LARTS 326 — The Holocaust and Genocide

3 credits
Fall
Edward Bristow

The Holocaust is the best-known and largest-scale genocide in history. It took place in twenty countries over six years. Our course will investigate how Germany, the best-educated nation in the world, came to orchestrate and carry out the murder of millions of Jews and others. The Holocaust is a laboratory for the study of human behavior and emotions in extreme situations. We will try to understand those in Hitler’s inner circle who planned these events or were caught up in them as routine perpetrators. We will consider how the victims responded, why some institutions with influence and moral authority, like the Vatican, failed even to speak out, while courageous individuals and networks risked their lives to engage in rescue activities. That Hitler and many in his inner circle were devoted to high culture while pursuing mass murder provides another dimension to our course. We will look at the influence of Wagner on Hitler and German antisemitism; the Nazi campaign against decadent music and art; the work of Nazi choreographer Rudolf Laban; cultural life at the Theresienstadt concentration camp; the Auschwitz women’s orchestra; and, finally, the case of the great conductor, Wilhelm Furtwangler, which raises the very timely question of the artist’s public responsibility.