Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Friends, Nazis And Communists: The Double Persecution Of Antonie Kleinerova, Maria Dowling

Quaker Studies

This article takes as its theme the persecution of religious groups and individuals by governments that aspire to totalitarian power. Its subject is the Quakers of Prague during the first half of the twentieth century who suffered at the hands of both occupying German Nazis and native Czechoslovak Communists. In particular, the article focuses on Antonie Kleinerova (1901-1982), who entered into membership of the Religious Society of Friends in 1933 together with her husband.After the Nazis occupied the Czech lands in 1939 she was active in the underground resistance, and for this reason the couple were among the victims of …

In Her Own Right: A Study Of Freya Von Moltke In The German Resistance 1940-1945, Sarah E. Hayes

Student Publications

Freya von Moltke was a member of the Kreisau Circle resistance group in Nazi Germany from 1940 to 1944. This intellectual group planned for the future of Germany after the anticipated downfall of the Nazis and was led by Helmuth von Moltke, the husband of Freya, and Peter Yorck. Despite the significance of her resistance in comparison to the majority of the German population, the resistance story of Freya von Moltke is often overwhelmed by that of her husband. The examination of Freya von Moltke’s interviews, letters, and memoirs as well as a variety of secondary sources reveals that she …

Banished From The Present: Musicians In Nazi Germany, Thomas G. Bennett

Student Publications

This essay analyzes musical life in the Third Reich. More specifically, the focus will be on the Nazis’ regulation of music and the role that musicians themselves played in determining and enforcing cultural coordination. While some evidence extends into the war years (1939-1945), the bulk of the information presented here took place in the pre-war Nazi era (1933-1939). The purpose here is to show that those musicians who worked with and under the Nazis were affected in different ways and had varying levels of agency within the National Socialist system. Some have been branded collaborators, others victims, and this paper …

“Long Live Freedom!”: Moral Motives Behind The White Rose Resistance, Katelyn M. Quirin

Student Publications

This paper examines the motives behind the White Rose resistance group. Active from 1942-1943, the White Rose consisted primarily of university students who produced anti-Nazi leaflets. By examining documents such as letters, diaries, the leaflets themselves, and Gestapo interrogations, the motives of the group are evident. The members resisted the Nazi regime for moral and ideological reasons, specifically in relation to the failures World War II, atrocities committed by Nazis in Poland and the Eastern Front, the restriction on personal rights, and an inner duty to oppose the regime.

A Case Study Of Melita Maschmann: Women And The Third Reich, Lynda Maureen Willett

Graduate History Conference, UMass Boston

The case study of Melita Maschmann shows that despite the deep manipulation and gender discrimination she was subject to in her youth by National Socialism Maschmann made her own free choices as an adult and chose to zealously absorb its political ideology. The general assumption is that National Socialism, and fascism, were male dominated political ideologies in which women played a passive role, such as that professed by Gertrude Scholtz-Klink. However, many women found National Socialism appealing and became active supporters of its ideals. The purpose of this paper is to explore that appeal and analyze why certain women such …

Nasty Nazis And Extreme Americans: Cloning, Eugenics, And The Exchange Of National Signifiers In Contemporary Science Fiction, Elizabeth Bridges

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

This article addresses German science fiction novels from the last ten to fifteen years, specifically those that thematize cloning and/or eugenics. The main novels under discussion include Die verbesserte Frau by Barbara Kirchner, Duplik Jonas 7 by Birgit Rabisch, and Blueprint/Blaupause by Charlotte Kerner, (which was released as a film adaptation starring Franka Potente in 2004). This discussion shows how these and similar novels do or do not contend with the legacy of Nazi eugenics and reproductive experimentation, and second, how the existent historical awareness in the novels relates to the content of debates on current issues of biotechnology, …

A Different Crossroads: Meeting The Devil In Cultural Studies, Marcus Breen

Marcus Breen

The Crossroads Conference in Paris, July 2012 offered an international perspective on cultural studies. After the event, seeing mention of cultural studies in the context of Nazi Germany opened up questions about the history of cultural studies, its ambitions and position in the contemporary, neo-liberal academy. Drawing on various conjunctures in personal and social life, the article reflects on the challenges for cultural studies when set against knowledge of European history.

