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Holocaust and Human Behavior
Our core seminar, Holocaust and Human Behavior, examines the failure of democracy in Germany and the choices made in the 1920s and 1930s that ultimately led to the murder of millions, raising profound moral questions about the consequences of our actions and our beliefs, and how we make distinctions between right and wrong, good and evil.
This transformative seminar will help you understand how hatred, indifference, denial, and opportunism, little by little, can shape the course of history. We begin with an investigation of individual and group identity. We then look carefully at the decades that preceded the Holocaust, in which the rise of the Nazis and their system of terror exposed the fragility of democracy and the importance of freedom. As we learn how choices that undermined democracy ultimately led to the murder of Jews, “Gypsies”, and many others, you will discover that history is not inevitable— a powerful lesson to carry into the classroom.
Throughout the seminar, you will consider essential questions that frame discussions or classroom activities around this history, such as:
- How is our identity formed? How do we acquire membership in a group?
- What can we learn about democracy from the violent history of a failed democracy?
- What can we learn about tolerance from horrific examples of neighbor turning against neighbor?
- What can we learn about responsibility from accounts of educated adults who betrayed a generation of young people?
Using our primary resource book, Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior, as well as video, primary sources, and presentations by survivors and leading scholars of the Holocaust, learn a wide range of innovative teaching strategies to connect the history of the Holocaust to the ethical choices we face today.
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