Tatjana Lichtenstein

Introduction to the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe through each of the major disciplines represented in the program: language, literature, anthropology, geography, history, government, sociology, and economics. Core course required for a degree in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies. Meets with SLA 301 and GRG 309. May not be used to fulfill the foreign language requirement for any Bachelor’s degree. Course number may be repeated for credit when the topics vary.

Texts:

1.Slavenka Drakulic, 2005, They Would Never Hurt a Fly, Penguin

2. Heda Kovaly, 1997, Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968. New York: Holmesand Meier

3. Bella Bychkova Jordan and Terry G Jordan-Bychkov, 2001, Siberian Village: Land and Life in the Sakha Republic, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

4.Additional readings might be recommended for individual lectures.

Grading:

Attendance and participation 30%

Book and other reading responses (3) 70%

 

This course explores the history and culture of Jews in Eastern Europe. Focusing on the Jewish societies in the Russian and Austrian Empires, the course seeks to map the Jewish experience from the late 1700s until the first decades of twentieth century through topics such as secularization, urbanization, migration, antisemitism, political movements, and war. We study the destruction of the Jewish societies in Eastern Europe during the Holocaust as well as Jewish memory and renewal in Eastern Europe since the end of Communism. 

Course Goals

• Examine the cultures of Jews in Eastern Europe as well as the historical forces that transformed these societies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
• Explore a variety of primary source materials and discuss their use as historical evidence.
• Write analytical, thesis-driven essays based on close reading of the course materials.

Required Course Books

• Zvi Gitelman, A Century of Ambivalence: The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union, 1881 to the Present (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2001).
• Henryk Grynberg, The Jewish War and The Victory (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2001).
• Eva Hoffman, Shtetl: The Life and Death of a Small Town and the World of Polish Jews (New York: Public Affairs, 2007).
• Israel J. Singer, The Brothers Ashkenazi (Orig. 1936, New York: Other Press, 2010).

Electronic Readings

*The YIVO Encyclopedia of the Jews of Eastern Europe.  The YIVO Encyclopedia can be accessed using this link: http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/

Assignments and Grading

• Attendance and Participation, 10%
• Article Response (Sept. 30), 10%
• Midterm (Oct. 14), 20%
• Essay Ashkenazi (Nov. 9), 25%
• Take-Home Final Exam (Dec. 8), 35%

**All readings and other course materials are required.**

Course Description

This course on the Holocaust examines the mass killing of Jews and other victims in the context of Nazi Germany’s quest for race and space during World War II.  Using sources that illuminate victim experiences, perpetrator perspectives, and bystander responses, we investigate the Nazi racial state, the experiments in mass killing, the establishment of a systematic genocidal program, collaboration and complicity, resistance and rescue, as well as the memory of the Holocaust in western culture.

 

Course Books

Gitta Sereny, Into that Darkness

Steve Hochstadt, Sources of the Holocaust

Doris Bergen, War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust

 

Grades

Attendance and Participation             20%

Midterm                                          20%

Essay                                              30%

Final Exam                                       30%

This course on the Holocaust examines the mass killing of Jews and other victims in the context of Nazi Germany’s quest for race and space during World War II.  Using sources that illuminate victim experiences, perpetrator perspectives, and bystander responses, we investigate the Nazi racial state, the experiments in mass killing, the establishment of a systematic genocidal program, collaboration and complicity, resistance and rescue, as well as the memory of the Holocaust in western culture.  

Texts

Marion Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair

Gitta Sereny, Into that Darkness

Lianna Millu, Smoke over Birkenau

Steve Hochstadt, Sources of the Holocaust

Doris Bergen, War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust

+ Course Packet

Grading

Attendance 15%

In-class Test I 10%

In-class Test II 15%

Essay 25%

Final Exam 35%

This course on the Holocaust examines the mass killing of Jews and other victims in the context of Nazi Germany’s quest for race and space during World War II.  Using sources that illuminate victim experiences, perpetrator perspectives, and bystander responses, we investigate the Nazi racial state, the experiments in mass killing, the establishment of a systematic genocidal program, collaboration and complicity, resistance and rescue, as well as the memory of the Holocaust in western culture.  

Books

Marion Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair

Gitta Sereny, Into that Darkness

Art Spiegelman, Maus I & II

Noakes & Pridham, Nazism: A Documentary Reader, vol. 3.

Saul Friedlander, Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1933-1945

Grading

Attendance 10%

Map Quiz   5%

Midterm 15%

Essay 1 20%

Essay 2 20%

Final Exam 30%

HIS 350L

In Eastern Europe, the Second World War was, as the Czech Jewish woman Heda Margolius-Kovaly remarked, “a war no one had quite survived.”  Wedged between Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Empire, Eastern Europe was the site of unprecedented human and material destruction in the years between 1938 and 1948.  As the staging ground for Hitler’s vision for a new racial order in Europe, the region was devastated by genocide and ethnic cleansing, programs of economic and social exploitation, and warfare.  Using a wide variety of sources, this course will examine the war in Eastern Europe with a particular emphasis on occupation, collaboration, and resistance; the Holocaust; and the connection between ethnic cleansing, population transfer, and the establishment of Communism in postwar Eastern Europe.     

Texts

Alan Adelson, ed., The Diary of Dawid Sierakowiak: Five Notebooks from the ?ód? Ghetto (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996)

Lee Baker, The Second World War on the Eastern Front (New York: Pearson Longman, 2009)

Tadeusz Borowski, This Way for the Gas Ladies and Gentlemen (New York: Penguin Classics, 1976)

Christopher R. Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (New York: Harper Perennial, 1998)

Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, A Terrible Revenge: The Ethnic Cleansing of the East European Germans (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)

Optional:Karel C. Berhoff, Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine under Nazi Rule (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004)

Electronic Readings:  Material marked with * are available on-line through the course website (under Course Documents).

Grading

Participation (incl. final 3 page reflection essay)                    25%

Map Quiz                                                                       5%                 

Weekly Questions and In-Class Writing                                 5%

Document Analysis (2-3 pages)                                         10%             

Essay 1 (3-4 peer reviewed/rewriting)                                 15%          

Essay 2 (6-7 pages peer reviewed/rewriting)                         20%             

Essay 3 (6-7 pages)                                                        20%            

HIS 362G                                                Jews of Eastern Europe                                    Fall 2010

 

REE335/JS364                                                                       

Tatjana Lichtenstein

Office: GAR 0.110

Office Hours: Thursdays 2:15-4:15 pm

Email: tatjana.lichtenstein@mail.utexas.edu (preferred)

Phone: 512-475-6171

Class meets TTH 12:30-2:00 pm in JGB 2.102

 

Course Description

This course explores the history and culture of Jews in Eastern Europe.  Focusing on the Jewish societies in the Russian and Austrian Empires, the course seeks to map the Jewish experience from the late 1700s until the first decades of twentieth century through topics such as secularization, urbanization, migration, antisemitism, political movements, and war.  We study the destruction of the Jewish societies in Eastern Europe during the Holocaust as well as Jewish memory and renewal in Eastern Europe since the end of Communism. 

