Study Abroad Opportunities

Nazi Germany - May 4-12, HIST 438/546

“Nazi Germany.” This class travels to sites in Germany connected to the history of the Nazi regime. It begins in Munich, birthplace of the Nazi movement, and visits historical sites such as Odeonsplatz, where a young Adolf Hitler celebrated the news of the outbreak of the First World War, and where, several years later, the Nazis would be stopped in their attempt to launch an armed insurrection against the German government; the Bürgerbräukeller, where the Nazis used to hold political rallies; the Dachau concentration camp; and the campus of the Ludwig Maximilian University, where the student resisters known as the White Rose distributed the anti-Nazi literature that would eventually cost them their lives. The class then proceeds to Nuremberg to explore the ruins of the Reichsparteitag (Reichs Party Convention or Day) Stadium, where Leni Riefenstahl filmed her famous propaganda film Triumph of the Will. The class concludes in Berlin, where we visit the Holocaust Memorial as well as the Wannsee House, the place where top Nazi officials planned the mass murder of Europe’s Jews. Along the way we will discuss and consider not only the importance of these sites, but also the difficult decisions that must be made about how--and if--to preserve the physical traces of the Nazi past.

Imagining the Holy Land - Not currently being offered

“Imagining the Holy Land” takes a close look at texts supporting various claims to “the Holy Land,” particularly the city of Jerusalem. The class asks students to consider why, for centuries, the three “peoples of the book,” Jews, Christians, and Muslims, have engaged in hostilities. The course considers about how religious, racial, and political identities are fashioned, how these identities are represented, and how these identities have become inextricably associated with territory. “Imagining the Holy Land” offers students a once in a lifetime opportunity to study and visit the Sea of Galilee (we will take a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee); the Mount of the Beatitudes; the Western Wall; David’s Tomb; the Dome of the Rock; the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum; the Israel Museum (which holds the Dead Sea Scrolls); the Garden of Gethsemane; the Via Dolorosa; and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We go to Acre, Bethlehem, Masada, and the Dead Sea.

Representing the Holocaust - Not currently being offered

"Representing the Holocaust," a study abroad course that follows chronologically the stages of the Nazi plan to destroy European Jewry from Berlin (Wannsee) to Weimar (the Buchenwald concentration camp), to Prague (the Teresienstadt concentration camp), to Krakow, Poland (the Auschwitz death camp), and ends in Warsaw (the site of a Jewish revolt). Students who have taken this class have talked about their experiences at the Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus, describing it as "life-changing."

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