New Study Abroad Opportunity Supported by the Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies
In 2017, ASU has begun to offer the new course JHP/HIS 3154: "The Holocaust: Interpretation, Memory, and Representation." This upper-level course evolves around an extended spring-break research excursion to memorials and research centers. Participants meet with survivors, rescuers, historians, and archivists. In Spring 2017, course participants traveled to Germany and Poland, including to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the House of the Wannsee Conference Memorial and Educational Site. These excursions are financially supported by the Center and fellowships from the Miriam and Abe Brenner Foundation in cooperation with the Greensboro Jewish Federation and the Rosenblatt Family Foundation. The German Academic Exchange Service has also provided funds for the 2017 group research trip.
The class examines the origins and execution of the Nazi genocide during the Second World War, as well as realities for and responses of European Jews. It also explores key issues in the memorialization and representation of the Holocaust in postwar Germany, the United States, and Israel. Participants work on research projects that are based on their archival work in the visited countries. They give presentations on their work abroad and at home and have opportunities to publish their successful research.
The next study abroad excursion (tentatively scheduled for Spring 2019) will take place in Israel. Class participants will, among others, visit and do research at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, the Wiener Library at Tel Aviv University, and at the Ghetto Fighters' House Museum at the Ghetto Fighters' Kibbutz in Western Galilee. They will meet with leading Israeli scholars and students, present their work at Israeli institutions, and learn from Holocaust survivors. For more information, contact the coordinator of the JHP minor Prof. Pegelow Kaplan at thomaspegelowkaplan@appstate.edu.
| Meeting with Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum | |
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| During the most recent, Center-supported research in Poland, Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz, the head of the Research Department at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, met with the student participants and discussed his work on Auschwitz III Monowitz and IG Farben. | |
| The Volkswagen Factory and the City of the KdF Car: Nazi Histories and the Politics of Memory | |
| The panel focuses on the history of Volkswagen, the City of the KdF Car, and the wartime employment of slave laborers, including Jewish prisoners from Auschwitz. It also explores how citizens and employees of the city and company remembered these events and crimes after 1945. Panelists include Peter Kassel (Chair of the CDU City Council Faction, Wolfsburg), Ilse Bormann (former Hitler Youth Member and Wolfsburg native), and Mechthild Hartung (Spokesperson, Lower Saxony, for the Society of Persons Persecuted by the Nazi Regime – Federation of Anti-Fascists, VVN-BdA e.V.). | |
| Dr. Jedrejko Speaks to Appalachian State Students in Germany | |
| Dr. Jedrejko speaks to Appalachian State University students on their recent study abroad research trip to Germany and Poland. | |
| Dr. Funck speaks to Appalachian State Students in Germany | |
| Dr. Funck speaks to Appalachian State University students on their recent study abroad research trip to Germany and Poland. | |