This course traces and examines forms of Holocaust memory and memorialization in film, literature, art, architecture, city planning, museums, and monuments in Germany. We will consider the concept of memorialization theoretically and look at its practical manifestations. The course will include a trip to Berlin where students explore the ways in which Holocaust memory has been and is currently being preserved in the German capitol. Furthermore, students will witness the ways in which World War II and its Cold War aftermath have shaped the city of today.

This class will ask students to think about one of the most defining periods in 20^th century western history. While most students have been exposed to the history of the Holocaust in high school and through the US media, this course offers them a new perspective through literature, art and architecture within the context of German culture. Students will be introduced to critical and interpretive methods/approaches through which they can recover new ways of understanding history and culture, and alien (to them) ways of understanding society