Universität Wien

070182 SE Research Seminar - Microhistory of the Holocaust (2021S)

10.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 7 - Geschichte
Continuous assessment of course work
REMOTE

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 25 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

This research seminar is designed as an online course. If it is possible due to Covid and in compliance with hygiene regulations, meetings will also be held in person. Please make sure that you have a sufficiently strong internet connection and a working computer with microphone and camera. Attendance is compulsory for this course.

Tuesday 09.03. 15:00 - 16:30 Digital
Tuesday 16.03. 15:00 - 16:30 Digital
Tuesday 23.03. 15:00 - 16:30 Digital
Tuesday 13.04. 15:00 - 16:30 Digital
Tuesday 20.04. 15:00 - 16:30 Digital
Tuesday 27.04. 15:00 - 16:30 Digital
Tuesday 04.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Digital
Tuesday 11.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Digital
Tuesday 18.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Digital
Tuesday 01.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Digital
Tuesday 08.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Digital
Tuesday 15.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Digital
Tuesday 22.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Digital
Tuesday 29.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Digital

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Microhistorical approaches have become increasingly important in Holocaust research in recent years (Bajohr 2020). The growing number of publications within Holocaust studies focusing on single cities and local communities has proven determinative to reframing and nuancing Holocaust history. The groundbreaking studies by Jan Gross on the murder of the Jewish population in Jedwabne, Poland (Neighbors 2001) or the recent publication by Omer Bartov on the East Galician city of Buczacz (Anatomy of a Genocide 2018) are just a few prominent examples of this research trend.
In recent years, Holocaust research has also increasingly turned away from the "perpetrator - victim - bystander" triad (Hilberg 1997) in order to enhance our understanding of the intricacies of interpersonal relations and human interactions during the Holocaust. The microhistorical lens enables a change of scale in writing Holocaust history, revealing complexities and contradictions that would otherwise be lost in the grand explanatory models of earlier historiographies (Zalc / Bruttmann 2017). A systematic microhistorical approach involves the juxtaposition of different scopes of analysis in order to understand the particularity of a specific local context and group. A reduction of scale can thus illuminate issues that “transcend a specific local framework and shed light on the broader context.” (Zalc / Bruttmann 2017).

This seminar focuses on micro-historical approaches to Holocaust research. Based on the experiences of persecution of the Jewish population in Vienna between 1938 and 1945, other local contexts and microcosms will be explored. In the context of an integrated history (Friedländer 2007), the radicalization of anti-Jewish measures on the part of the Nazi rulers will be discussed and agency and survival strategies of the victims will be made visible.

After a detailed thematic introduction and discussion of selected texts in the plenum, students should get an insight into working with archives and source materials, which should be researched independently. The aim is to give students an introduction to micro-historical approaches to Holocaust research as well as an insight into different source genres (perpetrator and victim sources, official reports, press articles, and above all diaries, letters and testimonies). In addition to these research aims, this seminar should also give students the opportunity to get acquainted with academic discussions in English and prepare them for international conference attendance.

Assessment and permitted materials

* Mandatory attendance of all seminar dates (personal presence and / or digital)
* Active participation in discussions and reflections (personal presence and / or digital)
* Independent research and elaboration of a specific topic
* Audio-visual presentation
* Term paper

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

* Obligation to attend and participate in the seminar dates
* Mandatory reading and timely submission of homework
* Timely audiovisual presentation
* Participation in discussions and active feedback for other participants (constructive, professional)
* Timely submission of the term paper (about 45,000 characters)

Examination topics

All content covered in the course. Additional learning materials will be made accessible.

