Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-02

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-02

abstract: This dissertation examines U. S. American intergenerational witnesses to the Holocaust, particularly how addressees turned addressors maintain an ethical obligation to First Generation witnesses while creating an affective relation to this history for new generations. In response to revisionism and the incommunicability of the Holocaust, a focus on (accurate) First Generation testimony emerged that marginalizes that of intergenerational witnesses. The risk of such a position is that it paralyzes language, locking the addressee into a movement always into the past. Using examples of intergenerational witnesses (moving from close to more distant relationships), this project argues that there is a possibility for ethical intergenerational response. There are two major discussion arcs that the work follows: self-reflexivity and the use of the Banality of Evil as a theme. Self-reflexivity in intergenerational witnessing calls attention to the role of the author as transgenerational witness, an act that does not seek to appropriate the importance or position of the Holocaust survivor because it calls attention to a subjective site in relation to the survivor and the communities of memory created within the text. The other major discussion arc moves from traditional depictions of the Banality of Evil to ones that challenge the audience to consider the way evil is conceptualized after the Holocaust and its implications in contemporary life. In these ways, intergenerational witnesses move from addressee to addressors, continuing to stress the importance of this history through the imperative to pass Holocaust testimony onward into the future. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. English 2012

This study examines the two major conspiracy theories regarding Nazi assets being taken out of Germany and moved to neutral countries, specifically Argentina: Aktion Adlerflug and Aktion Feuerland. These two conspiracy theories believe that as defeat became inevitable, the Nazi leadership moved to ensure it had the plans and resources in place to safely evacuate. The conspiracy theories rely on networks established between the Nazi leadership, led by Hitler’s secretary Martin Bormann, German industrialists and expatriates, and German foreign and intelligence service agents operating in Argentina. They all colluded in the last two years of the war to construct, and provide for, a Nazi refuge in Patagonia where Hitler and other top Nazis would escape after the war. This study will critically examine the literature by the conspiracy theorists who propose these claims, and seek to determine the validity of their claims. Through the lens of these two conspiracy theories, this project will address questions of historical objectivity and historical method. Additionally, it will seek to understand the motivations of those that propose the conspiracy theories, and why the theories continue to be so prevalent.

Abstract not available.

Museums today provide learning-rich experiences and quality informational resources through both physical and virtual environments. This study examined a Holocaust Museum traveling exhibition, Life in Shadows: Hidden Children and the Holocaust that was on display at the Art Center of Battle Creek, Michigan in fall 2005. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to assess the informational value of a Holocaust Museum exhibition in its onsite vs. online format by converging quantitative and qualitative data. Participants in the study included six eighth grade language arts classes who viewed various combinations or scenarios of the onsite and online Life in Shadows. Using student responses to questions in an online exhibition survey, an analysis of variance was performed to determine which scenario visit promotes the greatest content learning. Using student responses to additional questions on the same survey, data were analyzed qualitatively to discover the impact on students of each scenario visit. By means of an emotional empathy test, data were analyzed to determine differences among student response according to scenario visit. A principal finding of the study (supporting Falk and Dierking's contextual model of learning) was that the use of the online exhibition provided a source of prior orientation and functioned as an advanced organizer for students who subsequently viewed the onsite exhibition. Students who viewed the online exhibition received higher topic assessment scores. Students in each scenario visit gave positive exhibition feedback and evidence of emotional empathy. Further longitudinal studies in museum informatics and Holocaust education involving a more diverse population are needed. Of particular importance would be research focusing on using museum exhibitions and Web-based technology in a compelling manner so that students can continue to hear the words of survivors who themselves bear witness and give voice to silenced victims. When perpetuity of access to informational resources is assured, future generations will continue to be connected to the primary documents of history and cultural heritage.

This dissertation explores where historical memories concerning colonization, genocide, and racism intersect, merge, and overlap in multidirectional ways. The text opens by exploring the possibilities of using a multidirectional model of world history and then moves to a discussion of certain aspects of world political history that interrogates why some nations have dominated others. The focus then shifts to England's attitude toward perceived "others" in the crucial late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries by examining contemporary theater drama. From there, the text moves on to current voices that have spoken out against the racism and genocide that have emerged as byproducts of empire building. Finally, possibilities for where we, as citizens of the world, can go from here in thinking through framing justice and equality for all its occupants is given the final voice in this text. My approach may be thought of as somewhat philosophical.

Around the time of the mass liquidations of ghettos across occupied-Poland in 1942, thousands of Polish Jews fled to the homes of former gentile neighbours, friends, colleagues, as well as strangers, in search of a precious and necessary resource: shelter. Once these liquidations were deemed complete and the majority of Polish Jews had been transported to their deaths at the extermination camps, remaining alive was itself a crime for Polish Jews. One common survival strategy was to hide in the homes of Polish gentiles, as other options, such as hiding in the open, necessitated further preparation; false documents, fluency in Polish, and connections in the gentile community, for instance. Drawing upon diaries, postwar testimonies, and oral interviews with Jews who experienced part of the occupation in hiding with Polish gentiles, this thesis highlights the multifaceted nature of relations between Jews and Poles in hiding, and argues that the behaviour of Polish aid-providers during the Holocaust in Poland unsettles distinctions between perpetrators, rescuers, and bystanders. Significantly, such categories have been rigidly maintained in much of the existing literature on Polish aid-providers. The individual chapters are devoted to the prevalence of payment for shelter, particularly in non-currency means such as property exchanges and services, and coercive, nonconsensual sexual relations in hiding. The final chapter focuses upon the region of Sokołów County and illustrates the constitutive and contextual differences between short and long-term shelter, the denunciation and murder of Jews in hiding by their Polish helpers, and the “unrighteous” actions of those declared Righteous Among the Nations. Each chapter traces the diversity of threats faced by Jews in hiding. To date, scholars have emphasized the great threat posed by the Germans gendarmes and the Polish “blue” police to Jews in hiding, and neglected the internal threats. The testimonies discussed in this thesis expose the multiple ways in which gentile aid-providers could endanger Jews in hiding.

No description available.

The use of Holocaust literature within education starts with Anne Frank and ends with Elie Wiesel's Night; however, the need for a more comprehensive understanding of the Holocaust starts with utilizing the literature to discuss the horrific events. The theories of trauma and affect are relatively new to Holocaust literature studies, which brings a lack of sources to the overall subject. Although there is a lack of sources, understanding trauma, denial, and affect relies on analyzing the written language. This thesis's significance is to detail the importance of Holocaust literature within education and to comprehend the effects denial has on significant genocidal events portrayed in literature. My thesis, Vergissmeinnicht, will provide critical comparative analysis of reading of the novels, This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen (1946) by Tadeusz Borowski and Lilac Girls (2016) by Martha Hall Kelly with memoirs, Surviving the Angel of Death (2009) by Eva Kor and Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account (1960) by Dr. Miklos Nyiszli. This paper aims to explore the use of denial, trauma, and affect within each genre. The literature analyzed will focus on medical experimentation discourse and the silenced voices of their victims. Through Holocaust literature, both fiction and non-fiction, comprehending the concepts of denial, trauma, and affect will allow for a deeper connection to the Holocaust and maintain that education will never allow it to repeat.