 

Course Goals

• Examine the cultures of Jews in Eastern Europe as well as the historical forces that transformed these societies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
• Explore a variety of primary source materials and discuss their use as historical evidence
• Write analytical, thesis-driven essays based on close reading of the course materials 

 

Required Course Books

• Zvi Gitelman, A Century of Ambivalence: The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union, 1881 to the Present (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2001).
• Henryk Grynberg, The Jewish War and The Victory (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2001).
• Eva Hoffman, Shtetl: The Life and Death of a Small Town and the World of Polish Jews (New York: Public Affairs, 2007).
• Israel J. Singer, The Brothers Ashkenazi (Orig. 1936, New York: Other Press, 2010).

 

Electronic Readings

*The YIVO Encyclopedia of the Jews of Eastern Europe.  The YIVO Encyclopedia can be accessed using this link: http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/

 

All readings and other course materials are required

 

Assignments and Grading

Attendance and Participation                                                            10%

Article Response                        (Sep 30)                                    10%

Midterm                                    (Oct 14)                                    20%

Essay Ashkenazi                        (Nov 9)                                    25%

Take-Home Final Exam             (Dec 8)                                      35 %

 

Please Note:

 

Instructions for reading primary and secondary sources effectively can be found in the back of this syllabus.

 

The assignments for this class take a couple of different forms.  There will be one article response, a midterm, one essay, and a take-home final exam (see instructions for the article analysis and essay in the back of this syllabus)

 

Make sure you have access to the text of the documents assigned.  You might be using them in class and it is important that you have the text in front of you either in a paper copy or on a laptop.

 

Schedule of Classes

 

Week 1                          

 

Aug 26                         Introduction: Syllabus, Assignments, and Readings            

 

 

Week 2            

 

Aug 31                        What is Jewish Eastern Europe?

 

Eva Hoffman, Shtetl: The Life and Death of a Small Town and the World of Polish Jews, 1-72.

 

Sep 2                                    The World of East European Jews

 

*Eli Barnavi, ed., A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People, short texts on Judaism 1-6; 7-14 on Polish Jewry with excellent maps.   

 

 

Week 3           

 

Sep 7                                    The Russian Empire

 

Hoffman, Shtetl, 73-109.

 

*“Russia: Russian Empire,” & “Pale of Settlement,” in The YIVO Encyclopedia

 

*Documents on Jews and the Russian State

 

Sep 9                                    The Habsburg Empire

 

*“Galicia,” and “Bohemia and Moravia,” in The YIVO Encyclopedia

 

*Documents on Jews and the Habsburg state

 

 

Week 4

 

Sep 14                                    Hasidism

                                    Hoffman, Shtetl, 110-158.

 

*“Hasidism,” in The YIVO Encyclopedia

 

Sep 16                        Hasidism (contd)

 

*Documents on Hasidism

 

 

Week 5           

 

Sep 21                        Haskalah – the Jewish Enlightenment

 

                                    *“Haskalah,” in The YIVO Encyclopedia

                       

Sep 23                        Haskalah (contd)

 

                                    *Documents on Haskalah

 

 

Week 6           

 

Sep 28                        Antisemitism

 

In-Class Film: The Longest Hatred (1993)

 

Sep 30                        Pogroms

 

                                    *“Pogroms,” in The YIVO Encyclopedia

 

*Michael Aronson, “The Anti-Jewish Pogroms in Russia in 1881,” in Pogroms: Anti-Jewish Violence in Modern Russian History, ed. J. Klier and S. Lambroza (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 44-62

 

*Isaac Babel, “Story of My Dovecote.”

*Haim Bialik, “In the City of Slaughter,” (1903) 

 

*Article Analysis due (see instructions at the back of this syllabus)

           

Week 7                       

 

Oct 5                                    Migration

 

Zvi Gitelman, A Century of Ambivalence: The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union, 1881 to the Present, 1-58.

 

*Mary Antin, The Promised Land, 110-142

 

Oct 7                                    Urbanization

 

*Joseph Roth, The Wandering Jews, 1927 (excerpt)

*Roth, Joseph (1894-1939) in YIVO Encyclopedia

 

 

Week 8                       

 

Oct 12                         Modern Jewish Politics

 

                                    *”Bund,” in YIVO Encyclopedia

 

*”Zionism and Zionist Parties,” in YIVO Encyclopedia

                                   

*Documents on the Bund and Zionism

 

Oct 14                        Midterm (in class)

 

 

Week 9

 

Oct 19                        Sholem Aleichem’s Tevye

                                   

                                    * Aleichem, Sholem in YIVO Encyclopedia

*Sholem Aleichem, Tevye the Dairyman (“Today’s Children,” “Hodl,” Chava”), 36-82.

 

Oct 21                                    World War I

 

*“World War I,” in YIVO Encyclopedia

 

*“Rapoport, Shloyme Zaynl,” (Ansky), in YIVO Encyclopedia  

 

*S. Ansky, “The Destruction of Galicia: Excerpts from a Diary, 1914-1917, in The Dybbuk and other Writings (New York: Schocken Books, 1992), 171-208.

 

 

Week 10                        

 

Oct 26                                    The Russian Revolution and the Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism

 

Zvi Gitelman, A Century of Ambivalence, 59-71.

 

*Isaac Babel, “Crossing the River Zbrucz,” in The Complete works of Isaac Babel, ed. Natalie Babel (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2002), 601-611, 203-204.

 

Oct 28                                    Soviet Utopia?

 

*Gitelman, A Century of Ambivalence, 71-114.

*“Birobidzhan,” in YIVO Encyclopedia

 

In-Class Film Excerpt: “Seekers of Happiness” (USSR, 1934)

 

 

Week 11           

 

Nov 2                                    Interwar Eastern Europe and Zionism

 

*Hoffman, Shtetl, 159-200.

 

Nov 4                                    Zionist Utopia

 

In-Class Film: “Land of Promise,” (Palestine, 1935)

 

*Essay on Brothers Ashkenazi due November 9

 

 

Week 12                       

 

Nov 9                        The Holocaust in Eastern Europe  

 

*”Holocaust: An Overview,” in YIVO Encyclopedia

 

Hoffman, Shtetl, 201-240

 

Nov 11                                    War of Annihilation – 1941 and After

 

Zvi Gitelman, A Century of Ambivalence, 115-143

 

*Vasily Grossman, “Treblinka,” in A Writer at War: Vasily Grossman with the Red Army, 1941-1945, ed. Antony Beevor and Luba Vinogradova (New York: Panthon Books, 2005), 280-306.

 

In-Class Film Excerpts: “The Wild East,” Nazis: A Warning from History

 

 

Week 13           

 

Nov 16                                    Testimonies

 

Henryk Grynberg, The Jewish War, 1-58

 

*Ida Fink, A Scrap of Time and Other Stories (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1983), 3-10, 35-38, 39-48

 

Nov 18                        When War Ends

 

Grynberg, The Victory, 61-153

 

Hoffman, Shtetl, 241-258.

 

 

Week 14                       

 

Nov 23                                    New Beginnings, Homelands Old and New

 

                                    Gitelman, A Century of Ambivalence, 144-195.

 

Nov 25                                    Thanksgiving Holiday – No Class

 

 

Week 15                       

 

Nov 30                                    Jewish Life in Eastern Europe Today – Memory and Renewal

 

Gitelman, A Century of Ambivalence, 212-274.

