About the lecture

In this module, we look at some of the key historical debates that historians have tackled in relation to Nazi persecution and the Holocaust. In particular, we look at: (i) why the Holocaust began in Germany and not elsewhere?; (ii) is the Holocaust unique? Or is it comparable to other mass genocides in history?; (iii) an examination of the intentionalist vs. structuralist/functionalist debate; (iv) the debates around the nature of German society in the 1930s, including debates over coercion and consent, popular opinion, and the Volksgemeinschaft; and (v) the recent development of perpetrator research which expanded the range of actors who perpetrated the Holocaust, including looking at those who were ideologically motivated and also those that were motivated by other factors.

About the lecturer

Mary Fulbrook is Professor of German History at University College London (UCL). She specialises religion and society in early modern Europe, the German dictatorships of the twentieth century, Europe during and after the Holocaust, and historiography and social theory. Her work has included A Small Town Near Auschwitz: Ordinary Nazis and the Holocaust (Oxford 2012), and Reckonings: Legacies of Nazi Persecution and the Quest for Justice (Oxford 2018) which won the 2019 Wolfson History Prize and was a finalist for the 2019 Cundill Prize.