Hist: Garden of the Beasts

Course Details

Preferred majors for this course: History, Political Science, International Relations, Business, Sociology, English, Psychology, Sociology. Auschwitz and the Nazis' other death camps were liberated more than 75 years ago. Nearly eight decades separate us from D-Day, the allied invasion of Normandy that began the liberation of Europe. Yet the passage of time seems only to increase our desire to learn about World War Two, the Nazis and the genocide they committed against the Jews of Europe. Our course takes you into the heart of Berlin and Prague, as we explore together the rise of the Nazis, the course of the war they unleashed, the racial policies they enacted in Germany and then all over Europe, and the horrors of the Holocaust. Our high-impact experience starts in Berlin. We will fan out all over the city on an epic learning journey that will cover 5-7 miles mot days. From ruined churches to towering memorials, our sessions will assess where the Nazis came from and how they achieved power. We will use the former Gestapo Headquarters, the University of Berlin, the famous Tiergarten, the great art and history museums of Museum Island and countless memorial markers to bring our experience of the 1930s and 1940s to life. Then, as we prepare to move from Berlin to Prague, we'll turn our attention to what the Nazis did as their conquest of Europe moved East. From Jewish policy to the repression of resistance, we will assess what it meant to live and die in the occupied city of Prague, when SS General Reinhard Heydrich--variously known as "the blond beast" and "the butcher of Prague"-- ruled the city in Hitler's name. Finally we will have a learning day unlike all others, when our course travels together to the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp and Ghetto Museum. There we will explore the inside of a former Nazi camp as we discuss in detail how the Holocaust happened and what we can do today to keep alive the memory of those who died in its killing centers. This course is taught by Dr. Doug Mackaman, Director of The Catalyst.