Unit information: Holocaust Landscapes (Level H Lecture Response) in 2009/10

Unit name	Holocaust Landscapes (Level H Lecture Response)
Unit code	HIST39009
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Professor. Tim Cole
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of History (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit examines the Holocaust and its post-war memory through a geographical focus. Taking a number of spaces and places (forest, ghetto, cattle car, camp, attic, sea, river, road) associated with the implementation of, and evasion from, the 'final solution of the Jewish question' we will examine: "The construction and or transformation of these places during the Holocaust "Victims' experiences of these landscapes "The post-war history of these sites and especially their selective re-imagining as sites of memory Thematically we will examine the concentration, deportation and mass killings of Jews as well as slave labour, death marches, hiding, resistance and rescue, native collaboration, the post-war displaced persons' camps and contemporary memory of the Holocaust. Methodologically we will explore the intersections between history and geography, and the possibilities of examining landscape as a focus of analysis.

Aims:

Level H Lecture Response units offer students a further opportunity to work within a long term historical perspective, both chronological and thematic, across different time frames and a range of countries/cultures/societies. The combination of interactive lectures and written work enable students to respond in a critical way to the particular approach taken within the individual options and allow them to develop their own ideas. The level H unit differs from the level I LRU in that it will normally have a slightly narrower focus, be more interactive and more interpretative.

This particular unit aims:

• To provide a broad grounding in the history of the Holocaust and its post-war memory

• To provide a particular perspective from the tutor to which students can react critically and build their own individual views and interpretations.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit students will have achieved:

• a wider historical knowledge of a range of periods/geographical areas/themes

• a deeper awareness of how to approach a long term historical analysis

• the ability to set individual issues within their longer term historical context

• the ability to analyse and generalise about issues of continuity and change

• the ability to select pertinent evidence/data in order to illustrate/demonstrate more general historical points

• the ability to derive benefit from and contribute effectively to large group discussion

• the ability to identify a particular academic interpretation, evaluate it critically and form an individual viewpoint.

Teaching Information

• Weekly 2-hour interactive lecture sessions

• Tutorial feedback on essay

• Access to tutorial consultation with unit tutor in office hours

Assessment Information

1 x 3000 word essay (50%) and 1 x 2 hour exam (50%)

Reading and References

• Tim Cole, Holocaust City (New York 2003) esp. ch. 1 & ch. 9

• Deb�rah Dwork and Robert Jan van Pelt, Holocaust. A History (London 2002)

• Martin Gilbert, Holocaust Journey. Travelling in Search of the Past (London 1998)

• Dan Stone (ed.), Historiography of the Holocaust (Houndmills, 2004)

• James Young, The Texture of Memory. Holocaust Memorials and Meaning (New Haven 2000)

• Elie Wiesel, Night (London 2006)