3.00 Credits
This course is a study of Britain's Response to the Holocaust. It is a story of a periphery rather than its core. The course is a history of British reactions and inactions before, during, and after the Holocaust. It focuses on Britain's response to Nazism's: 1) persecution of German Jews from 1933-1939, 2) mass murder of European Jewry during World War II, and 3) legacy of a post-Holocaust world. Special attention centers on: British-German relations; the triumph and tragedy British refugee policy from 1933-45; the role of Palestine; Nazi Occupation of the Channel Islands; Bletchley Park's secret knowledge of the Holocaust; the enduring debate to bomb Auschwitz or not; the British Army's liberation of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, dealing with survivors and perpetrators; and the evolving story of history and memory in post-war Britain.