The Nazi "Church": Nazism As Ersatzreligion, Carol Mckinley Harris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

"German Christianity is a distortion. You are either a German or you are Christian."

~ Adolph Hitler

In the last decade, scores of religious scholars have dissected the concept of the Third Reich as a religion. Their theories depict a vast range of extremes from National Socialism portrayed as a secular or political religion to painting the Nazis as anti-Christian pagans. The "Nazi Church" was neither a political religion nor was it simply paganism; instead, National Socialism became its own religion which replaced traditional German Christianity at a time when a nation, ripe for questioning God, was suffering from the …

An Unexpected Pair: The Nazis And The Environment, Kelsey Eggert

Senior Capstone Theses

Intentionally absent.

Expelled Once Again: The Fantasy Of Living The Counterlife In Roth’S Nemesis, Victoria Aarons

English Faculty Research

In Nemesis (2010) the misguided attempts to create and to live an anxiously figured counterlife turn catasttophic as Roth's Bucky Cantor, the Jewish warrior of the Weequahic playgrounds, attempts to step out of his life and reinvent himself Here the art of impersonation is shown to be an impossible failure. For the deluded Bucky Cantor is inevitably stticken, not only with polio, but with the illusion that he can walk out of^ one life—the life bequeathed to him—and inhabit the lives of others. Roth shows the desire to live out the counterlife to be the ultimate self-delusion, exposing instead, as …

Ronald Stevenson, Composer-Pianist : An Exegetical Critique From A Pianistic Perspective, Mark Gasser

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This exegetical critique makes a conceptual summation of Ronald Stevenson’s life’s work for the piano and his contributions as a composer‐pianist. Chapters one and two provide a profile of Stevenson as a pianist, examining the aesthetic and musical concerns that defined his long career, as well as precedents and antecedents of his pianism. Of particular interest are the ways that Stevenson coalesces aspects of the ‘grand manner’ and his obsession with a pianistic bel canto style. Chapter three examines Stevenson’s remarkable output in terms of piano transcriptions. His conceptualization of this as ‘capturing the essence’ of the original composer is …

Historic Preservation In Nazi Germany : Place, Memory, And Nationalism, Joshua Hagen

Joshua Hagen

While numerous studies have examined the post-war contestation surrounding commemorative sites associated with the legacy of Nazi Germany, relatively little attention has been dedicated to the ways in which the Nazi regime itself sought to create places of memory congruent with the movement's political and cultural goals. Indeed, party leaders sponsored a variety of disparate, and at times contradictory, programs to re-orientate some of Germany's most prominent historic places to better serve the needs of the regime. To expand our understanding of this process, this article examines the practice and rhetoric of historic preservation in Bavaria during the Nazi period …

How One Writes, Makes, Markets A Movie And How An Audience Reads The Movie: Two Biographical Films Of Hitler As A Case Study, Nick Chi-Shu J. Yeh

CGU Theses & Dissertations

According to John Lukacs, German people's views on Hitler and Nazism once got examined right after the fall the Third Reich in the 1950s but this subject has lost its appeal since then. How do Germans nowadays, specifically those young ones raised in the "New Germany" after the fall of the Berlin Wall, think of Hitler and their country's Nazi legacy? This dissertation is to explore how six young Germans growing up in the new "unified Germany" interpret two films' representations of Hitler and Nazism.

Writing Dirty: Paradoxical Embodiments Of Nazism In Bataille's "Le Bleu Du Ciel", Sylvie Vanbaelen

Sylvie Vanbaelen

Since his death in 1962, and particularly in the last twenty-five years, Georges Bataille has become a major figure in intellectual circles. Critics such as Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva and Philippe Sollers, to name but a few, have all contributed to bringing Bataille's work to the foreground. Regarded as a significant influence on contemporary thought, Bataille is considered a precursor of post-modernism. Yet, while he has received increasing attention, this attention has converged primarily on his essays and philosophical works. As Susann Cockal notes, "specific and detailed readings of many aspects of [his] fiction are still …

'Just Like Hitler': Comparisons To Nazism In American Culture, Brian Scott Johnson

