Approaches to History (393-0-26)

Topic

Gender, Race, and the Holocaust

Instructors

Tiarra Maznick
Tiarra Maznick is currently the Assistant Director and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University (HEFNU). She received her B.A. (2010) from Smith College in German Studies and Russian Civilization, and M.A. (2020) and PhD (2024) from UMass Amherst in German and Scandinavian Studies. As a scholar of reproduction under Nazism, Maznick researches sterilization, eugenics, sexuality, reproductive politics, and pronatalism, during and after the Holocaust.

Meeting Info

Annenberg Hall G28: Tues, Thurs 12:30PM - 1:50PM

Overview of class

The aim of this seminar is to introduce students to the history and historiography of race and gender during the Holocaust. As in many historical contexts, race and gender interacted dynamically and created the particular context of Nazi-occupied Europe, which was a place where Jewish men and women suffered in particular ways, German men and women participated in particular ways, and other racial groups - men and women alike - were targeted, collaborated, resisted and rescued. We will read a variety of texts that explore the influences that shaped the behavior and response of an array of people during the Holocaust. Racism sat directly in the center of the Nazi world view. Once the Nazis got into power, they sought to translate ideology into policy. Still, their racial policies evolved over time, spurred by opportunism, innovation, and war. And too, Jewish men and women responded in ways similar and divergent to the Nazi onslaught. Sexism was also seemingly an important aspect of the Nazi perspective. While they indeed embraced an anti-feminist stance, the Nazis nevertheless sought to incorporate "German" women into the national community and women participated actively in the implementation of Nazi racism.

Class Notes

History Major Concentration: Europe
History Minor Concentration: Europe

Class Attributes

Advanced Expression
Historical Studies Foundational Discipline
SoC Individual and Social Behavior Distro