PJ 4000-100/ETH
3010-002
The
Nazi Holocaust: Social and Cultural Impact and Perspectives
Spring
2009 Semester
Wednesday,
6:10 – 8:50 p.m.
Center
for Peace & Justice Education
Dr.
Andrew E. Mathis
andrew.mathis@villanova.edu
Office
hours: Before and after class and by appointment
Telephone:
215-893-1759 (24-7 voice/fax line)
Texts:
"Exterminate
All the Brutes"
– Sven Lindqvist
The
Seventh Million – Tom
Segev
Holocaust:
Religious & Philosophical Implications – Ed. by John K. Roth & Michael
Berenbaum
Maus
– Art Spiegelman
The
Sunflower – Simon
Wiesenthal
Everything
Is Illuminated – Jonathan
Safran Foer
What
Is the What – Dave
Eggers
Several
online readings and handouts
Course
Requirements:
One
7-15 page paper on a topic of your choice (60% of grade)
One
15-minute oral report on a topic of your choice (30% of grade)
Class
participation (10% of grade)
This
course serves to put the Nazi Holocaust into historical, theological,
sociological, political, and ethical perspective by examining the factors that
gave rise to the Holocaust, by discussing how the world has reacted to the
Holocaust in the sixty-plus years since it ended, and how we continue to react
to the Holocaust despite it having ended with the end of World War II.
Particular attention will be given to the effect of the Holocaust on religious
faiths (Judaism and varities of Christianity) and on global consciousness of
genocide.
Course
Schedule
1/14:
Introduction/Historical Overview
1/21:
How could this happen?
Article on Armenian genocide (handout); David S. Wyman interview with Rabbi
Hillel Cook (handout)
1/28:
Why the Jews?
Augustine on Seneca from City of God, VI.11 (online); Melito of
Sardis (online);
Poem on Hugh of Lincoln (online);
Article by Lebrun (online);
Cum nimis absurdum
(handout); On the Jews and Their Lies by Martin Luther (online);
Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion (online);
Article on the Bolsheviks (online)
2/4:
Why the Germans?
Hitler (online); Milgram (handout); Stanford Prison Experiment (online); "Exterminate All the
Brutes!"; Review
of Goldhagen (handout)
2/11:
Punishment and Revenge
- Segev, Part VI
2/18:
Religious impact on Judaism
- Roth & Berenbaum, Part III
2/25:
Religious impact on Christianity
- Seeligsberg Declaration (online); Nostra Aetate (online);
"We Remember" (online);
Haynes (handout); Anderson (online);
Tabak (online)
3/4:
Spring Break
3/11:
Impact on Jewish culture
- Maus; JTSA debate
(handout)
3/18:
Can there be forgiveness?
The Sunflower
3/25:
Is there a new anti-Semitism?
Wistrich (handout); Finkelstein (online); Neumann (online)
4/1:
Impact on the arts - Everything
Is Illuminated
4/8:
No class
4/15:
Uniqueness and Denial
– Hancock (online); Pachlowska (online); Stannard (online);
McFee (online);
Mathis (online)
4/22:
Israel and Zionism -
Segev, Parts VII and VIII; Marmur (online)
4/29:
Did humanity learn anything?
What Is the What