Open Access Dissertations

‘Just Like Hitler’ explores the manner in which Nazism is used within mass American culture to create ethical arguments. Specifically, it provides a history of Nazism’s usage as a metaphor for evil. The work follows that metaphor’s usage from its origin with dissemination of camp liberation imagery through its political usage as a way of describing the communist enemy in the Cold War, through its employment as a vehicle for criticism against America’s domestic and foreign policies, through to its usage as a personal metaphor for evil. Ultimately, the goal of the dissertation is to describe the ways in which …

The Denazification Of Mh: The Struggle With Being And The Philosophical Confrontation With The Ancient Greeks In Heidegger’S Originary Politics, James Magrini

James M Magrini

James T. Hong’s experimental documentary, The Denazification of MH (2006) is neither an apology for Heidegger’s involvement with National Socialism nor a condemnation of that involvement. Rather, the film is a critical philosophical confrontation (Auseinandersetzung) with Heidegger’s thought and the issue of his involvement with National Socialism. The film addresses the perennial concern as old as philosophy itself: the relationship between the philosopher’s life and his philosophy. While the film does not adopt a definitive position regarding Heidegger, Nazism, and the issue of personal responsibility, it does suggest an affirmative response to the question posed by both Levinas and Blanchot …

The Denazification Of Mh: The Struggle With Being And The Philosophical Confrontation With The Ancient Greeks In Heidegger’S Originary Politics, James Magrini

Philosophy Scholarship

James T. Hong’s experimental documentary, The Denazification of MH (2006) is neither an apology for Heidegger’s involvement with National Socialism nor a condemnation of that involvement. Rather, the film is a critical philosophical confrontation (Auseinandersetzung) with Heidegger’s thought and the issue of his involvement with National Socialism. The film addresses the perennial concern as old as philosophy itself: the relationship between the philosopher’s life and his philosophy. While the film does not adopt a definitive position regarding Heidegger, Nazism, and the issue of personal responsibility, it does suggest an affirmative response to the question posed by both Levinas …

Thomas Carlyle, Fascism, And Frederick: From Victorian Prophet To Fascist Ideologue, Jonathon C. Mccollum

Theses and Dissertations

The Victorian Author Thomas Carlyle was in his day a meteoric voice but his popularity and reputation declined significantly due in part to his link to fascism. In the politically polarized era of the Second World War, academics and propagandists dubbed him a fascist or Nazi in both defamation and approval. Fascist scholars pressed Carlyle into service as a progenitor and prophet of their respective totalitarian regimes. Adolf Hitler, in his final days, assuaged his fears of his imminent fall with readings from Carlyle's History of Frederick the Great. This fascist connection to the once esteemed “Sage of Chelsea” marks …

Lessons In Sex And Fascism: Dagmar Herzog's Pedagogy Workshop, Megan Jenkins

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

On December 4, 2006 Dagmar Herzog, Professor of History at the CUNY Graduate Center, led a lively workshop titled "What's So Sexy about Fascism? And Why is it Important to Think About it in the Classroom?" as part of the CLAGS/CSGS LGBTQ Plans Pedagogy Workshop.

Controversial Politics, Conservative Genre: Rex Stout's Archie-Wolfe Duo And Detective Fiction's Conventional Form, Ammie Cannon

Theses and Dissertations

Rex Stout maintained his popular readership despite the often controversial and radical political content expressed in his detective fiction. His political ideals often made him many enemies. Stances such as his ardent opposition to censorship, racism, Nazism, Germany, Fascism, Communism, McCarthyism, and the unfettered FBI were potentially offensive to colleagues and readers from various political backgrounds. Yet Stout attempted to present radical messages via the content of his detective fiction with subtlety. As a literary traditionalist, he resisted using his fiction as a platform for an often extreme political agenda. Where political messages are apparent in his work, Stout employs …

Religious And Secular Responses To Nazism: Coordinated And Singular Acts Of Opposition, Kathryn Sullivan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My intention in conducting this research endeavor is to satisfy the requirements of earning a Master of Art degree in the Department of History at the University of Central Florida. My research aim has been to examine literature written from the 1930's through 2006 which chronicles the lives of Jewish and Gentile German men, women, and children living under Nazism during the years 1933-1945. I was particularly interested and hopeful in discovering the various ways in which young German females were affected by the introduction and spread of Nazi ideology. My main goal was to sort through the features of …

Writing Dirty: Paradoxical Embodiments Of Nazism In Bataille's "Le Bleu Du Ciel", Sylvie Vanbaelen

