"This two-part course provides an overview of the ways (West) Germans have dealt with their “unmasterable” past from 1945 to the present. Rather than endeavor a comprehensive exploration of the seventy years since Germany’s defeat, we will focus on particular “Holocaust moments,” i.e. incidents that serve as flash-points in Germany’s troubled relationship with its Nazi past including the Auschwitz trial, the Bitburg debacle, the Historians’ Quarrel, and the Goldhagen Debate. The first part covers the period from 1945 to 1989, the second the years since unification.

Susanne Hillman obtained her Ph.D. in modern European history, with an emphasis in German-Jewish history, from UC San Diego. Besides lecturing history at UCSD, she has been managing the Holocaust Living History Workshop, an outreach and education program of the UCSD Library and the Jewish Studies program. Her work has been published in a variety of scholarly journals including German Studies Review and the Leo Baeck Institute Year Book. "