HIS 421 Nazi Germany and the Holocaust

This course provides students with the opportunity to examine one of the most troubling episodes in history and to deal with the difficult issues relating to the Third Reich, the Holocaust, and historical interpretations of the period 1933-1945 in Germany. In this course, students will study the background to the Nazi era through an examination of anti-democratic structures in pre-World War I Germany, Germany’s defeat in World War I, and the weakness and collapse of the Weimar Republic. Students will then examine the success of Hitler and the Nazi Party; the structure of the Nazi state, including politics, society, and economics; Nazi racism and anti-Semitism; Germany and World War II; and the Holocaust. This course is one of the Proseminar courses that can be taken as a prerequisite for History Seminar.

3 credit hours