HIS442H1

Jews and the Holocaust in the Soviet Union

This course is an advanced research seminar in Soviet history. It will explore the Jewish experience in the Soviet Union, with a focus on the Holocaust. The seminar will begin with an examination of the history of Jews in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union in the years leading up to the Second World War. Then the course will pivot directly to the topic of the Holocaust on Soviet soil. How did the Holocaust in the “east” differ from the Holocaust in the “west”? How did the conduct of war condition genocide in the Soviet Union? How did Soviet Jews and non-Jews respond to the German genocide? What was the response of Stalin and the Soviet government to the Holocaust? How is the Holocaust remembered by the states and people of the former Soviet Union.