Poetry and the Holocaust (FutureLearn)

Offered by Yad Vashem,
Poetry and the Holocaust (FutureLearn)

Explore personal accounts of the Holocaust through poetry and discover how poems can help you understand events of the past. Study Holocaust poetry to better comprehend this dark period in history. On this course, you’ll understand the events of the Holocaust and World War II through poetry which underlines the individual experience.

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Created by the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, this course delves into poems that comment on many different aspects of WWII.
You’ll learn about this dark era in human history through the words of people who experienced it and understand how the Holocaust scarred the 20th Century.
You’ll discover some of the challenges posed by the Nazi regime and learn about what life was like for people living under German occupation.

What topics will you cover?

  • Introduction to the Holocaust
  • Introduction to poetry
  • Poems written in the ghetto
  • Poems written in concentration camps
  • Poems written by Jewish and non-Jewish survivors

What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Reflect on specific poems from a wide variety of poets on different aspects of the Holocaust
  • Explore an interesting way of analyzing human behavior that makes up our world
  • Demonstrate an appreciation of the world of poetry through the thoughts of famous literary luminaries
  • Develop historical knowledge of the Holocaust

Who is the course for?
This course is designed for those interested in poetry as well as the history of WWII.
The course will also be useful for history and literature teachers who’d like to use poetry as a way of teaching this subject.

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