PHIL30650 History & Philosophy: Nazi Germany

Academic Year 2023/2024

This co-taught module (School of History and School of Philosophy) will focus on the history of the Holocaust/Shoah and the philosophical questions to which it gives rise. The material is ordered in such a way as to lead students to an interdisciplinary perspective on various aspects of the Holocaust.

It sets out historiographical questions surrounding the establishment of the death camps, with special concentration on Auschwitz. Some of the philosophically conceived varieties of anti-Semitism – alongside philosophical criticisms of those conceptions – are subsequently considered. The idea of the ‘uniqueness’ of the Holocaust will then be explored, through discussion of a number of diverging philosophical voices. This is followed by the specific matter of Hitler: what was his idea of power, how did he succeed, and why does he define the twentieth century?

The next set of themes relate to the actions and experiences of people in Germany during the Nazi regime. An enormous amount of the population was mobilized and, at various points, enthused by the regime. Evidence of resistance in the context of that totalitarian society, however, needs to be considered also. Enthusiasm led to greater acts of military expansion, ending in crushing and inevitable defeat, defeat that had been perceptible for some time prior to May 1945. Even so, huge numbers of Germans continued to wage futile war against their enemies and of course to continue with their programme of annihilation. The extensive involvement of German society in both war and genocide would lead to searing examinations of German guilt: who, other than politicians and people of violence, was guilty? Can society as a whole be guilty? Should subsequent generations carry the guilt?

It is compelling to think of the Holocaust as evil. Do we really know what we mean by evil, other than that it is a state beyond what’s ‘very bad’? Is it based on consequences or intentions? What is the typical evil act?

Two essay submissions will be required for this module: an historically oriented and a philosophically oriented one. Essays that adopt both approaches will also be welcome.