Skyline College Library

Researching the Holocaust & Art Spiegelman’s Maus I & II

Databases for Finding Newspaper, Magazine & Journal Articles
Catalog for Finding Books
Links to Selected Websites
Questions about the Holocaust

Databases for Magazine, Journal & Newspaper Articles:

Gale History Resource Center- on campus or off-campus w/ library card
Reference articles, primary documents, and full-text magazine, journal and newspaper articles covering all aspects of U.S. and modern world history.
Best for general/background history information, especially “Overview” articles under the “Reference” tab

• Enter search word(s) and click the Search button.
• At the results page, "Reference" articles (articles from reference books) are displayed first
• To find good general introductory reference articles, look for “Topic Overview” or “Event Overview” articles (labeled at the right of each citation)
• Additional articles may be available by clicking on the article type tabs--"Biographies", "Periodicals", "News", "Primary Sources" & "Maps & Multimedia" at the top of the page.
• To find journal articles, click on the "Periodicals" tab. These articles will include a limited number of academic journal articles and more popular magazine articles.
  Click here for information on how to tell whether an article is from an academic journal or a popular magazine.
• Click on the title of an article to display the full text of the article.
• You can email or print any article by using the or buttons at the top of each article.

Gale Biography Resource Center - on campus or off-campus w/ library card
Database of biographical articles on famous people, e.g. Art Spiegelman

Literature Resource Center on-campus or off-campus w/ library card
High quality full-text literary criticism articles & biographical information on authors.
- Use AND between different concepts for same topic, e.g. Maus AND Spiegelman
- When results for a search are first displayed, only "Literature Criticism" articles are listed. Click on the “Biographies", "Topic & Work Overviews", “Reviews & News” or “Primary Sources” tabs for additional articles.

Gale PowerSearch databases on campus or off-campus w/ library card
Excellent general periodical database, includes articles from academic journals, popular magazines, newspapers and reference sources.
- When search results are first displayed, only magazine articles are shown, if available for your search. Click on the “Academic journals” tab to display journal articles on your topic; click on the "News" tab for news articles; click on the "Books" tab for reference book articles.

Encyclopedia Americana on-campus OR off campus w/ library card
Online version of Encyclopedia Americana, a college-level encyclopedia.


Books:

The PLS Online Catalog is the online catalog to find books in Skyline Library and in all libraries in the Peninsula Library System.

• Type in search word(s) for your topic in the first search box and click the Submit button.
• The search results will show books and other materials in all libraries in the PLS system.
• To Limit your results to books at Skyline College Library, scroll down to Limit to: Location: pull-down menu below the search boxes, scroll down in the Location: pull-down menu, select Skyline College & then click the Submit button.

Links to Recommended Websites:

A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust: "An overview of the people and events of the Holocaust through photographs, documents, art, music, movies, and literature."

U. S. Holocaust Museum: America’s national institution for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history. The site’s Introduction to the Holocaust is a good place to start researching the Holocaust.

Holocaust History Project: "free archive of documents, photographs, recordings, and essays regarding the Holocaust, including direct refutation of Holocaust-denial."

Museum of Tolerance: Holocaust Section: The museum site, which focuses on two central themes: the dynamics of racism and prejudice in America and the history of the Holocaust, features thousands of Holocaust-related documents and photographs, virtual exhibits, "Children of the Holocaust," and more.

Holocaust Links: Excellent links to recommended websites (from IPL2).

Holocaust Photos: from Shamash Jewish Network

Holocaust Photos & Images: from Holocaust Cybrary

Questions about the Holocaust (for Karen Wong’s English 110 class):

To gain a better understanding of Maus I and II, apply biographical and/or historical criticism. Below are questions that you generated in class. Your task is to find information about any three of the questions from sources other than Wikipedia or random, unreliable websites. Most efficient is to use a word processor to copy and paste information from the various source(s) under the appropriate question. As such, you also can highlight key quotes that you may end up integrating into your essay.

Due: Monday May 3^rd (The three questions, the “answers,” and the source(s) listed according to MLA format)

HISTORICAL

v What does "Holocaust" mean, and where does the word come from?

v Why were the Jews persecuted?

v What were the conditions that led to the Holocaust?

v Who in addition to Adolf Hitler took part in persecuting the Jews?

v When did the Holocaust occur?

v Where were Jews limited to or taken to and how were they treated?

v How many Jews were killed, and how many survived?

v How did the Holocaust survivors “survive”? What strategies did they use?

v Why did some Jews accept their fates while others tried to escape?

v How different were the experiences of Jews in Poland versus Germany?

v How did people manage to escape to American or neutral territories?

v How were survivors affected?

v How does this issue affect Jews today?

v How can today's generation learn from the Holocaust?

v Should the German government be reprimanded for what happened during the Holocaust?

v What contemporary events are similar to the Holocaust?

v What should be done to prevent events such as the Holocaust from ever happening again?

v How has the Holocaust affected Germans today?

v How has the media shaped how we view the Holocaust?

v What evidence is there that the Holocaust even happened?

BIOGRAPHICAL (You’re likely to gain even more insight from the books themselves, but you may find information that enhance your understanding of the books.)

v What is the author hoping to achieve by writing about his father’s experiences?

v How did Artie’s father survive?

v Was life easier once they were able to emigrate to the US?

v What happened to Artie’s mother?

v How did the Holocaust affect Artie’s father? Did he experience post-traumatic stress?

v How did the Holocaust have an impact on Artie, even thought he didn’t experience it?

v Was Artie’s childhood any different being raised by Holocaust survivors? How did his parents’ mental states affect Artie?

v What effect did the Holocaust have on father and son, and how do they differ?

v How does the author’s upbringing affect the relationship he has with his own wife and family?

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last revised: 4-23-10 by Eric Brenner, Skyline College, San Bruno, CA