Studying the Holocaust: Issues, Readings, and Documents Book

Introduction: The Holocaust as Educational Theme

Prologue

The Continuing Relevance of the Holocaust

The Holocaust as 'Human' Event

The Unique and the Universal

The Central Role of Questions

Educational

Conception and Approach

PART 1: READINGS AND EXERCISES

1 The Holocaust -- The Futility of Definition?

2 Obedience to Authority

3 Jewish Powerlessness and Choicelessness

4 The Moral Responsibility of 'Ordinary' Germans

The Case Against Hans

Brenner

The Case against Dr. Ernst Schmid

5 Six Million Accusers

6 Euphemisms of Death: Interpreting a Primary Source Document on the Holocaust

7 Yossel Rakover's Appeal to God (an excerpt)

8 The Power of Indifference

PART II: SELECTED KEY

DOCUMENTS

1 'The Racists' Ten Commandments'

2 The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

3 The Balfour Declaration

4 Adolf Hitler: A Letter on the Jewish Question

5 The 25-point Programme of the National-Socialist German Workers' Party

6 The Nuremberg Laws

7 An Eyewitness Response to Kristallnacht

8 German Foreign Ministry Memorandum on the 'The Jewish Question'

9 Hitler Threatens Jews with Annihilation

10 Reinhard Heydrich's Order

11 The Warsaw Ghetto: The Jewish Response

12 The Wannsee Conference

13 The

Einsatzgruppen Death Squads: An Eyewitness Account

14 Appeal to the Outside World

15 Inside the Mind of a Perpetrator

A Letter from the Russian 'Front'

The Diary of SS Dr Johann Paul Kremer

Heinrich Himmler, Head of the SS

Rudolf

Hoess, Commandant of Auschwitz

16 The Victims: Defiant Responses

17 Spiritual Resistance

18 The Psychology of the Victim

19 Jewish Disbelief at Reports of Mass Annihilation

PART III GENOCIDE IN THE MODERN ERA

A Question of Definition?

Conditions for Genocide

Genocide in Action

Case Studies

1 Tasmanian Aborigines, 1803-36

2 Armenians, 1915-16

3 Kulaks, 1929-33

4 Roma (Gypsies), 1941-45

5 Bengalis, 1971

6 Hutu of Burundi,

1972

7 Ache Indians, 1968-72

8 Cambodians, 1975-79

9 East Timor Islanders, 1975-present

Genocide by Another Name?

PART IV QUESTIONS, THEMES AND READING LISTS

1 Historical Background and Context

The European Jew and the Modern

World

Twentieth-Century German History and the Growth of Nazism

Essay Questions

2 The Holocaust: A History

Nazi Germany: The Early Years

Nazi Anti-Jewish Legislation and Policy, 1933-39

The Context of War and Nazi

Anit-Jewish Policy, 1939-41

The Holocaust: 1941-45

Essay Questions

3 Themes, Issues and Protagonists

The Perpetrators

The Victims

The Bystanders

Aftermath, Impact and Lessons of the Holocaust

Essay

Questions

PART V: HISTORY OF THE HOLOCAUST: A CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE (1933-1945)

PART VI: REFERENCE SECTIONS

1 Basic Terms for Understanding the Holocaust

2 Main Characters

APPENDICES

Appendix A: Hitler and the Jewish Question -- Extracts

from Hitler's Writing

Appendix B: Reichstag Election Results, 1919-33

Appendix C: The Second World War at a Glance

Appendix D: Nazi Europe, 1939-45: Statistics of Jewish Dead

Appendix E: Teaching the Holocaust: Dilemmas and Considerations

Appendix F: The Nature and

Development of Human Prejudice

Appendix G: Intentionalists v. Functionalists: The Debate Among Historians

service. This book is highly recommended and is appropriate for high school and introductory college courses on the Holocaust, Jewish education, and Jewish history (Dr. Abraham J. Edelheit, Kingsborough College, New York)