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The Holocaust and Nazi Occupation of Eastern Europe, 1939-1945: Sources

Module description

The Nazi occupation of Eastern Europe between 1939 and 1945 was arguably the most destructive event of the Second World War. Poland and the occupied Soviet republics of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia became killing fields not only because of the extermination of Polish and Soviet Jewry, but also because of Nazi economic exploitation and mass murder aimed at Poles and Soviet civilians. This module aims to introduce you to the sources documenting the twin catastrophes of Nazi occupation and genocide through the eyes of German occupiers, Polish and Soviet civilians and the Jews of Eastern Europe.

No knowledge of a foreign language is required

Module aims - intentions of the module

Together with its co-requisite, the module aims to:

• Introduce you to the entangled histories of the Holocaust and Nazi occupation of Eastern Europe as told from the perspectives of Germans, Jews, Poles and Soviet citizens, engaging closely with a wide variety of sources documenting occupation and mass murder between 1939 and 1945
• Drawing on published and translated source collections as well as a growing number of online digital archives, the module will make use of many personal documents such as contemporary diaries, letters, manuscripts and post-war memoirs, as well as official sources including SS and other Nazi records, the archives of Jewish councils and ghettos, photographs, interrogations and trial transcripts

Through working with the extensive primary source collections available to this module,you will develop a range of research, analytical, interpretative and communication skills that can be applied in further academic studies or in graduate careers

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Identify the different sources available for the study of the Holocaust and Nazi occupation of Eastern Europe from a comparative and transnational perspective, and be able to describe in detail the different sources which you focus upon in seminar presentations and written work
• 2. Analyse a range of diverse and complex sources relating to the Holocaust and Nazi occupation of Eastern Europe from a comparative and transnational perspective
• 3. Describe and explain the changing course of Nazi occupation and genocide in Eastern Europe during the period 1939 to 1945.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Analyse closely original sources and to assess their reliability as historical evidence.
• 5. Comprehend complex historical texts.
• 6. Understand and deploy relevant historical terminology in a comprehensible and sophisticated manner.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Select, organise and analyse material for written work and/or oral presentations of different prescribed lengths and formats.
• 8. Present complex arguments orally.
• 9. Present an argument in a written form in a clear and organised manner, with appropriate use of correct English
• 10. Through essay development process, demonstrate ability to reflect critically on your own work, to respond constructively to feedback, and to implement suggestions and improve work on this basis

Syllabus plan

The module focuses on the context to the history of the Holocaust and Nazi occupation of Eastern Europe between 1939 and 1945 from the following perspectives, viewed comparatively and transnationally across Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. While the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:
• Everyday life, collaboration and forced cooperation of Jews, Poles and Soviet civilians under Nazi occupation
• Terror, repression, resistance, partisan and antipartisan warfare
• The Nazi persecution and extermination of Polish and Soviet Jews
• Nazi colonialism and imperialism in Eastern Europe, and policies of annexation, ethnic cleansing and forced resettlement of Jews and non-Jews
• Nazi economic exploitation of Eastern Europe, including the ‘Hunger Plan’ and impressment of Polish and Soviet workers
• Nazi, Soviet and East European nationalist political warfare, propaganda and the battle for ‘hearts and minds’ under occupation
• Civil wars and interethnic violence under Nazi occupation

The introductory sessions for this module will provide an overview of the subject and also expose you to the sources themselves. The seminars will focus on sources drawn from published and digitised resources, allowing you to develop their knowledge of the subject in conjunction with the close analysis of historiography provided in the co-requisite module, and to develop their skills in source analysis and acquisition. Some of the sources will be presented by individuals, others will be presented by those working in groups; and on other occasions there will be open discussion; you may also be expected to present and discuss specific sources you have found yourself from the module resources. You will be expected to prepare for seminars by reading and evaluating the relevant sources in advance, and will discuss the issues raised by them in the seminars.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

The re-assessment consists of a 4,000 word portfolio of source work, as in the original assessment, but replaces the individual presentation with a written script that could be delivered in such a presentation and which is the equivalent of 25 minutes of speech (2,500 words).

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Jewish Responses to Persecution, Volumes I-V (Lanham, MD: AltaMira, 2010-2015)
• Poland and Ukraine in the 1930s and 1940s: Unpublished Documents from the Secret Service Archives (Lodz-Warsaw-Kiev, 2012)
• Alexievich, Svetlana The Unwomanly Face of War (London: Penguin, 2017)
• Alexievich, Svetlana, Last Witnesses: Unchildlike Stories (London: Penguin, 2019)
• Altman, Ilya, The Unknown Black Book: The Holocaust in the German-Occupied Soviet Territories (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008).
• Dobroszycki, Lucjan (ed), The Chronicle of the Lodz Ghetto, 1941-1944 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984)
• Ehrenburg, Ilya and Vasily Grossman, The Complete Black Book of Russian Jewry (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2002)
• MatthaÌ?us, JuÌ?rgen, Jochen BoÌ?hler and Klaus-Michael Mallmann (eds), War, Pacification, and Mass Murder, 1939: the Einsatzgruppen in Poland (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014)
• Kermish, Joseph (ed.), To Live with Honor and Die with Honor!: Selected Documents from the Warsaw Ghetto Underground Archives "O.S." ("Oneg Shabbath") (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1986)
• Lower, Wendy, The Diary of Samuel Golfard and the Holocaust in Galicia (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011)
• Kazimierz Sakowicz, Ponary Diary, 1941-1943: a Bystander's Account of a Mass Murder (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005).
• Matthäus,‎ Jürgen and Frank Bajohr (eds.), The Political Diary of Alfred Rosenberg and the Onset of the Holocaust (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017)
• MatthaÌ?us, JuÌ?rgen, Jochen BoÌ?hler and Klaus-Michael Mallmann (eds), War, Pacification, and Mass Murder, 1939: the Einsatzgruppen in Poland (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014)

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE - https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11349
• Nuremberg Trials at Library of Congress Military Legal Resources: http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/NTs_war-criminals.html
• Harvard Nuremberg Project: http://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/php/docs_swi.php?DI=1&text=overview
• Yad Vashem Digital Collections: http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/resources/index.asp
• Jewish Telegraphic Agency Archive: http://www.jta.org/jta-archive/archive-page
• Lodz ghetto Jewish council records and statistics: http://www.szukajwarchiwach.pl/39/278/0/#tabZespol
• Polish government-in-exile Foreign Ministry Records, English language reports: http://www.szukajwarchiwach.pl/800/42/0#tabZespol

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

Exeter Electronic Library resources include:

• Testaments to the Holocaust (Archives Unbound); Foreign Broadcast Information Service Reports (1941-1996); New York Times; Guardian; The Times; Pravda, Izvestiia

Key words search

Holocaust, Nazi occupation, East European History, Jewish History, Poland, USSR, World War II