INTG: 285: GENOCIDE

1. The phenomenon of genocide has been a significant and ongoing aspect of the human condition throughout the modern age. The complex nature of genocide has raised profound ethical, legal, social and scientific issues leading many contemporary scholars to re-evaluate many of the key values of modern Western culture and the self-image of nations and their subsequent treatment of various minorities and indigenous peoples.  Therefore:

a.    Compare and contrast the most significant factors which made both the Jewish and Native American Holocausts possible;

b.    Describe and explain the various elements which made “the mechanics” of the Jewish Holocaust in Nazi Germany and occupied Europe possible during World War II; and

c)    Review Gould’s analysis in Mismeasure of Man and show through concrete
examples in what ways science and techniques of science were misused to
justify race based or genocidal policies  that define a particular group as
“other” as it could be argued occurred  with the Jews during the  Holocaust
and the Native Americans during the modern era.

AND

2. Although some view the Jewish and Native American Holocausts as “closed topics,” for many others, these events still constitute living issues. Therefore:

a.    Select what you feel is the most persuasive argument and evidence (scholarship) that both Goldhagen and Stannard use to demonstrate their respective theses on the Jewish and Native American Holocausts; and

b.    Evaluate what you feel are the most significant things that the works of Stanley Milgram and Viktor Frankl have to tell us about human behavior and the nature of genocide.

So, a few supplemental comments……

1a)
This question is a standard compare & contrast. So what are the key causes of each genocide & in the course of the analysis how were they similar & dissimilar. Again certainly a page on the causes of each genocide would be a minimum.

1b)

This is asking to analyze all the key elements that made up what I like to call the “machinery of the Holocaust.” What were those key elements? Certainly, a minimum of 3 pages is not unreasonable given the vast literature on it (keeping in mind with the vast “machinery of death” created by the Nazis, there are still those who deny the Holocaust evr took place!).

1c)

Here the primary focus is on how Mismeasure defines science & shows various ways science was misused & for what purposes & then show various ways science was used & misused to bring about the genocide of the Jews & Native Americans. So how does the key elements from Mismeasure explain use of science & its misuse in these two major genocides. Again, a page each on each genocide discussion is a minimum expectation.

2a)

Here you only have to concentrate on the key arguments + kinds of evidence that both award winning authors use to make the case that both the Jews & Native Americans each experienced a genocide that nearly destroyed both peoples. At the risk of giving answers away here, what is the significance of the full title of Goldhagen’s work. Why he opens his text about the story regarding Capt Hoffman & his group of soldiers (also the subject of one fo the SGQs)? Hint: per several of my lst pod casts, what’s the significance of the UN Declaration on Genocide? Again, a least a page for each author’s use of evidence & key arguments for their respective genocides.

2b)

IF YOU HAVE READ,

Milligram’s work you will know that it is both insightful & controversial then & now on what it says about man, the group & authority.

Then you know Frankl is both a Holocaust survivor & creator of a major school of psychology.

So a minimum of a page each on what each author has to say about human nature, group, authority their perspective on genocide…Certainly, don’t have to read a lot; just concentrate on what each text says about genocide.

SOURCES USED SHOULD BE THESE AND ANY OTHER SCHOLARLY ARTICLES

1.    Stanley Milgrim, Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View, Harper Paperbacks, 1975.
2.    Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, an Introduction to Logo Therapy, Touchstone, 1984.
3.    Daniel Goldhagen, Hitler’s Willing Executioners, Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust, Vintage 1997.
4.    David E. Stannard, The American Holocaust, The Conquest of the New World, Oxford University Press, 1992.
5.    Stephen J. Gould, The Mismeasure of Man, W.W. Norton, 1981.

ADD TO WHAT IS ALREADY DONE IN WORD FILE INTG_MIDTERM