CSP 71 The Holocaust in Comparative Perspective

US Congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez set off a political firestorm after describing detention camps at the US-Mexico border as "concentration camps." Many objected to the term because of the comparisons it suggests between state violence at the US-Mexico border and state violence in the Third Reich. Was the Nazi extermination of European Jewry and persecution of Communists, homosexuals, Roma/Sinti, and the disabled a singular, unique, and unprecedented event in world history? What kind of relationship does the Holocaust have with forms of violence and subjugation that precede, coincide, and follow it? In this seminar, we will explore what is at stake in debates on comparing the Holocaust and we will investigate a handful of case studies that put the Holocaust in comparative perspective. These case studies will vary in form, from historical analysis to literature and film, and may address topics such as race legislation, eugenic science, fascism, concentration camps, forced labor, and genocide.