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Since his death in 1962, and particularly in the last twenty-five years, Georges Bataille has become a major figure in intellectual circles. Critics such as Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva and Philippe Sollers, to name but a few, have all contributed to bringing Bataille's work to the foreground. Regarded as a significant influence on contemporary thought, Bataille is considered a precursor of post-modernism. Yet, while he has received increasing attention, this attention has converged primarily on his essays and philosophical works. As Susann Cockal notes, "specific and detailed readings of many aspects of [his] fiction are still …

The Double Writing Of Agota Kristof And The New Europe , Martha Kuhlman

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Agota Kristof, a native of Hungary who lives in Switzerland and writes in French, has written a trilogy of novels that explore the borderlines and fractured history of the "New Europe": The Notebook (1986), The Proof (1988), and The Third Lie (1991). Set in an unnamed Central European country, the novels traverse the three successive shocks of Nazism, Socialism, and Capitalism. Through the device of identical twin narrators, brothers Lucas and Claus, Kristof inscribes the story/history (histoire) with a "double writing" that opposes personal and official histories. But this opposition is not a simple one, for the two …

Memories Of World War Two, Alice Schelbert

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Each family was obligated to get a plot of land in order to grow vegetables, potatoes, and Indian corn. I abhorred working in field and garden, but luckily my younger sister enjoyed such tasks. Therefore I did the household chores, mended clothes and, for instance, spent hours undoing the runs in nylon stockings with a special hair-thin hook. The stockings were so expensive, so special, and so dearly beloved, yet one was not to wear them with runs.

Trends. Correct Political Incorrectness: Can Germans Be Right About Jews?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses former Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl's analogy, which compared boycotts of his fundraising campaign to pay for fines incurred on his political party because of his illegal and illicit fund-raising initiatives to Nazi-era boycotts of Jewish shops.

The Chiasmus Of Mourning And Identification In Jean Genet , Peter Benson

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

The theories of psychological identification proposed by Sigmund Freud and Kaja Silverman are explored in relation to Jean Genet's Funeral Rites and his later essay on Rembrandt. Genet can be seen to separate mourning (which for Freud lies at the basis of identification) from a process of generalized identification in which his difference from other people dissolves. A narcissistic formation of personality, evident in the symbolism of mirrors in Funeral Rites, gives to this process an added impetus. But the fundamental condition of possibility for such generalized identification is the void it reveals at the center of all personality. …

Book Review: Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality In World War Ii., Karl Wood

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Stephen P. Halbrook's 1998 book, Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality in World War II is a well-narrated account of the Swiss preparedness to resist any possible invasion by a hostile power, but most especially by the Nazis, through the critical years of the 1930s and 1940s. The author brings to bear his considerable skills of persuasion and journalistic perception, reminiscent of the late William Shirer, of whose work he makes extensive use for historical perspective. He offers an argument that the "true Swiss experience in the war" lay not in the recently much-discussed accommodations made to the Nazis, "a regrettable …

Identifying Jews: The Legacy Of The 1941 Exhibition, "Le Juif Et La France" , Raymond Bach

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

During the Occupation there was a two-pronged effort to separate the Jews from the rest of the French population...

Rudolf Amheim: The Little Owl On The Shoulder Of Athene, Roy R. Behrens

Faculty Publications

The author discusses the life of Rudolf Arnheim (b. 1904), the celebrated art-theorist and psychologist, professor emeritus of the psychology of art at Harvard University and author of 15 books about perceptual psychology in relation to art, architecture and film, among them Film as Art, Art and Visual Perception, Visual Thinking and The Power of the Center. The article is a biographical overview of Arnheim's life and work, including his association with the gestalt psychologists in Berlin in the 1920s, his pioneering work as a film critic, his flight from Nazi Germany and his subsequent immigration to the United States …

Bombing The Sister Republic: The United States And Switzerland During World War Ii, James H. Hutson

Swiss American Historical Society Review

At 11:10 A.M., April 1, 1944, American military authorities in London received the following "strike message" from aircraft attacking a target in Europe: "392 Group bombed Last Resort with poor results at 10:50 hours. " This terse communication described the "gravest violation " of Swiss neutrality during the Second World War--in fact, during the entire twentieth century: the bombing of the city of Schafthausen by planes of the 2nd Division of the American 8th Army Air Force.