| Unit name | The Past That Does Not Pass: The Memory of WWII and the Holocaust (Level I Special Field) |
|---|---|
| Unit code | HIST20069 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Dr. Michlic |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
Special Field Project |
| School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit aims at exploring the European memory of World War II, particularly the Holocaust. The Second World War and the Holocaust have played a salient role in shaping postwar European national identities and had crucial consequences for people living in postwar cultures. Central themes that will be discussed are the issues of amnesia and repression of the dark aspects of the past pertaining to the behaviour towards local Jewish communities; coming to terms with the dark past manifested in debates and in commemorative practices; the European representations of the war and the resistance to the Nazis; of rescue actions of Jews; and communism. The memory of the WWII and the Holocaust will be examined in many of its frames such as history writings, films, novels, public debates, commemorations, and museums.
On successful completion of this unit students will have developed
1. a sophisticated awareness of how and why World War II and the Holocaust have been remembered and portrayed over time;
2. an understanding of how to approach the historical reception of these epochal events and the significance that the memory and portrayal of them has had on post-war culture;
3. the ability to set individual issues within their longer term historical context;
4. the ability to analyse and generalise about issues of continuity and change;
5. the ability to select pertinent evidence/data in order to illustrate/demonstrate more general historical points;
6. the ability to identify a particular academic interpretation, evaluate it critically and form an individual viewpoint;
7. the acquisition of key writing, research, and presentation skills.
Weekly 2-hour seminar
2-hour unseen written examination (summative, 100%)
The examination will assess ILOs 1-7 by assessing the students’ understanding of the unit’s key themes, the related historiography as developed during their reading and participation in / learning from small group seminars, and relevant primary sources. Further assessment of their handling of the relevant primary sources will be provided by the co-requisite Special Field Project.
John-Paul Himka and Joanna B. Michlic, Bringing the Dark to Light: the Memory of the Holocaust in Post-communist Europe, Lincoln , Nebraska University Press, 2013.
Marek Haltof, Polish Film and the Holocaust. Politics and Memory, Berghahn Books, new York, Oxford, 2012.
Pieter Lagrou, The legacy of Nazi occupation: patriotic memory and national recovery in Western Europe, 1945-1965, Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Henry Rousso, The Vichy Syndrome. History and Memory in France since 1944, Cambridge Harvard University Press, 1991.
Omer Bartov, Erased : vanishing traces of Jewish Galicia in present-day Ukraine, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.
James E. Young, At Memory’s Edge: After-Images of the Holocaust in Contemporary Art and Architecture. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000.
István Deák, Jan T. Gross, & Tony Judt, The Politics of Retribution in Europe: World War II and Its Aftermath, Princeton University Press, 2000.
Erica Lehrer, Jewish Poland Revisited. Heritage tourism, Indiana University Press, 2013