 

Dec 2                        Last class – reflections and instructions for take-home final

 

 

Final Exam

 

Dec 8                                    Take-Home Final Exam due in my office by 5 pm.

 

Course Policies

 

University of Texas Honor Code

The core values of The University of Texas at Austin are learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility.  Each member of the university is expected to uphold these values through integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, and respect toward peers and community.  Any student found guilty of scholastic dishonesty may receive an “F” in the course and will be remanded to the appropriate University of Texas authorities for disciplinary action.  For more information, view Student Judicial Services at http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs.

 

A Note on the Use of Personal Electronic Devices

Individual students may be directed to turn off personal electronic devices if the devices are not being used for class purposes.  If the student does not comply, the student may be asked to leave the classroom.

 

A Note on Classroom Behavior

You have the right to learn in every class you attend.  But you have the responsibility to help assure that every other student shares that right.  Specifically:

• Come to class on time.  Do not leave early.  These things are very disruptive.  If you must come late or leave early, let the instructor know in advance and sit near the exit.
• Don't be disruptive during class.  Don't chat with your neighbor.  Don’t use your computer for anything else than taking notes or looking up course readings.
• Don't allow your electronic devices to be disruptive.  Turn off your cell phone, beeper, and watch alarm. 
• Participate.  Don’t let your electronic device act as an inhibitor to class room participation.  If I am not satisfied with your involvement in the class, you might be asked to stop using your laptop or other electronic device.

 

Documented Disability Statement

The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities.  For more information, contact Services for Students with Disabilities at 471-6259 (voice) or 232-2937 (video phone).  It is you responsibility to inform me about any accommodations that you might need early on in the semester.

 

Grading Scale

 

94-100: A

90-93: A-

87-89: B+

84-86: B

80-83: B-

77-79: C+

74-76: C

70-73: C-

67-69: D+

64-66: D

60-63: D-

0-59:   F

 

Reading Primary Sources

 

A Brief Guide

 

How to approach a primary source?

 

Author

 

• Who was the author?
• When was it written?  (historical context)

 

Purpose or Message

 

• Why was the document produced and why has it survived?
• Is the author simply providing information or trying to lead the audience to a particular conclusion?
• What kind of evidence does the author introduce to support a thesis or a claim in the source?  Why was this evidence chosen?

 

Audience

 

• Who was the intended audience for this document? 

 

Point of View

 

• All authors have biases, prejudices, and assumptions that influence their perspective or point of view!
• What background factors might influence the author’s point of view?
• Is the author trustworthy?  How do you know?

 

 

Tone and Language

 

• What is the tone of the source?  What is the author’s attitude toward the subject?
• Is there a single tone employed throughout the document or does it vary from part to part?

 

Significance

 

• How does the source help explain the event or topic being explored?  Could the event or issue be explained as fully without the document?
• Does the source offer unique insights or alternative information about the topic?
• Is the explanation or interpretation in this document different from others?
• What does it bring to light about a certain historical period or event?

 

 

Instructions for Assignments

 

 

Format for written assignments

• Typed, double-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman, 1 inch margins, numbered, stapled, and spell-checked
• You must footnote using the Chicago Style (a link to online quick guide has been posted on BB).  Do not use parenthetical or endnotes!
•  Cover page with your name and essay title.

 

Submission

• Hard copies only (your assignment is not considered submitted until you hand in a hard copy!)
• Assignments are due in class
• Late penalty is 3% per calendar day

 

Assignment # 1

 

Article Response Essay

Due: September 30

Length: 3 double-spaced pages

 

This assignment asks you to analyze Michael Aronson’s article, “The Anti-Jewish Pogroms in Russia in 1881” (can be found in readings for week 6).   

 

In three, double-spaced pages, address the following questions:

 

I. List four useful historical facts you learned from reading this article.  These facts should be straightforward pieces of information that can be stated briefly (use point form and provide the page numbers in a parenthesis after each act).  An example might be an important statistic about the presence of police and military in Russian society (you can only use a statistical fact once) or the date for an event noted in the article.  Avoid overlap in your choice of facts.  They goal is to have you distinguish between facts and interpretations.  (20%)

 

II. Choose a short quotation (two or three sentences) from the article that you consider especially significant.  In one or two paragraphs explain how the passage you selected reflects a major argument or central contribution of Aronson’s study.  Be sure to provide the quotation and the page on which it appears.  (30%)

 

III. Write several paragraphs in which you analyze one of the main points of Aronson’s article.  Be sure to identify the theme or argument you will discuss.  How does he support his claim?  What is noteworthy about the kind of evidence he presents and the ways he interprets it?  Why did this particular aspect of the article strike you as significant?  What kinds of positions does Aronson seem to be countering or correcting?  Is he convincing?  Why or why not?  (50%)

 

Assignment # 2

Essay on I.J. Singer’s The Brothers Ashkenazi

Due: November 9

Length:  6 double-spaced pages

This assignment asks you to analyze Israel J. Singer’s The Brothers Ashkenazi (1935) as a historical source.  How does the novel contribute to our understanding of Jewish history in Eastern Europe? 

This is a long and rich novel tracing the history of a Jewish family through the nineteenth to the early twentieth century.  It will not be possible for you to address every point of relation between the novel and the material covered in class.  Rather, you should choose a particular topic and analyze how the author presents it and why (what is his intent).  Possible topics include: Jewish social and economic life, Jewish political ideologies, gender relations, religious practice, relations with non-Jews, and relations among Jews (points of cooperation and conflict).  You should pay attention to the way in which the author depicts how these factors changed over time. 

This is an analytical essay, not a book review or summary.  Do not go into the plot in detail unless it is important for your analysis as a whole.  You should also pay attention to the weaknesses and strength of this novel as a historical source.  That is, how do the author’s biases affect the picture of the Jewish past he is presenting?  Make sure you formulate a thesis (you want to make an argument) and that your analysis supports it using evidence from the novel and course materials (use footnotes to reference your evidence). 

Your work should be based on your reading of the book and your own analysis of it: do not do additional research or use reviews or summaries written by other people.

 

HIS 362G                                         
Spring 2010

Eastern Europe in the 20^th Century

Tatjana Lichtenstein

Office: GAR 0.110

Email: tatjana.lichtenstein@mail.utexas.edu (preferred)

Phone: 512-475-6171

Class meets Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:30-5:00 pm in BUR 112

Course Description

In the twentieth century, Eastern Europe, a region which stretched from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Balkans in the south, became the site of many of Europe’s fiercest military and ideological struggles.  In this period, the people of Eastern Europe experienced not only the horrors of two destructive world wars, but also the collapse of four empires, the rise of independent nation-states, the emergence of communism and fascism, the killing and relocation of entire populations, the establishment of socialist states, and the attempts to overcome the division between Europe’s East and West towards the end of century.  In addition to secondary readings, wee will be exploring this turbulent period in the history of Eastern Europe through documents, memoirs, journalistic essays, and film.    

