OVERVIEW

What does it mean to visit Europe today, as an American, reading the past through literature, museums and historical monuments that are meant to keep alive the unthinkable? This 13-day course takes you through several of Europe’s most beautiful and historically-important cities as it retraces the stages of Nazi terror: from the serene lake-side setting of Berlin-Wannsee, where on January, 20, 1942, Reinhard Heydrich convened the Wannsee Conference with 15 high-ranking Nazi officials to draft the Final Solution (Endlösung) in which the Nazis would attempt to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe; to Auschwitz concentration camp near Krakow, Poland, where the mass murder of 1.1 million people was ultimately carried out.

The trip plots the stages of the Nazi plan chronologically from Berlin (Wannsee) to Weimar (Buchenwald concentration camp) to Prague (Teresienstadt concentration camp) to Krakow, Poland (Auschwitz concentration camp) and ends in Warsaw (the site of a Jewish revolt). Other excursions include Jewish quarters, synagogues and museums. Through first-hand experience, coupled with required literary readings, the course offers the opportunity to consider how we have chosen to represent and remember one of the darkest periods in history, as well as to consider how this history continues to impact modern Europe today (including how European Jewry has risen from the ashes of the Holocaust).

ACADEMICS

Earn three undergraduate or graduate credits in literature (LITR 100 Worlds on the Page: Representing the Holocaust—this class will meet the General Education requirement for the Humanities; LITR 480 Literature and Culture: Representing the Holocaust; LITR 592 Special Topics: Representing the Holocaust) or German (GERN 222, Intermediate German Reading: Representing the Holocaust—this class will meet the General Education requirement for the Humanities; GERN 428, German Literature from 1945 to the Present: Representing the Holocaust; GERN 451/452, Readings in German: Representing the Holocaust—offered for one and two credits respectively).

General Education Rationale
LITR 100 meets the requirements of a humanities course in the knowledge of the disciplines portion of the general education program. LITR 100 is designed to cultivate the students’ appreciation of literary texts by providing a context to learn about the formal and historical features of different kinds of poems, plays and works of fiction. The class introduces terms important for the critical understanding of poetry, drama and fiction as imaginative literary forms. Learn to analyze poems, plays and stories not only as products of the cultures that produced them but also as texts that have impacted and influenced society. Because the course focuses on different types of literature in historical contexts, students gain a nuanced understanding of the cultural meaning of poetry, drama and fiction and learn to interpret literary texts as complex social practices that are also meaningful as human art.

GERN 222 meets the requirements of a humanities (foreign language) course in the knowledge of the disciplines portion of the general education program. GERN 222 is designed to develop and improve students’ language and cultural knowledge (speaking, reading, listening, and writing) at the intermediate level. The contents of the course enable the students to develop an appreciation and understanding of the literature of German-speaking countries of Europe, with special focus on the literature of the Holocaust, including film, the arts, as well as other media. Students are expected to express their knowledge and understanding of these topics in German at the intermediate level of proficiency.

The purpose of this program will be to consider the nature of memory, specifically how the Holocaust has been memorialized and remembered by the cultures where it occurred, by victims, perpetrators, and bystanders. It will also examine why the Holocaust persists in haunting Western culture, why its trauma continues to inform our literature, our music, our art as well as our social and political institutions.

Earn three undergraduate or graduate credits in literature.
-- LITR 100 Worlds on the Page: Representing the Holocaust (Meets the general education requirement for the Humanities)
-- LITR 480 Literature and Culture: Representing the Holocaust
-- LITR 592 Special Topics: Representing the Holocaust or GERN 222 Intermediate German Reading: Representing the Holocaust (Meets the general education requirement for the Humanities)
-- GERN 428 German Literature from 1945 to the Present: Representing the Holocaust
-- GERN 451/452, Readings in German: Representing the Holocaust (Offered for one and two credits respectively).

LODGING

The group will stay in multiple occupancy youth hostel and small hotels.

COSTS

*This price does not include round-trip airfare or tuition and fees. Please note this is an estimated cost. It has been carefully calculated to try to be as firm as possible. If there are significant changes in costs beyond the control of Academic Programs Abroad, we may need to require a surcharge (e.g. rises in the cost of fuel, sharp changes in currency exchange rates, museum admissions costs, hotel charges or even an unexpected mid-year rise in tuition or fees). We will, however, do our utmost to keep the price as advertised.