History: The Holocaust

The course will look at the way in which the Nazi government in Germany moved from boycotting Jewish business and trying to expel Jews from Germany into a policy of moving Jews into ghettos and then into a programme of mass industrialised murder. As German armed forces moved more widely into Europe the policy became more sophisticated. Sometimes these policies were actively supported by the satellite governments established in German occupied countries, and the course will compare the pattern of destruction in such countries with the actions in territories under the direct and indirect control of the German Army and the SS. It will also examine the way in which decisions to destroy Jewish communities in Europe were taken, in particular the Conference held in January 1942 at a villa in a suburb of Berlin, Wannsee, which led to the creation of a system of mass murder in the various Concentration Camps. The Minutes of that meeting will be analysed as a guide to the intentions of the leading Nazis and the problems they faced in the implementation of their programmes.