Course Objectives:
1. To study the Holocaust from the victims’ rather than the
perpetrators’ perspectives, incorporating recent publications 
and approaches to this interdisciplinary field of study.

2. To familiarize students with the various documentary forms
chosen by victims to relate their experiences. These include 
both concurrent documentation in diaries and letters, as well as
reflective testimonies (including ones recorded on video and
audio) and autobiographical texts.

3. To examine controversies and issues in the fictionalization 
of the Holocaust in autobiographical novels, fictional prose, 
and films.

4. To engage students in considering the theoretical issues that
arise from the various forms of personal narratives and fiction
when seen from historical, artistic, and literary standpoints.

5. To address contemporary problems of museum and website
memorialization as they intersect with individual experiences. 
To address Holocaust denial.

Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of the course, students will have attained the
following:

1. A general historical knowledge of the Holocaust.

2. Familiarity with a variety of texts and films, focusing on
individuals from different parts of occupied Europe.

3. Knowledge of theories pertaining to autobiography and
representations of the Holocaust.

4. Knowledge of the interdisciplinary nature of Holocaust
Studies; perspectives and approaches of various disciplines.

5. Critical thinking and writing skills attained through writing
and other assignments.

Topical Outline
Includes possible/likely readings and films; this is not a 
weekly syllabus.

I. Introduction: History of the Holocaust
Bergen, War and Genocide: A Concise History, Chapters 1-4
News film clips

II. Life in Germany 1933-38
Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany
(contains extensive quotations from eyewitnesses)
Excerpts from Matthäus and Roseman: Jewish Responses to the
Holocaust: 1933-38
Excerpts from Victor Klemperer’s diaries

III. Kristallnacht–November Pogrom
Survivor testimonies on video
News clips

IV. War Years
Bergen, Chapters 5-8
News clips

V. Concurrent Accounts
The Journal of Hélène Berr
Excerpts from Kassow, Who Will Write Our History? (Documents of
the Warsaw Ghetto)
Excerpts from Roskies, The Literature of Destruction

VI. Immediate Responses: Memoir
Levi, Survival in Auschwitz
Selected readings in memoir and diary theory

VII. Later Memoirs
Klüger, Still Alive

VIII. Recorded and Live Testimonies
Student projects using online resources from the “Spielberg” 
(USC
Shoah Foundation) and other digitized resources.
Excerpt from Lanzmann, Shoah (film)
Visit and talk by a survivor

IX. [Auto]Biographical “Fiction”
Kertész, Fatelessness
Schindler’s List (film)

X. “Fictionalizations” in Literature and Film
Spiegelman, Maus
Defiance (film)

XI. Humor, Fiction, and the Holocaust
Inglorious Basterds (film)
Selected theoretical readings

XII. Commemoration and Museums
Student projects

XIV. Denial and the Reception of the Holocaust Today
Lipstadt, History on Trial (possible guest lecture)

XV. Review

Theoretical and supportive readings and materials to be taken
from books and articles by Felman, Friedlander, Horenstein and
Jacobowitz, James, LaCapra, Lang, Langer, and Young.

UGA culture of honesty policies and procedures will be strictly
enforced. This applies to all work for the course.