Africa and The Holocaust: Social, Cultural and Political
Dr. Roni Mikel-Arieli
B.A. Course
Year-round, Monday, 12:00-14:00
During World War II, the African continent was controlled by different colonial or occupying powers. Therefore in North Africa, the French, Italian or German forces imported the policy of Nazi persecution that led to the Holocaust of North African Jews. African countries such as Rhodesia, Congo, and South Africa became a place of refuge for some Jewish refugees escaping Nazi-controlled Europe, while countries like Kenia and Mauritius became a place of detention for others. Thus, during the war, and even more so during the post-war period, African colonial histories were interwoven with histories of the Jewish genocide, contributing to shaping decolonization processes in the continent. Such processes are also relevant to the entangled histories and memories that connect the Holocaust with events of genocide and mass violence in Africa. This course aims to expose students to the sociological, cultural, and political processes that connect the continent of Africa to Holocaust history and memory.
Africa.pdf
Our Holocaust? Social Issues in Holocaust History
Dr. Roni Mikel-Arieli
B.A. Course
Fall semester, Monday, 14:00-16:00
The course will focus on key social issues in Holocaust history to provide students with a broader understanding of the events and processes that took place during the Holocaust, and of its relevance to the present. The course will engage with the following issues: the development of eugenics; The lives of individuals and societies during the Holocaust; Perpetrators, collaborators, or bystanders - the Polish case; Judenrat, Kapo and the Jewish Police - between leadership and cooperation; The banality of evil - the perception of the perpetrators; Anti-Semitism as a question in Holocaust research; Non-Jewish victims of Nazism; Is North Africa during World War II part of the Holocaust?; and more.
Our Holocaust.pdf
Never Again? Holocaust Memory in Politics and Society in a Global Age
Dr. Roni Mikel-Arieli
B.A. Course
Spring Semester, Monday, 1400-16:00
The course will explore selected social, ethical, political, and cultural facets embedded in the remembrance of the Holocaust in different contexts. It will delve into how the globalization of Holocaust memory, starting from the post-Cold War era to the present, has shaped contemporary perspectives. Throughout the course, we will analyze complex concepts such as cosmopolitan memory, genocide, the Holocaust's uniqueness, and the interplay between multi-directional memory and competitive remembrance. Our focus will extend to examining the diplomacy surrounding Holocaust remembrance, particularly within Israeli foreign policy. This includes navigating relations with Poland, encompassing discussions on the Holocaust Law. Moreover, we'll examine how commemoration and memory serve as tools in confronting traumatic histories, as witnessed in post-Holocaust Germany and post-apartheid South Africa. Additionally, the course will scrutinize the analogical use of the Holocaust in anti-colonial struggles, the evolution and challenges of Holocaust memory in the digital era, and the multifaceted issues related to denial, silencing, forgetting, and suppression of Holocaust memories across diverse contexts. These contexts span from the Holocaust experiences of the
Jews in the Soviet Union to those in North Africa and beyond.
Never Again.pdf
Commemorating Shoah and Genocide: Comparative Social Perspectives (in English)
Prof. Jackie Feldman
B.A. Course
Spring semester, Thursday, 12:00;14:00
The memory of the past plays a central role in the collective work of culture. The course will examine changing forms of Holocaust and genocide testimony, representation and commemoration. Among the subjects to be studied are: the debate over uniqueness and comparison of Holocaust and genocides, commemorative sites and ceremonies, Holocaust tourism and museums, the Holocaust in digital media, and
the politics shaping commemoration of Holocaust and genocide in Israel and elsewhere. Students will participate in a trip to a Holocaust museum, summarize and present articles in class, and write an empirically-based final paper, which will be presented at an early stage of research in class and submitted at the end of the semester.