Course Books

• Slavenka Drakuli?, How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed (New York: W.W. Norton, 1992)
• Heda Margolius Kovály, Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968 (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1997)
• Joseph Rothschild and Nancy M. Wingfield, Return to Diversity: A Political History of East Central Europe since World War II (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007)
• Joe Sacco, Safe Area Goražde: The War in Eastern Bosnia, 1992-1995 (Fantagraphics Books, 2002)
• Gale Stokes, ed., From Stalinism to Pluralism: A Documentary History of Eastern Europe Since 1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996)
• Sylvia Welner and Kevin Welner, Small Doses of Arsenic: A Bohemian Woman’s Story of Survival (Hamilton Books, 2005)

Electronic Readings

Readings marked with * can be found on the course website on Blackboard (under Course Documents). 

Please Note:  Each week the assigned readings are organized into secondary and primary readings (see explanation below).  These labels are meant to help you plan your work and do not denote which reading is more important.   

secondary readings = background readings (secondary source materials)

primary readings = documents produced either at the time of a certain event or by people who experienced such events or episodes in the past (primary source materials)

Both secondary and primary readings are required.

On-Line Resources

• Integrated History: An Online Archive of Primary Sources on the History of East-Central Europe for Educators, Students and Scholars

http://www.einaudi.cornell.edu/europe/integrated_history/index.asp

• Making the History of 1989: The Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe

http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/

Assignments

The written assignments for this course consist of three short essays.  In each essay, you will be asked to respond to specific questions about the reading as well as to connect the reading to the broader themes discussed in class.  The due dates are listed below.  The penalty for late essays is 3% per calendar day.  Instructions for all three assignments can be found at the end of this syllabus (pages x-x).

Grades

Class Attendance and Participation (10%)

Map Quiz (5%)                                                                                                             Feb 2

Response Essay (2 pages) (10%)                                                                                     Feb 11

In-Class Midterm (10%)                                                                                                Mar 9

Kovály Essay (3 pages) (20%)                                                                                     Apr 8

Drakuli? essay (3 pages) (20%)                                                                                     Apr 20

Final Exam (25%)                                                                                                            

Schedule of Classes

Week 1

 

Jan 19                                    Introduction: Readings and Assignments

 

Jan 21                                    Eastern Europe Before WWI: Empires, States, and Peoples

 

secondary readings

*Maps Handout (these maps also the basis for the upcoming map quiz)

 

primary documents

*Harry De Windt, “Through Savage Europe,” 1907

 

Week 2

 

Jan 26                        World War I in Eastern Europe

 

secondary readings

*Lonnie R. Johnson, Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 171-182

 

primary readings

*Fritz Kreisler, “Four Weeks in the Trenches,” 1915

 

Jan 28                        Dislocations and revolutions

 

secondary readings

*Lonnie R. Johnson, Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends, 182-196

 

primary readings

*American Jewish Relief Committee, “Report on Postwar Poland,” 1919

*Lewis Namier, “The Case of Bohemia,” 1917

 

Week 3

 

Feb 2                                    The End of War: Peace Settlements

 

secondary readings

Rothschild & Wingfield, Return to Diversity: A Political History of East Central Europe Since World War II (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 1-18 (“The Interwar Background”)

primary readings

Sylvia & Kevin Welner, eds., Small Doses of Arsenic: A Bohemian Woman’s Story of Survival (Hamilton Books, 2005), vii-viii (preface), 3-27

*“Czechoslovak Declaration of Independence Communicated to Washington, October 18, 1918” (From: Documents on the Founding of Czechoslovakia, 1918-1924)

 

Map Quiz

 

Feb 4                                     Minority Questions

 

secondary readings

Paul R. Magocsi, Historical Atlas of East Central Europe (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1993), 130-133 (Poland and Czechoslovakia), 134-137 (Hungary and Romania), and 138-141 (Yugoslavia)

 

primary readings

*R.J. Kerner on Conditions in Slovakia Part I & II, March 2 & March 1, 1919

 

Week 4

 

Feb 9                                    The New National Order Underway

 

secondary readings

*Re-read: Paul R. Magocsi, Historical Atlas of East Central Europe, 130-133 (Poland and Czechoslovakia)

 

primary readings

Small doses of Arsenic, 29-49

 

Feb 11                                    The New National Order Underway, II

 

secondary readings

* Re-read: Paul R. Magocsi, Historical Atlas of East Central Europe, 134-137 (Hungary and Romania), and 138-141 (Yugoslavia)

 

primary readings

Small Doses of Arsenic, 51-66

 

Small Doses of Arsenic Essay Due

 

Week 5

 

Feb 16                        People without States – Roma and Jews

 

secondary readings

*Isabel Fonseca, Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and their Journey (New York: Vintage, 1995), 83-112 (“Hindupen”)

*Paul R. Magocsi, A Historical Atlas of East Central Europe, 107-110

*“Yiddish: The Dialect of Ashkenazi Jewry,” in A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People, Eli Barnavi, ed. (New York: Schocken Books, 1992), 192-193

 

Feb 18                        Authoritarianism in Eastern Europe

 

secondary readings

*Stephen Fischer-Galati, “Sources of Authoritarianism in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe,” 64-73, in Authoritarianism and Democracy in Europe, 1919-1939: Comparative Analysis, eds., Dirk Berg-Schlosser & Jeremy Mitchell (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002)

 

Week 6

 

Feb 23                        Anti-Communism and Antisemitism

 

primary readings

*Excerpt, “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”

*Excerpt, Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (1925)

 

Feb 25                        World War II in Eastern Europe

 

secondary readings

Rothschild & Wingfield, Return to Diversity, 19-59 (“World War II”)

 

primary readings

*J. Noakes & G. Pridham, Nazism: A Documentary Reader, vol. 3: Foreign Policy, War, and Racial Extermination (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2006), 1-8 (“Hitler’s Foreign Policy ‘Programme’”) & 135-136 (“Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact” (doc 543))

*Docs 3-11, in Lee Baker, The Second World War on the Eastern Front (Harlow: Pearson Logman, 2009)

 

Week 7

 

Mar 2                                    War and Genocide: The Holocaust in Eastern Europe

 

secondary readings

*J. Noakes & G. Pridham, Nazism: A Documentary Reader, vol. 3, 441-467 (“The Persecution of the Jews, 1939-1941”) & 483-501 (“The Role of the Einsatzgruppen and Police Battalions”)

 

*Christopher R. Browning, “One Day in Józefów: Initiation to Mass Murder,” in Art from the Ashes: A Holocaust Anthology, ed. Lawrence L. Langer (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 95-105

 

In-Class Film Excerpt: The Pianist (dir. Roman Polanski, 2002)

 

Mar 4                                    Death Camps and Forced Labor

 

secondary readings

*J. Noakes & G. Pridham, Nazism: A Documentary Reader, vol. 3, 544-600, 627-629 (“The Extermination Camps”)

 

primary readings

*Tadeusz Borowski, “This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen,” 29-49, in This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen (New York: Penguin Classics 1976)

 

Week 8

 

Mar 9                                    In-Class Midterm (materials from week 1 through 7)

 

Mar 11                        Axis Allies and the Jewish Question

 

secondary readings

Rothschild &Wingfield, Return to Diversity, 30-34, 45-55 (reread)

 

SPRING BREAK

 

Week 9

 

Mar 23                        Local Collaboration

 

secondary readings

*Jan T. Gross, Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland (New York: Penguin, 2001), 1-7, 30-42 

 

