Reliving History

What would you do if your religion class asked you to simulate events related to the Holocaust? That’s been one of the challenges for the students in Religion 1407, “Judaism and Christianity: A Conflictual History.” Professor Nicola F. Denzey aims to help her class understand “Why something as monstrous as anti-Semitism, particularly Christian anti-Semitism erupted around World War II,” she said.

Denzey was quick to point out that the class is not doing a “Holocaust simulation,” but rather a simulation of the historical events that precipitated the Holocaust. She randomly assigned each of her 40 students the role of a historical figure involved in these events.

Each day of the 10-day simulation corresponded to a year from 1933 to 1943. Students were expected to post the important writings or speeches done by their assigned figure to the class blog along with their own analysis.

“It’s understood that these ideological positions are not our own, but they are real” said Denzey. Still, she said writing virulent anti-Semitic speeches had been difficult for some students.

Those with less controversial roles were able to appreciate the assignment with less difficulty. “I enjoyed it because my character was not an anti-Semitic person,” Irina L. Vaynerman ’10 said. “It felt good to be able to save the Jews.”

Sarah K. Satinover ’08 said the assignment has been frustrating because of the volume of commentary on the class blog. “Everyone was interested in saying so much so that they’d get a good grade,” she said.

Grade-grubbing aside, this assignment clearly breaks the mold of the standard Power-Point presentation. And as Satinover put it, “If you can’t talk about anything then you won’t be able to talk about anything but the weather.”