About this course: The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry is an adaptation of an on-campus course that has been co-taught by Murray Baumgarten, Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature (Literature Department), and Peter Kenez, Professor Emeritus (History Department), for over 20 years at UC Santa Cruz. In this course, you will explore the Holocaust from the overlapping perspectives of literature and history—through memoirs, historical documents, poetry, documentary footage, filmic representations, and novels. You will expand your knowledge of the literature of the Holocaust, Eastern and Western European Jewish communities, the origins and development of antisemitism, the establishment of labor and extermination camps, resistance movements, and the Holocaust as a problem for world history. There is more than one way to take this course: You can complete all of the activities (and earn a Verified Certificate) or only the activities that are most interesting to you. Whatever you choose to do, we encourage you to find a havruta (a study partner) in your community or in the Coursera community so that you can experience the course in a more interactive and meaningful way.
Taught by: Murray Baumgarten, Distinguished Professor of English & Comparative Literature
Literature
Taught by: Peter Kenez, Professor Emeritus
History
| Language | English |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
- Reading: Description
- Reading: Books and films
- Reading: Writing assignments
- Reading: Acknowledgements
- Reading: 1.0.1 Topics, readings, and films
- Video: 1.1.1 Introductions
- Video: 1.1.2 Who were the Jews?
- Video: 1.1.3 Why do we study the Holocaust?
- Video: 1.1.4 Poetry and perspectives
- Reading: 1.1.5 Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway-Car (English translation)
- Video: 1.2.1 Western European Jewry in the 19th century
- Video: 1.2.2 Jewish success and European antisemitism
- Video: 1.2.3 Jews in French society
- Video: 1.2.4 Roots of modern antisemitism
- Video: 1.2.5 Theodor Herzl
- Video: 1.3.1 Expectations of reality
- Video: 1.3.2 Hier ist kein warum
- Video: 1.3.3 Yiddish culture
- Video: 1.3.4 On Account of a Hat
- Reading: 1.3.5 On Account of a Hat (English translation)
- Reading: 2.0.1 Topics, readings, and films
- Video: 2.1.1 Eastern Europe in the 20th century
- Video: 2.1.2 Poland, part 1
- Video: 2.1.3 Poland, part 2
- Video: 2.1.4 Hungary, part 1
- Video: 2.1.5 Hungary, part 2
- Video: 2.1.6 Fear and hatred
- Video: 2.2.1 Liberal European culture
- Video: 2.2.2 Night, part 1
- Video: 2.2.3 Night, part 2
- Video: 2.2.4 Life in the Arbeitslager
- Video: 2.3.1 Jewry of the Russian Empire
- Video: 2.3.2 The Russian state
- Video: 2.3.3 Changing demographics
- Video: 2.3.4 Pogroms in the Russian Empire and the USSR
- Video: 2.3.5 Jewish identity
- Video: 2.4.1 The Bildungsroman, part 1
- Video: 2.4.2 The Bildungsroman, part 2
- Video: 2.4.3 The Bildungsroman, part 3
- Video: 2.4.4 The Bildungsroman, part 4
- Reading: 3.0.1 Topics, readings, and films
- Video: 3.1.1 Fascism
- Video: 3.1.2 Hitler and the Jews
- Video: 3.1.3 Germans and the Jews
- Video: 3.1.4 The rise of the Nazis
- Video: 3.1.5 Nazism in German culture
- Video: 3.2.1 Poetry and evil, part 1
- Video: 3.2.2 Poetry and evil, part 2
- Video: 3.2.3 Poetry and evil, part 3
- Video: 3.2.4 Todesfugue (Death Fugue)
- Reading: 3.2.5 Kaddish
- Reading: 3.2.6 Nightsong (English translation)
- Reading: 3.2.7 Death Fugue (English translation)
- Reading: 3.2.8 Todesfuge (German)
- Reading: 3.2.9 Memento Mori (English translation)
- Reading: 3.2.10 Memento Mori (Yiddish)
- Video: 3.3.1 Intentionalism and functionalism
- Video: 3.3.2 What do we do with the Jews?
- Video: 3.3.3 Why didn't they leave?
- Video: 3.3.4 The Anschluß and German pogroms
- Video: 3.3.5 Passing and not passing
- Reading: 4.0.1 Topics, readings, and films
- Video: 4.1.1 Questions for the Jews
- Video: 4.1.2 Direct acts of violence
- Video: 4.1.3 Fight for what?
- Video: 4.1.4 Eroticization of violence
- Video: 4.1.5 Resistance and agency
- Video: 4.2.1 Beginnings of war
- Video: 4.2.2 German war aims
- Video: 4.2.3 Ghettoes
- Video: 4.2.4 Jewish leadership
- Video: 4.2.5 What did the neighbors say?