Mar 25                        The Memory of Collaboration and Resistance

 

secondary readings

*Tony Judt, “The Past Is Another Country: Myth and Memory in Postwar Europe,” in The Politics of Retribution in Europe: World War II and Its Aftermath, eds., István Deák, Jan T. Gross, and Tony Judt (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), 293-323

 

primary readings

Small Doses of Arsenic, 66-76

 

In-Class Film Excerpt: The Shop on Main Street (Czechoslovakia, 1965)

 

Week 10

 

Mar 30                        The End of War – Ethnic cleansing and Retribution

 

secondary readings

*Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, A Terrible Revenge: The Ethnic Cleansing of the East European Germans (New York: Palgrave, 1986), 39-80, 89-128 (“War and Flight” & “Expulsion and Deportation”)

 

primary readings

Heda Margolius Kovaly, Under A Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968, 5-51

 

Apr 1                                     New Boundaries and Beginning of the Cold War 

 

secondary readings

Lonnie R. Johnson, Central Europe, 223-248 (“Spheres of Influence II: East and West, or ‘Yalta Europe’”)

 

primary documents

Gales Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism, 12-27, 28-42

Heda Margolius Kovaly, Under a Cruel Star, 52-92

 

Week 11

 

Apr 6                                    The Socialist Order

 

secondary readings

Rothschild & Wingfield, Return to Diversity, 61-99 (“The Communists Come to Power”)

 

primary readings

Gale Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism, 43-56

Heda Margolius Kovaly, Under a Cruel Star, 93-125

*M. Szymczyk, “Report on Young Women Workers in Poland,” 1952

 

Apr 8                                    Disciplining the Communist Bloc: Yugoslavia and Show Trials

 

secondary readings

Rothschild & Wingfield, Return to Diversity, 101-117 (“The Dialectics of Stalinism and Titoism”)

 

primary readings

Gales Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism, 57-65, 66-77

Heda Margolius Kovaly, Under a Cruel Star, 126-192

 

Kovaly Essay due

 

Week 12

 

Apr 13                        Resistance and Collaboration under Socialism

 

secondary readings

Rothschild & Wingfield, Return to Diversity, 118-152 (“The Revenge of the Repressed”)

 

primary documents

Gale Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism, 80-93, 100-106, 122-134, 156-174

 

Apr 15                        Everyday Life in Eastern Europe

 

secondary readings

*Essay on everyday life from “Making of 1989”

 

primary readings

*“Birth and Death in Romania,” New York Review of Books, October 23, 1986 (Making of 1989)

*“Vacations under Socialism,” (Romania, Making of 1989)

*“Women’s Reflections on Food Rationing in the 1980s,” (Romania, Making of 1989)

*“Women’s Reflections on Marital Relations under Socialism,” (Romania, Making of 1989)

*“Women’s Reflections on Work and Gender Relations under Socialism,” (Romania, Making of 1989)

 

Slavenka Drakuli?, How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed (all)

 

Week 13

 

Apr 20                        The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe

 

secondary readings

Rothschild & Wingfield, Return to Diversity, 181-209 (“The Various Endgames”)

 

primary readings

Gale Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism, 188-203, 214-215, 242-253, 256-272.

*Documents on the revolution in Czechoslovakia (From: The Making of 1989)

 

Drakuli? Essay due

 

Apr 22                         New Beginnings

 

secondary readings

*Tina Rosenberg, The Haunted Land: Facing Europe’s Ghosts After Communism (New York: Vintage, 1995), 3-42 (Czechoslovakia)

*Timothy Garton Ash, History of the Present: Essays, sketches, and Dispatches from Europe in the 1990s (New York: Random House, 2001), TBA

 

primary readings

*Vaclav Havel, “Independence Day Speech, 1990,” (Czechoslovakia, Making of 1989)

 

Week 14

 

Apr 27                        The Breakup of Yugoslavia

 

secondary readings

*Norman M. Naimark, “The Wars of Yugoslav Succession,” 139-184, in Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth Century Europe (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002)

 

primary readings

Gale Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism, 273-288 (“The Collapse of Yugoslavia”)

*Excerpts from Children of Atlantis: Voices from the Former Yugoslavia (Budapest: CEU Press, 1995)

*Slavenka Drakuli?, “Overcome by Nationhood,” in Balkan Express: Fragments from the Other Side of War, TBA

 

Apr 29                        Intimate Enemies

 

primary readings

Joe Sacco, Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia, 1992-1995 (all)

 

In-Class Film Excerpt: We Are All Neighbors (Bosnia/Britain, 1993)

 

Week 15

 

May 4                                    Becoming One Europe?

 

secondary readings

Rothschild & Wingfield, Return to Diversity, 211-243 (“The Return to Europe”)

 

In-Class Film Excerpt: Return to Europe (Erste Stiftung, 2008)

 

 

May 6                                    Exam Review

 

Course Policies

 

University of Texas Honor Code

The core values of The University of Texas at Austin are learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility.  Each member of the university is expected to uphold these values through integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, and respect toward peers and community.  Any student found guilty of scholastic dishonesty may receive an “F” in the course and will be remanded to the appropriate University of Texas authorities for disciplinary action.  For more information, view Student Judicial Services at http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs.

 

A Note on the Use of Personal Electronic Devices

Individual students may be directed to turn off personal electronic devices if the devices are not being used for class purposes.  If the student does not comply, the student may be asked to leave the classroom.

 

A Note on Classroom Behavior

You have the right to learn in every class you attend.  But you have the responsibility to help assure that every other student shares that right.  Specifically:

• Come to class on time.  Do not leave early.  These things are very disruptive.  If you must come late or leave early, let the instructor know in advance and sit near the exit.
• Don't be disruptive during class.  Don't chat with your neighbor.  Don’t use your computer for anything else than taking notes or looking up course readings.
• Don't allow your electronic devices to be disruptive.  Turn off your cell phone, beeper, and watch alarm.
• Participate.

Documented Disability Statement

The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities.  For more information, contact Services for Students with Disabilities at 471-6259 (voice) or 232-2937 (video phone).  It is you responsibility to inform me about any accommodations that you might need early on in the semester.

 

Grading Scale

 

94-100: A

90-93: A-

87-89: B+

84-86: B

80-83: B-

77-79: C+

74-76: C

70-73: C-

67-69: D+

64-66: D

60-63: D-

0-59:   F

Instructions for Assignments

 

Format for written assignments:

 

• Typed, double-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman, 1 inch margins, numbered, stapled, and spell-checked
• You must footnote using the Chicago Style (style sheet will be posted on the course website).  Do not use parenthetical or endnotes!
•  Cover page with your name and essay title.

 

Submission:

 

• Hard copies only (your assignment is not considered submitted until you hand in a hard copy!)
• Assignments are due in class
• Late penalty is 3% per calendar day

 

Assignment # 1

 

Essay

Due: February 11, 2010

Length:  Two, double-spaced pages

 

Sylvia and Kevin Welner, eds., Small Doses of Arsenic: A Bohemian Woman’s Story of Survival (Hamilton Books, 2005) 

 

Small Doses of Arsenic is the memoir of Ton?a nee Drbohlavová, a woman born in Bohemia in 1905.  Her recollections about her life are captured in a series of letters that she sent to her son who immigrated to the United States in 1969.  She wrote the last letter shortly before she passed away in 2001. 

