Holocaust Literature
Syllabus Spring 2015
Stephanie Heintz Wood
Questions about the Holocaust?
Roots of anti-Semitism in Europe
Basic Judaism 101
Visit to local Jewish Synagogue
Main text for the course: Images from the Holocaust, A Literature Anthology
Pre-1933 in Europe
World War I and the Versailles Treaty
Hitler’s background and his “Rise to Power”
Nazi Propaganda and The Poisonous Mushroom
Party Platforms of the elections of 1928-1932
1933-1938
Life before the Holocaust
Hitler becomes Fuehrer
Legalization of anti-Semitism and the Nuremburg Laws
Terminology (i.e. Collaborators, Victims, Bystanders, Rescuers, Liquidation, Deportation, deception)
1936 Olympics in Germany
The Evian Conference and the Voyage of the St. Louis
The early concentration camps
Kristallnacht and the Kindertransport
Guest speakers—Hanna and Howard Adler
1939-1945
Invasion of Poland and map studies
T-4 program
Ghettoization and Deportations
Excerpts from Images and The Diary of David Sierkowiak
I Never Saw Another Butterfly
We are Witnesses—teenage diaries
Jan Karski, Janus Korczak, Chaim Rumkowski, and Mordecai Anielwicz
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Hiding to survive
Images selections, review of Anne Frank, segments of The Pianist
Einsatzgruppen and Babi Yar
Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution
I Have Lived a Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson
All But My Life by Gerda Weissmann Klein and/or One Survivor Remembers
Parallel Journeys by Eleanor Ayer with Helen Waterford and Alfons Heck
Guest speaker?—Mr. Manfred Katz, Holocaust camp survivor
Post World War II
Displaced Persons Camps and Emigration
Postwar Trials—The Nuremberg Trials
Modern day holocausts--Focus on Darfur, Sudan and review of Rwanda
*In addition to the aforementioned texts, many supplemental stories, films/videos, etc. will be used to enhance
discussion and learning.
**Each student will complete a photo journal portfolio as a semester project.
***A trip to Washington, DC to visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is a possibility.