Holocaust Studies Graduate Certificate

This course is an in-depth examination of the origins and dynamics of the ideology of the Third Reich. Among these dynamics the course examines religious secularization alongside the “sacralization of politics’ during the Third Reich. Readings and discussion uncover how concepts such as race, blood, soil, state, nation and Führer were incorporated into the sphere of faith, salvation, sacredness and myth which led these notions to acquire absolute meaning within the German ideological realm.

This course takes a more in-depth look at selected topics on the Holocaust. Selected topics courses will vary and each will explore in detail topics and themes among the following: Holocaust Perpetrators; Jewish Life in the Ghettos; Concentration/Extermination Camps; Jewish Resistance; Women and the Holocaust; Bystanders and Rescuers; The Holocaust through Diaries/Memoirs/Letters; The Nuremberg Tribunals and Holocaust Accountability.

This course is an extensive overview of the destruction of European Jewry from 1933 to 1945. It examines political, economic, and social conditions in Germany following World War I leading to the rise of the National Socialist Party and their consolidation of power paving the way for the Holocaust.

This course begins with an examination of the development of Holocaust education and early Holocaust educators in the United States. It also is designed to provide political and historical context of the Holocaust to facilitate instructional strategies.