 

Question for Analysis:

 

In chapters 1 through 6 (3-66) Ton?a describes her childhood and youth.  What do we learn about the times in which she lived?  Drawing on examples from these chapters write a two-page paper in which you address a particular theme such as education, work, family life, illness and death, religion, the significance of social divisions, gender roles (these are merely suggestions if there is another theme from the book that you would like to focus on for this assignment you can do so).   

 

Once you have completed your essay, consider the following questions and bring your answers to class:

 

1. What did you find most surprising about Ton?a’s experiences so far?
2. What are the strengths and limitations of her memoir as a historical source?

 

Assignment # 2

Essay

Due: April 8, 2010

Length: Three, Double-spaced pages

 

Heda Margolius Kovály, Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968 (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1997)

 

Questions for Analysis:

 

1. According to Kovaly, how did the experiences of Czechs under Nazi occupation shape their responses to Communism after the war?  How does she show connections between those two sets of events in her own life and in the attitudes and actions of those close to her?  Does she depict the transition to Communism as a dramatic transformation of life in Czechoslovakia or as in key ways continuing developments from the period of the war?

 

1. On page 62, Kovaly writes, “Sometimes evil intensions produce good results and good intensions produce the exact opposite—everything depends on the context.”  What is she referring to?  What does this statement reveal about her view of human nature and her understanding of history?  Do you think she is right?  Why or why not?  

Assignment # 3

Essay

Due: April 20, 2010

Length: Three, Double-spaced pages

 

Slavenka Drakuli?, How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed (New York: W.W. Norton, 1992)

 

Question for Analysis:

Some scholars argue that it was the inability of the Communist regimes to provide their populations with basic amenities and consumer goods that first and foremost eroded their political legitimacy with ordinary men and women in Eastern Europe.  Drawing on Slavenka Drakuli?’s memoir, How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed, discuss the validity of this argument. 

HIS 350L/EUS346/JS364/REE335                                                                        Spring 2010

 World War II in Eastern Europe

Tatjana Lichtenstein

Office: GAR 0.110

Office Hours: Th 5-7 pm

Email: tatjana.lichtenstein@mail.utexas.edu (preferred)

Phone: 512-475-6171

Class meets Wed 4-7 pm in GAR 2.124

Course Description

In Eastern Europe, the Second World War was, as the Czech Jewish woman Heda Margolius-Kovaly remarked, “a war no one had quite survived.”  Wedged between Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Empire, Eastern Europe was the site of unprecedented human and material destruction in the years between 1938 and 1948.  As the staging ground for Hitler’s vision for a new racial order in Europe, the region was devastated by genocide and ethnic cleansing, programs of economic and social exploitation, and warfare.  Using a wide variety of sources, this course will examine the war in Eastern Europe with a particular emphasis on occupation, collaboration, and resistance; the Holocaust; and the connection between ethnic cleansing, population transfer, and the establishment of Communism in postwar Eastern Europe.     

Course Goals

• Explore the history of World War II in Eastern Europe
• Engage actively with the readings through participation in class discussion, submission of weekly questions in advance of the class, and through in-class writing exercises
• Write analytical, thesis-driven papers based on close reading of the course materials 

Grading Policy

Participation (incl. final 3 page reflection essay)                        25%

Map Quiz                                                                                      5%             (Jan 27)             

Weekly Questions and In-Class Writing                                      5%

Document Analysis (2-3 pages)                                                10%             (Feb 10)

Essay 1 (3-4 peer reviewed/rewriting)                                    15%             (Mar 3)

Essay 2 (6-7 pages peer reviewed/rewriting)                                    20%             (Mar 24)

Essay 3 (6-7 pages)                                                                        20%             (Apr 21)

Course Books

Alan Adelson, ed., The Diary of Dawid Sierakowiak: Five Notebooks from the ?ód? Ghetto (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996)

Lee Baker, The Second World War on the Eastern Front (New York: Pearson Longman, 2009)

Tadeusz Borowski, This Way for the Gas Ladies and Gentlemen (New York: Penguin Classics, 1976)

Christopher R. Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (New York: Harper Perennial, 1998)

Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, A Terrible Revenge: The Ethnic Cleansing of the East European Germans (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)

Optional Books

Karel C. Berhoff, Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine under Nazi Rule (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004)

Electronic Readings

Material marked with * are available on-line through the course website (under Course Documents).

Please Note: A guide to reading primary and secondary sources and formulating discussion questions can be found on pages 11-12 of this syllabus.

 All readings and other course materials are required.

Assignments

The written assignments for this course consist of three analytical essays, one document analysis, and one reflection essay.  In each paper, you will be asked to respond to a specific reading as well as to connect the reading to the broader themes discussed in class.  The due dates are listed above.  The penalty for late essays is 3% per calendar day.  Instructions for all assignments can be found at the end of this syllabus (pages 8-10).

 

Schedule of Classes

Week 1

January 20                        Introduction to the Course

 

Introduction to the class, readings, and assignments

 

In-Class Film Excerpt: The Nazis: A Warning from History (‘The Wrong War”)

 

Map Quiz Handout

 

Part 1: Contexts

Week 2

January 27                        Setting the stage for German Expansion in the East (1938-1940)

 

Baker, The Second World War on the Eastern Front, 3-18 (incl. relevant documents mentioned in the main text)

 

*Geoffrey P. Megargee, “The Roots of the War of Annihilation,” 1-18, in War of Annihilation: Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front, 1941 (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007)

 

*“Hitler’s Foreign Policy Program,” 1-8, in J. Noakes & G. Pridham, eds, Nazism: A Documentary Reader, vol. 3: Foreign Policy, War, and Racial Extermination (Exeter: Exeter University Press, 2006)

*Excerpt from Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (1925)

*The German-Soviet Non-Aggression Treaty, August 1939 (GHI Document)

 

Map Quiz

Week 3

February 3                        1941: Operation Barbarossa and the Brutalization of Warfare

 

Baker, The Second World War on the Eastern Front, 18-56 (incl. relevant documents)

 

*Karel C. Berkhoff, “Soviet Ukraine and the Soviet Invasion,” in Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine under Nazi rule, 6-34

*Commissar Order June 6, 1941

*Martin Bormann Minutes from Meeting July 16, 1941

*Indoctrination of the German Soldier: For Volk, Führer, and Fatherland”

*Vasily Grossman, “The Killing Grounds at Berdichev” 1944

 

Week 4

February 10                        Nazi Rule in Eastern Europe and the End Game (1942-1945)

 

Baker, The Second World War on the Eastern Front, 57-107 (incl. documents)

*Ilya Ehrenburg, Excerpt from “Kill” (1942)

*William Hoffman, “Diary of a German Soldier”

*Affidavit of SS-Gruppenführer Otto Ohlendorf

*Governor General Hans Frank’s speech to his cabinet, Krakow, 16 December 1941

*Vasily Grossman, “Treblinka” (1944)

Document analysis due

Part 2: Themes

 1: German Colonial Rule

 Week 5

February 17                        General Plan Ost – German Intentions in the East

 

*“The German Occupation of Poland,” 314-388, in Noakes & Pridham, Nazism: A Documentary Reader, vol. 3.

