HIST 363 War and Genocide in Twentieth-Century Europe
This course focuses on the mass murder of civilians and hors de combat primarily by state but also non-state actors in Europe. These mass murders, often called genocidal, occurred predominantly in the territory east of the Elbe River between 1939 and 1945. What is it about this area, which Tim Snyder called the bloodlands, that made it the stage on which the continent's most devastating violence against civilians in mid-century played out? What ideas and ideologies drove particularly the three great blood-lettings during the years of world war? And what was the relationship between war and genocide in the fate of Europe's Jews, Soviet prisoners of war, and Polish civilians in the East? Wider context will include Europe's colonial experience and the late-century breakdown of the Soviet sphere of influence.