Photographing the Holocaust (FutureLearn)

What insights do photos offer into histories of National Socialism and the Holocaust? Are they authentic sources, or ‘fake news’? Learn to decode photos and visit secret archives for a new view of history. This course, created by academics from Nottingham and the UK’s National Holocaust Centre and Museum, invites you on a visual journey of discovery.

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Explore with us how photos can offer new insights into the history of National Socialism and the Holocaust – and what problems we face when relying on the “perpetrator gaze”.

Find out how the historical picture changes if we consider the secret photo archives created by the victims of Nazism. Discuss how seeing history in a new light can change our view of the present, and how to view photos of victims of persecution and violence today.
Explore life in Nazi Germany through personal and propaganda photography

Using the medium of historical photography, you’ll explore what happened to individuals in Germany during Nazism and the rise of Hitler.

You’ll examine how people’s photography engaged with the official Nazi visual culture - including which elements of it they rejected or ignored.
Study German politics and historical photography with insights from the Holocaust Museum

This course is delivered by the University of Nottingham’s lead educator in history, Maiken Umbach, and is run in collaboration with the Holocaust Museum. You’ll have special access to fascinating displays from the Holocaust Museum itself and benefit from the specialist knowledge of museum staff.

By the end of the course, you’ll have an in-depth understanding of the problems of the Nazi’s political propaganda photography and you’ll know all about the humans behind – and in front of – the camera in Germany during WW2.

Course image: Stroop Report Warsaw ghetto uprising, National Archives and Records Administration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Syllabus

WEEK 1: Perpetrator Photography: The Camera as a Weapon

Week 2: Photography by victims: The Camera as an Instrument of Resistance

Week 3: Contemporary lessons

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

- Apply historical knowledge to contemporary political challenges

- Assess photography as a source of information and tackle visual bias

- Compare photography by perpetrators and victims of violence and persecution

- Evaluate visual and written sources about National Socialism

- Explore the role of different media, including texts, images, art and immersive technologies in Holocaust commemoration and learning
Who is the course for?

Anyone interested in modern European history, National Socialism, the Holocaust, and those who are keen enhance their media literacy in contemporary contexts.