*“Internal Critique of Nazi Occupation Policy,” 304-308, in Noakes & Pridham, Nazism: A Documentary Reader, vol. 3.

*Karel C. Berkhoff, “Prisoners of War,” in Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine under Nazi Rule, 89-113

 

2: War and Genocide – The Holocaust

Week 6

February 24                        A New Racial Order: Experiments in Brutality

 

*“The ‘Euthanasia’-programme, 1939-1945,” 389-440, in Noakes & Pridham, Nazism: A Documentary Reader, vol. 3.

*“The Persecution of the Jews, 1939-1941,” 441-464, & “”The Transition to the Systematic Extermination of the Jews,” 478-501, in Noakes & Pridham, Nazism: A Documentary Reader, vol. 3.

The Diary of Dawid Sierakowiak: Five Notebooks from the ?ód? Ghetto, Foreword etc, 2-17, 19-74 (1^st Notebook (June 28, 1939-December 31, 1939))

In-Class Film Excerpt: Ghetto Lodz (Alan Adelson, 1999)

 

Week 7

March 3            Ghettos

The Diary of Dawid Sierakowiak: Five Notebooks from the ?ód? Ghetto (75-271)

*Dan Michman, “Jewish Leadership in Extremis,” 319-340, The Historiography of the Holocaust, Dan Stone ed. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)

In-Class Film Excerpt: Ghetto Lodz (spring 1943 to August 1944)

Diary of Dawid Sierakowiak essay due in class (if you are not ready to submit it in class, then do not come to class)

Week 8

March 10                        1941 and the Final Solution

Christopher R. Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (all)

SPRING BREAK

Week 9

March 24                        Death Camps and Forced Labor

*“The Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942 Concerning the ‘Final Solution’ of the Jewish Problem,” 533-543, & “The Extermination Camps,” 544-600, 610-629 in Noakes & Pridham, Nazism: A Documentary Reader.

Tadeusz Borowski, This way for the Gas Ladies and Gentlemen (all)

Ordinary Men paper due in class

3: Collaboration and Resistance

Week 10

March 31                        Collaboration   

*Benjamin Frommer, “Denouncers and Fraternizers: Gender, Collaboration, and Retribution in Bohemia and Moravia during WWII and After,” 111-132, in Gender and War in Twentieth Century Eastern Europe, eds. Nancy M. Wingfield & Maria Bucur (Bloomington: Inidiana University Press, 2006)

*Jan Gross, Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, 1-7, 30-42

In-Class Film Excerpt: The Shop on Main Street (Czechoslovakia, 1965)

 

Week 11

April 7                        Resistance: Partisans

 

*“Deportations and Forced Migrations,” & “Toward the End of Nazi rule,” in Karel C. Berkhoff, Harvest of Despair, 253-304

 

*Ben Shepherd, War in the Wild East: The German Army and Soviet Partisans (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004), 108-128, 188-234

 

In-Class Film Excerpt: War of the Century: When Hitler Fought Stalin (Partisans in Belorussia)

 

Part 3: End of War and the Memory of World War II in Eastern Europe

 

Week 12

April 14                        Creating the Postwar Order                       

 

*“Timothy Snyder, “’To Resolve the Ukrainian Question Once and For All’: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ukrainians in Poland, 1943-1947,” Journal of Cold War Studies vol. 1, no. 2 June 1999): 86-120

 

*Radio Documentary: “Red Runs the Vistula: The Warsaw Uprising of 1944,” American Public Media/BBC  (about 50 min)

http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/warsaw/

 

*Stefan Korbonski, ”Warsaw Uprising” (Excerpt from The Underground State: A Guide to the Underground, 1939-1945), 187-193

 

In-Class Film Excerpt: The Pianist (Roman Polanski, 2002)

Week 13

April 21                        Retribution Against the Germans of Eastern Europe

 

Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, A Terrible Revenge: The Ethnic Cleansing of the East European Germans (all)

 

A Terrible Revenge paper due in class (if you are not ready to submit, then do not come to class)

Week 14

April 28                        Jews and the End of War in Eastern Europe

 

*Jan T. Gross, “Introduction,” and “The Unwelcoming of Jewish Survivors,” in Fear: Antisemitism in Poland after Auschwitz: An Essay in Historical Interpretation (New York: Random House, 2006), ix-xv, 31-80.

*“The Victory,” in Henryk Grynberg, The Jewish War and The Victory (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2001), 61-153.

*Piotr Wrobel, “Double Memory: Poles ands Jews After the Holocaust,” East European Politics and Societies vol. 11, no. 3 (Fall 1997), 560-574.

Week 15

May 5                                    WWII and Postwar Communism

*Jan T. Gross, “War as Revolution,” 17-40, in The Establishment of Communist Regimes in Eastern Europe, eds. Norman M. Naimark & Leonid Gibianski (New York: Westview Press, 1997)

*Heda Margolius Kovály, Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968 (Holmes & Meier, 1986), 39-74

*Tony Judt, “From the House of the Dead: An Essay on Modern European Memory,” 803-831, in Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (New York: Penguin, 2006)

 

Final Assignment due May 12 in my office before 5 pm.

 

 

Course Policies

University of Texas Honor Code

The core values of The University of Texas at Austin are learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility.  Each member of the university is expected to uphold these values through integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, and respect toward peers and community.  Any student found guilty of scholastic dishonesty may receive an “F” in the course and will be remanded to the appropriate University of Texas authorities for disciplinary action.  For more information, view Student Judicial Services at http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs.

 

A Note on the Use of Personal Electronic Devices

Individual students may be directed to turn off personal electronic devices if the devices are not being used for class purposes.  If the student does not comply, the student may be asked to leave the classroom.

 

A Note on Classroom Behavior

You have the right to learn in every class you attend.  But you have the responsibility to help assure that every other student shares that right.  Specifically:

• Come to class on time.  Do not leave early.  These things are very disruptive.  If you must come late or leave early, let the instructor know in advance and sit near the exit.
• Don't be disruptive during class.  Don't chat with your neighbor.  Don’t use your computer for anything else than taking notes or looking up course readings.
• Don't allow your electronic devices to be disruptive.  Turn off your cell phone, beeper, and watch alarm. 
• Participate.  Don’t let your electronic device act as an inhibitor to class room participation.  If I am not satisfied with your involvement in the class, you might be asked to stop using your laptop or other electronic device.

 

Documented Disability Statement

The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities.  For more information, contact Services for Students with Disabilities at 471-6259 (voice) or 232-2937 (video phone).  It is you responsibility to inform me about any accommodations that you might need early on in the semester.

 

Grading Scale

 

94-100: A

90-93: A-

87-89: B+

84-86: B

80-83: B-

77-79: C+

74-76: C

70-73: C-

67-69: D+

64-66: D

60-63: D-

0-59:   F

 

Instructions for Assignments

 

Format for written assignments

• Typed, double-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman, 1 inch margins, numbered, stapled, and spell-checked
• You must footnote using the Chicago Style (style sheet will be posted on the course website).  Do not use parenthetical or endnotes!
•  Cover page with your name and essay title.

