Research in archives across the Former Soviet Union in the past two decades has transformed our understanding of the Holocaust in the USSR. This course will introduce students to this cutting-edge scholarship. We will examine topics such as deportation and evacuation, the development of murder techniques, the treatment of Roma people, the expansion of the Holocaust into the Caucuses, interethnic and national conflicts, postwar trials, and Soviet responses to genocide. All of these wills of course need to be contextualized within the unfolding of the war in Soviet territory. In addition to trying to make sense of the evolution of the war and the Holocaust in the USSR, students will be encouraged to think about how this knowledge impacts on our comprehension of the Holocaust more broadly. Courses and textbooks on the Holocaust typically begin in Germany with the origins of the Nazi Party and move to Poland as the iconic site of the genocide. Integrating the history of the Holocaust in the USSR requires rethinking this paradigm.

Course Syllabus