Coming to Terms with the Nazi Past

Course Description

The devastating impact of the twelve years of Nazi rule on Germany and Europe lasted well beyond the collapse of the regime in May 1945. This module examines how post-war German and European society dealt with this legacy, in particular the murder of six million Jews known. Itinvestigates the varying degrees of engagement with Nazi crimes across both sides of the Iron Curtain and over the decades from 1945 to the present. Themes include the treatment of perpetrators, the experience of returning survivors, the phenomenon of Holocaust denial and the memorialising of the victims of Nazi Germany. Students will examine how and why engagement with the Nazi past took the shape it did by means of sources such as court documents, survivor testimonies, newspapers, films and memorials as well as a substantial range of secondary literature.

By the end of this module, you will be able to:
- Compile and format a bibliography of primary and secondary sources on engagement with the Nazi past
- Summarise the historiography on engagement with the Nazi past and evaluate conflicting views
- Communicate an historical argument orally
- Carry out a substantial independent research project on engagement with the Nazi past and present your findings in a scholarly manner

Introductory reading:
Konrad Jarausch, After Hitler: Recivilizing Germans 1945-95 (2008); Atina Grossmann, Jews,
Germans, and Allies: close encounters in occupied Germany (2007); Michael Steinlauf, Bondage
to the Dead: Poland and the memory of the Holocaust (1997); Richard J. Evans, Telling Lies
about Hitler: the Holocaust, history and the David Irving Trial (2002)