 

Submission

• Hard copies only (your assignment is not considered submitted until you hand in a hard copy!)
• Assignments are due in class
• Late penalty is 3% per calendar day
• Essay no. 1 and 2 are peer-reviewed assignments.  When you submit these assignments, you must provide a copy both for me and your peer reviewer (you will be assigned a peer reviewer in class)

 

Assignment # 1

 

Document Analysis

Due: February 10, 2010

Length: 2-3 pages

This assignment asks you to read a primacy source and analyze its content and significance.  The document in question is the so-called “Jäger Report.”  Imagine you are a historian who comes across this document in the archives.  You begin the process of figuring out what the significance is of the evidence you have before you.  Here are some questions that should help you in your analysis:

1. Who was the author and when was it written?  Who do you think is the recipient? Why was the document produced?
2. What is the content of the document?  What does the information contained in the document tell you about events that have already taken place and ones that are unfolding?
3. What do you learn about the author from the document?  What are his motivations for producing the document?   

When doing this assignment it is important that you read the document very closely.  Pay attention to dates and to shifts in emphasis.  The details are very significant when reading sources like this one.  In order to discover the document’s many layers, you will have to read it several times and work closely with the text when undertaking your analysis.  Your work should be based on your reading of the source and your own analysis of it: do not do additional research or use reviews or summaries written by other people.

 

Assignment # 2

Essay no. 1

Due: March 3, 2010

Length: 3-4 pages

 

This assignment is a response to The Diary of Dawid Sierakowiak: Five Notebooks from the ?ód? Ghetto.  What do we learn about life in the ghetto from reading Dawid’s diary?  Drawing on examples from the diary discuss one of the following themes in a 3-4-page essay:  strategies of survival; resistance; food and social control; and social divisions within the ghetto and their significance (these are merely suggestions.  If there is another theme from the book that you would like to focus on for this assignment you can do so although you should have your idea approved by me in advance of writing the essay).  Your work should be based on your reading of the book and your own analysis of it: do not do additional research or use reviews or summaries written by other people.

Once you have completed your essay, consider the following questions and bring your answers to class:

1. What did you find most surprising about Dawid’s experiences?
2. What are the strengths and limitations of his diary as a historical source?

 

Submission: 

Bring two hard copies of your essay to class, one for me and one for your peer reviewer.

 

Assignment # 3

Essay no. 2

Due: March 24, 2010

Length: 6-7 pages

This assignment is a response to the book by Christopher R. Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland.  Your work should be based on your reading of the book and your own analysis of it: do not do additional research or use reviews or summaries written by other people.

In six to seven, double-spaced pages, address the following questions:

I. List five useful historical facts you learned from reading this book.  These facts should be straightforward pieces of information that can be stated briefly.  An example might be an important statistic about the German Order Police in Poland that you had not known before or the date of a central event in the history of the Holocaust.

II. Choose a short quotation (two or three sentences) from the book that you consider especially significant.  In one page explain how the passage you selected reflects a major argument or central contribution of Browning's book.  Be sure to provide the quotation and the page on which it appears.

III. Write four to five pages in which you analyze one of the main points of Browning’s book.  Be sure to identify the theme or argument you will discuss and explain how it fits into Browning’s work as a whole.  How does he support his claim?  What is noteworthy about the kind of evidence he presents and the ways he interprets it?  Why did this particular aspect of the book strike you as significant?  What kinds of positions does Browning seem to be countering or correcting?  Is he convincing?  Why or why not?

Submission: 

Bring two hard copies of your essay to class, one for me and one for your peer reviewer.

Assignment # 4

Essay no. 3

Due: April 21, 2010

Length: 6-7 pages

 

In his study of ethnic cleansing in Europe, the historian Norman Naimark noted about the expulsion on Germans from Poland and Czechoslovakia following World War II:

 

“In some fashion, then, it is fair to say that the Germans reaped what they sowed.  That so many lives were lost and ruined in the ethnic cleansing of the Germans from East Central Europe should be attributed, in the final analysis, to the hatred wrought by Nazi policy in the region.” 

 

Drawing on Alfred-Maurice de Zayas’ A Terrible Revenge: The Ethnic Cleansing of the East European Germans, as well as other course materials discuss Naimark’s assertion.  Do you agree or disagree?  Your work should be based on your reading of the book and other course materials and your own analysis of it: do not do additional research or use reviews or summaries written by other people.

(Source: Norman M. Naimark, Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth Century Europe (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002), 136)

Assignment # 5

Reflection Essay

Due: May 12, 2010

Length: 3 pages

 

In this assignment, you will be asked to state your informed opinion about the significance of the study of the Second World War in Eastern Europe for your understanding of history more broadly.  While I am asking for your opinion, I want you to form one based on the course readings and discussions we have had in the course of the semester.  You should use these materials as evidence to support your statements.  In a three-page essay reflect on the following questions:

 

1.  What aspect of World War II covered in this seminar did you find to be the most interesting?  Explain why. 

 

2.  Do you think the study of WWII in Eastern Europe can provide us with universal insights (not dependent on time and place) into human behavior or were people’s responses dependent on their specific contexts?  Explain why.

 

Reading Primary Sources and Sources

&

Preparing Discussion Questions

A Brief Guide

How to approach a primary source?

 

Author

• Who was the author?
• When was it written?  What is the context for the production of the document?

 

Purpose or Message

• Why was the document produced and why has it survived?
• Is the author simply providing information or trying to lead the audience to a particular conclusion?
• What kind of evidence does the author introduce to support a thesis or a claim in the source?  Why was this evidence chosen?

 

Point of View

• All authors have biases, prejudices, and assumptions that influence their perspective or point of view!
• What background factors might influence the author’s point of view?
• Is the author trustworthy?  How do you know?

 

Audience

• Who was the intended audience for this document? 

 

Tone and Language

• What is the tome of the source?  What is the author’s attitude toward the subject?
• Is there a single tone employed throughout the document or does it vary from part to part?

 

Significance

• How does the source help explain the event or topic being explored?  Could the event or issue be explained as fully without the document?
• Does the source offer unique insights or alternative information about the topic?
• Is the explanation or interpretation in this document different from others?
• What does it being to light about a certain historical period or event?

 

How to approach a secondary source?

• Begin by reading the introduction and conclusion.
• Understanding the thesis and the major conclusions drawn from the study will act as a spine holding together all the information you are about to receive in the main body of the text.  You can also think of the introduction and the conclusion as a road map guiding you through the facts and evidence being presented.
• Evaluate the arguments and the evidence critically—is it convincing why or why not?
• Read for historical context i.e. learn about the past
• Read for historiographical context i.e. understand how interpretation of the past have evolved

 

When preparing discussion questions:

1. Once you have read the sources well, think about what you want to get across in the discussion.  How do the sources relate to and/or contradict each other?
2. Think about the types of sources we are reading.
3. Ask open-ended questions and keep in mind that good discussion questions go beyond asking people to recall details from the text but require knowledge of the text’s contents to be answered well.  Your questions should elicit answers that are historical and analytical, not simply opinions. For example, a question that points to a possible contradiction within the text and asks your colleagues to assess whether that contradiction undermines the author’s argument could stimulate an informed exchange of views and generate knowledge about the text and the history it treats.  A question that asks how readers feel about some of the issues the author examines would not be likely to accomplish those goals.