Subject Area: History
This course can also be studied in the following specialisations: European Studies, German Studies

The course introduces students to the history of the Nazi destruction of the European Jews during the Second World War and encourages an understanding of the phenomenon of genocide through an in-depth analysis of the origins and implementation of the Nazi anti-Jewish policies and the ways in which people responded to state-sponsored violence in the first half of the 20th Century. The course predominantly focuses on an intensive study of the Holocaust, and offers diverse perspectives on the groups of perpetrators, victims and bystanders. In the final part we will look at the developments after the end of the war, during the so-called Aftermath of the Holocaust. The course will also deal with other genocides committed by Nazi Germany during the Second World War (Slavs, religious minorities, disabled and homosexuals) and students will have the opportunity in their assessments to examine the Holocaust in relation to other acts of genocide and mass killing committed during the twentieth and twenty-first century (Armenian genocide, Cambodia, Yugoslavia and Rwanda).