AI is for at that stage. Some make heavy use of it, some ask you to set it aside, and one does not use it at all.

AI often invents facts, names, and dates. Check anything specific against the readings before you rely on it.

Every submission must include a short note: which AI tool you used, what you asked, and what you took from it. This is required even when you did not use AI.  

If anything is unclear, ask me before you submit.

Academic Regulations 

Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on:

• Course Enrollment and Grading
• Academic Expectations and Honor Code

DIS - Study Abroad in Scandinavia - www.DISabroad.org