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Amizade Global Service-Learning > Past Programs
Summer 2006
Program Title: History of the Holocaust
Academic Departments: History
Intercultural Location: Berlin, Germany and Oswecium, Poland
Academic Instructor: Christopher Kopper, Ph.D.
Service-Learning Facilitator: Anna Redcay
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Program Description
In the first part of the course, students will get a general introduction
into the racist ideology of Nazism and the political structures
of national Socialist rule in Germany.
The second part will deal with the Nazi concentration camps, the regime's centers
of persecution and terror. Students shall get an idea that the concentration
camp system of unlimited terror was established to prosecute political resistance
and racial minorities in Germany and its occupied territories. They will learn
that concentration camp inmates were denied all the basics of justice and humane
treatment. A historical overview about the extension of the concentration camps
under the rising terror of Nazism will show that the concentration camps' purpose
gradually changed from the persecution of anti-Nazi resistance to the full-fledged
persecution and annihilation of social outcasts (gays, Jehovas Witnesses and
so-called "anti-social elements"), anti-Nazi resisters from German-occupied
countries and ethnic minorities (Jews and Gypsies). The concentration camps,
which had originally been designed as institutions of terror and punishment,
were subsequently turned into the centers of the Holocaust against the Jewish
people in Europe.
The third part of the course deals with the remembrance of the Nazi dictatorship,
the Holocaust and concentration camp memorial sites. Former concentration camps
in Germany and Poland have been turned into centers of historical learning,
mourning and remembrance. Students will learn about the status of concentration
camp memorial sites for remembrance and learning. In addition, students will
get an overview about the current culture of memory in the German society and
the growing importance of the Holocaust for the historical identity of Germans.
Students will get an impression about the technical, the intellectual and the
emotional difficulties to represent the seemingly unrepresentable and unimaginable
terror. Since the last generation of Holocaust survivors is going to die within
the next two decades, future generations will have no opportunity for a dialogue
about the first hand account of a Holocaust victim. Therefore, the importance
of historical representation in memorial sites like concentration camps and
Holocaust Museums will even rise.
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Academic Details
Academic credits are awarded for this course through West Virginia
University. The program will fulfill 6 academic credits in the following
departments:
- History Department: The Holocaust
- 3 undergraduate credits
(HIST 220)
AND
- Multi-Disciplinary Studies Special Topics: Global Service-Learning
- 3 undergraduate credits (MDS 293Z)
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Program Timeline
July 5
Online classroom discussions begin
July 19 - August 9
Berlin, Germany and Oswecium,
Poland
Lectures, field visits, documentaries, discussions, service and reflections
August 10 - 23
Online classroom discussions and completion
of program.
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