ATS2600: The Holocaust

This was a great unit. I actually really enjoyed doing the readings and writing on the subject – maybe not the most appropriate reaction to a unit on a genocide, but definitely a truthful one. I feel compelled to just say at the start of this review that nothing on Holocaust denial is covered in this unit. I only say that because literally every person not doing this unit who I informed I was studying this unit asked this. Yes, all 4 of them. I suppose if it’s a topic that interests you, you could do it for the major essay. Probably. Well, maybe. Maybe not. It's not really a position taken seriously in revisionist scholarship. In any case, it's not an assigned part of the course.

I had Daniella (the lecturer) as my tutor, and she was brilliant. It’s very clear from the breadth of her knowledge and her enthusiasm in conducting the tutes that the study of the Holocaust is a passion of hers.

The course content canvasses a series of debates on the causes of the Holocaust (Functionalism v. Intentionalism), and a series of debates about the nature of the Holocaust (Uniqueness - why do we pay so much attention to this particular genocide, and not others? Explicability – can it be explained? Comparability - can it be compared to other genocides? Collaboration and resistance – how should we understand the reactions and behaviours of participants in, bystanders to and victims of the genocide?) Other debates – such as the question of Nazi humanity or the problematic role of modernity in the Holocaust - are present in the background as solutions. I found the question of explicability to be fascinating, the idea that there are explicable components (such as Nazi strategy, i.e., why the switch was made from bullets to poison as instruments of genocide) and inexplicable components (such as how people can be moved to participate in genocide) of the Holocaust.

The engagement of the course with contemporary Holocaust scholarship and disagreements between famous scholars was very, very interesting. Scholars covered include Claudia Koonz, Christopher Browning, Jonah Goldhagen, Primo Levi, Marion Kaplan, Raul Hilberg and Yehuda Bauer, as well as primary source documents such as Monika Richarz’s collection of memoirs, Chaim Rumkowski’s “Give Me Your Children” speech, and the diary of Felix Landau. When you utilise primary source documents in the major research essay and compare them to interpretations in serious, contemporary academia, you really feel like your participating in the conversation, which can be exciting.

The one drawback I did find in this unit is Daniella’s fixation on passive voice. I remember passive voice being covered very briefly in year 10 English, before I moved onto lit, and to be honest I’m still not totally sure what passive voice is. Something about omitting the verb “to be”. I set MS word to underline instances of passive voice and fiddled around with sentences until the green line disappeared, but other than that, I lost a few marks for the presence of passivity. Real pain in the ass because I do like to think my writing has some clarity .

Another drawback is that I've been provoking the ire of Godwin's Law a lot more often these days.
The main reason I enrolled in ATS2600 was because I needed one more human rights unit to finish my minor, and nothing else offered in semester one seemed interesting. I definitely feel I made the right choice in selecting it, and would recommend it to anybody who wants to develop a better comprehension of human nature and the atrocities that emerge from it. If you're sick and tired of the Holocaust from studying it in high school and watching countless movies on it, Monash also offers a straight genocide unit, ATS2057 - Genocide, next semester. ATS2600 and 2057 used to be the same unit (The Holocaust in an Age of Genocide), which spent half the course on the Holocaust and the other half on other genocides (Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur, etc.), but the decision was made to split it in two. If you wanna know why, you should take this unit.

Daniella Doron

Nope. There was one sample (10/10) identification answer posted to Moodle.

4.5/5

Yes, with screen capture

No textbook or unit reader, all the readings are posted to Moodle.

1x1.5hr lecture, 1x1hr tute

2015, Semester One

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