December 14, 2005

“It’s not a ‘feel good’ – it’s a ‘feel bad’ course in many regards,” says Dr. Bob Mathisen, professor of history and political science, about the Holocaust course set for the spring semester, which he team teaches with Jim Hills, professor of humanities.

The three-credit, interdisciplinary honors course about the deliberate extermination of more than 6 million Jews is open to any student with a 3.25 GPA; already 36 students have registered. The room – moved to accommodate a larger class size – now is limited to 44 students.

“There’s something compelling about the Holocaust,” Dr. Mathisen said. “It compels people to ask questions about human existence and evil. Could something like this happen again?”

Mathisen and Hills have team-taught an honors course once a year for 10 years. Last year’s topic was the American West. Previous topics include environmentalism, Viet Nam, race in America, church and state, and more. The Holocaust is the only topic to be repeated.

“It’s important to know what happened for a number of reasons,” Hills said. “There is active evil in the world; the Holocaust dramatizes the kinds of things even highly civilized people are capable of; and it’s a sort of warning to all of us. Tens of thousands of people – railroad engineers, truck drivers, people just like you and me – were caught up in this. … We owe it to the victims to not let their story be forgotten.”

The course combines historical fact and philosophical discussions with essays, short stories, poems, diary entries and more, such as “Night,” a memoir written by concentration camp survivor Elie Wiesel, in addition to a possible visit to class by a Holocaust survivor.

“Students analyze what lessons we can learn from the Holocaust, and what its meaning is for us today,” Mathisen said. “Could something like this happen again?”

The course also will look at the effect of the Holocaust on the faith of Jews, at the ebb and flow of neo-Nazism and anti-Semitism, and at the reasons for those who would like to deny the Holocaust happened.

Texts include Holocaust, A History by Dwork and van Pet, The Holocaust in American Life by Peter Novick, and Night by Elie Wiesel. The class is set for 9 a.m. Tuesday and Thursday.

“It moves pretty quickly and it’s demanding reading,” Mathisen said. “We’ll be introducing the students to a vast array of resources … and expect after the course they’ll be more likely to pick up a book about the Holocaust, talk about it with greater understanding, and be more aware of the world we live in.”

Though the Holocaust took place 60 and more years ago, the Statesman-Journal will publish perhaps two articles a month that refer to it in one way or another, Mathisen said. A half-dozen or more books a year are published on the Holocaust.

“As with every tragedy, there also are stories of heroism,” the history professor said. “That’s an important piece too.”

-- By Karen L. Willoughby