Reading list

Omer Bartov, Anatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz, Simon & Schuster,
New York 2018.
Frank Bajohr, Nach dem Zivilisationsbruch: Stand und Perspektiven der Holocaustforschung, in: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 1945 (2020).
Frank Bajohr / Andrea Löw (eds.): The Holocaust and European Societies: Social Processes and Social Dynamics, Palgrave Macmillian, London 2019.
Tim Cole, Holocaust City: The Making of a Jewish Ghetto, Routledge, New York / London 2003.
Tim Cole / Alberto Giordano, Microhistories, Microgeographies: Budapest, 1944, and the Scales of Analysis, in: Zalc / Bruttmann (eds.), Microhistories of the Holocaust, 113-127.
Saul Friedländer, Den Holocaust beschreiben: Auf dem Weg zu einer integrierten Geschichte, Wallstein, Göttingen 2007.
Saul Friedländer, Das Dritte Reich und die Juden: 1933-1945, C.H. Beck, Munich 2010.
Geraldien von Frijtag Drabbe Künzel / Valeria Galimi: Microcosms of the Holocaust: Exploring New Venues into Small-Scale Research of the Holocaust, in: Journal of Genocide Research 21, 3 (2019), 335-
341.
Valeria Galimi, A Microcosm in Florence: Jewish-Gentile Interactions from the Fascist Regime to the Holocaust, in: Journal of Genocide Research 21, 3 (2019), 359-377.
Jan Tomasz Gross with Irena Grudzinska Gross, Golden Harvest: Events at the Periphery of the Holocaust, Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2012.
Jan Tomasz Gross, Nachbarn: Der Mord an den Juden von Jedwabne, C.H. Beck, Munich 2001.
Maura Hametz, "Leben im Blut" in der schönen Stadt: Juden und Nationalsozialisten in Triest 1943-1945, in: Löw / Bergen / Hájkova (eds.), Alltag im Holocaust, 217-236.
Dieter J. Hecht / Eleonore Lappin / Michaela Raggam-Blesch, Topographie der Shoah. Jüdische Gedächtnisorte des zerstörten jüdischen Wien, Mandelbaum, Vienna 2018.
Raul Hilberg, Täter, Opfer, Zuschauer: Die Vernichtung der Juden 1933-1945, Fischer TB, Frankfurt a. M. 1997.
Marion Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany, Oxford University Press, New York 1998.
Victor Klemperer, Ich will Zeugnis abgeben bis zum letzten: Tagebücher 1933-1945, hg. von Walter Nowojski, Aufbau Verlag, Berlin 1995.
Andrea Löw / Doris Bergen / Anna Hájkova (Hg.): Alltag im Holocaust: Jüdisches Leben im Großdeutschen Reich 1941-1945, Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2013.
Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon / István M. Szijártó, What is Microhistory? Theory and Practice, Routledge, New York 2013.
Bob Moore, Survivors. Jewish Self-Help and Rescue in Nazi-Occupied Western Europe, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2010.
Michaela Raggam-Blesch, "Privileged" under Nazi-Rule: The Fate of Three Intermarried Families in Vienna, in: Journal of Genocide Research 21, 3 (2019), 378-397 (Open Access).
Claire Zalc / Tal Bruttmann (Hg.), Microhistories of the Holocaust, Berghahn Books, New York / Oxford 2017.

Association in the course directory

AER: Zeitgeschichte.
MA Geschichte (Version 2014): PM3 Praktische Forschung und Darstellung, SE Forschungsseminar (10 ECTS).
MA Geschichte (Version 2019): PM2 Konzeption und Einübung selbstständiger Forschungsprozesse, SE Forschungsseminar (10 ECTS) / PM 3 Durchführung eines selbstständigen Forschungsprozesses, SE Forschungsseminar (10 ECTS).
Interdisziplinäres MA Zeitgeschichte und Medien (Version 2016): M3a Praktische Forschung und Darstellung I, SE Forschungsseminar (10 ECTS).
Interdisziplinäres MA Zeitgeschichte und Medien (Version 2019): M3a Praktische Forschung und Darstellung I, SE Forschungsseminar (10 ECTS).

Last modified: Fr 12.05.2023 00:13