Confronting the Jewish Past: A Tale of Two Cities
In this course we explore Jewish life in Berlin and Warsaw, its flourishing between the World Wars, its destruction in the Holocaust, and its revival in our times, focusing first on the history of Berlin and Warsaw Jewry: were Polish-Jewish immigrants to Berlin welcomed warmly as brothers or warily as strangers? Among German Jews, was their purported symbiosis with other Germans real or merely wishful thinking? Under Nazi rule how did the fate of the Jews of Berlin and Warsaw differ?
In a two-week study tour of Berlin and Warsaw, we will focus on history and memory. How do these two cities commemorate the annihilation of the Jews and reckon with their distinct share of responsibility? We will seek to understand the “memory-work” reflected in monuments and museums, and in the cityscape itself. Back in Vermont for the last week, we will reflect on contested memory and apply what we have learned to contemporary issues: how does the memory of the Jewish past in central Europe figure in the current politics of these two societies? How can it help us understand other societies struggling to cope with shameful histories of oppression, exploitation, and genocide?