Reference no: EM133732954

Problem

I. List the five steps in the Kubler-Ross Stages of Grief, and without going into detail, explain (in a general sense) how these stages might be an appropriate way to examine Jewish theological reactions to the Holocaust, even though these reactions do not historically appear in the order suggested by the Kubler-Ross pattern.

II. Rabbi Joseph Schneersohn said, "Hitler was but God's instrument for chastising the Jews who abandoned the Torah ...choosing assimilation." As Rabbi Eichonon Wasserman and his people are about to die in the gas chambers, that leader says, "The fire which shall burn our bodies will resurrect the Jewish people." Other Jews regard the Holocaust as the price that had to be paid for the miraculous re-establishment of Israel as a nation state. How might these Orthodox reactions to the Holocaust be seen as a form of "bargaining" with God, in the face of Nazi destruction?

III. Among the Jewish theologians discussed in this course, (Fackenheim, Shneerson, Maybaum, Rubenstein) which one would Eli Wiesel (or his character in Night, Eliezer) feel most at home with? Why do you think so?

IV. Describe one thing that sticks with you from having viewed "God on Trial," by Eli Weisel.

V. What are the two different points of view presented in the stories, "This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen," and Night? Despite these differences, what common theme or problem is explored in both of these stories?

VI. Why does Senator John McCain regard courage as the best guarantor of all other virtues? What did the villagers of Le Chambon do that was courageous and what other virtue did their courage allow them to practice?

VII. Out of his experiences in Buchenwald, psychologist Viktor Frankel developed a psychology which he called "Logotherapy." Based on his experience regarding who survived well and who did not survive well in the camps, what attitude or concept did Frankel suggest is essential to good mental health and happiness? How did the concentration camps and death camps destroy this route to mental health and happiness, as a byproduct of terror and brutality?

VIII. When we say that under terror and brutality, victims often lose their "humanity" what do you think we mean? Illustrate this with something from either Night or "This way to the Gas..."

IX. Numerous instances of state-sponsored terrorism and mass-murder have occurred since the Nuremberg trials. What problem typically prevents U.N. peacekeepers from protecting potential victims, until it is too late, even when those peacekeepers are nearby and available to provide that protection?

X. Consider the artworks, and films discussed in the oral reports. Some of these works are about courage as the guarantor of all other virtues, others are about compassion. Some are about the destruction of human capacity for empathy. Connect one of those works with courage, compassion due to identification with a common humanity, or the loss of our "humanity." Explain briefly how the art work or film makes that connection.

XI. Reading Himmler's infamous "Posen Speech," what theory of ethics do you think he is using to justify the extermination of the Jews?

XII. Again, from the Posen Speech, how do you think the Nazis saw themselves, in the process of this struggle to exterminate the Jews and other unwanted populations.

XIII. Why does Dr. Shoopman suggest that the virtue theory called "existentialism" might have prevented some Germans from participating in Nazi genocide?

XIV. List at least a couple of basic beliefs that cause people to grant or withhold compassion. Where do you see these beliefs lived out by the villagers of Le Chambon and by Himmler in his Posen Speech?