- Video: 4.3.1 Language of trauma
- Video: 4.3.2 Banality of evil
- Video: 4.3.3 Schindler's List, part 1
- Video: 4.3.4 Schindler's List, part 2
- Video: 4.3.5 Guilt and responsibility
- Reading: 5.0.1 Topics, readings, and films
- Video: 5.1.1 Wartime lunacy
- Video: 5.1.2 Einsatzgruppen, part 1
- Video: 5.1.3 Einsatzgruppen, part 2
- Video: 5.1.4 Pogroms in the east
- Video: 5.1.5 Forms of resistance
- Video: 5.2.1 Witness to trauma, part 1
- Video: 5.2.2 Witness to trauma, part 2
- Video: 5.2.3 Witness to trauma, part 3
- Video: 5.2.4 Witness to trauma, part 4
- Video: 5.3.1 Dora Sorell, part 1
- Video: 5.3.2 Dora Sorell, part 2
- Video: 5.3.3 Dora Sorell, part 3
- Video: 5.3.4 Dora Sorell, part 4
- Video: 5.3.5 Dora Sorell, part 5
- Video: 5.3.6 Dora Sorell, part 6
- Video: 5.3.7 Dora Sorell, part 7
- Reading: 6.0.1 Topics, readings, and films
- Video: 6.1.1 The heart of the matter
- Video: 6.1.2 From labor to extermination
- Video: 6.1.3 Bełżec, Sobibór and Treblinka
- Video: 6.1.4 The task of killing
- Video: 6.1.5 Auschwitz
- Video: 6.1.6 Who knew about the murders?
- Video: 6.2.1 This Way for the Gas, part 1
- Video: 6.2.2 This Way for the Gas, part 2
- Video: 6.2.3 This Way for the Gas, part 3
- Video: 6.2.4 This Way for the Gas, part 4
- Video: 6.2.5 Memorials and understanding
- Reading: 7.0.1 Topics, readings, and films
- Video: 7.1.1 The Wansee Conference
- Video: 7.1.2 Denmark and Norway
- Video: 7.1.3 Belgium and Holland
- Video: 7.1.4 France and Italy
- Video: 7.1.5 Nazi looting
- Video: 7.2.1 Fatelessness, part 1
- Video: 7.2.2 Fatelessness, part 2
- Video: 7.2.3 Fatelessness, part 3
- Video: 7.2.4 Fatelessness, part 4
- Video: 7.2.5 Fatelessness, part 5
- Reading: 7.2.6 Never Say/Partisan Song (English translation)
- Reading: 7.2.7 Zog Nit Keyn Mol/Partizaner Lid (Yiddish)
- Video: 7.3.1 Deportation and extermination
- Video: 7.3.2 Antisemitic laws
- Video: 7.3.3 Germany and Hungary
- Video: 7.3.4 Separate peace
- Video: 7.3.5 Ambiguities
- Video: 7.4.1 A Scrap of Time, part 1
- Video: 7.4.2 A Scrap of Time, part 2
- Video: 7.4.3 A Scrap of Time, part 3
- Video: 7.4.4 A Scrap of Time, part 4
- Video: 7.4.5 A Scrap of Time, part 5
- Reading: 8.0.1 Topics, readings, and films
- Video: 8.1.1 Romania, part 1
- Video: 8.1.2 Romania, part 2
- Video: 8.1.3 Romania, part 3
- Video: 8.1.4 Romania, part 4
- Video: 8.1.5 A gigantic biological and social experiment
- Video: 8.2.1 The perpetrators
- Video: 8.2.2 Other types of madness
- Video: 8.2.3 The surrounding population
- Video: 8.2.4 The outside world
- Video: 8.2.5 Isolation
- Video: 8.2.6 Last testament
- Reading: 8.2.7 My Political Testament
Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.
Connect with thousands of other learners and debate ideas, discuss course material, and get help mastering concepts.
Earn official recognition for your work, and share your success with friends, colleagues, and employers.
I found this course very informative and followed a logical pattern. I knew a lot of the history of the Holocaust but never really thought of it the way the Professors present it and get us to explore the whys and hows. All the true facts are there and can't be denied even though there are those who live with the denial. To explore the Holocaust through witnesses, survivors, etc puts a whole new perspective on things. To understand Nazi Ideology and all it's lunacy was a true eye opener as I've dealt with more of the battles and always thought of the Holocaust as it happened and that was that. I thoroughly enjoyed this course and hope to find more or similar ones in the near future.
Just as a note, recently found out my ancestry probably goes back to the Ukraine, Jewish and family name of Lipsitz as in the lesson. Raised Roman Catholic but the family knew there were secrets which our father for some reason never divulged before his death in 1990, nor did our mother say anything even up to her demise in 2014. Interesting and now my personal investigation continues for the truth and the whys and hows also.
Thanks for an enjoyable time and take care.
A really interesting course which was packed with information. The focus on the Eastern European Jewry was particularly useful as it is not usually foregrounded on other courses. The session with Dora Sorrell was really fascinating and she is a wonderful speaker.
Absolutely adored this class and the instructors!! So much valuable information and first-hand experience, delightfully delivered in these special lectures.
IZ
very good professors and very intresting course!