Course Instructor - Jean Gora

Course Fee - $25.00

Hitler’s rise to power in Germany was preceded by his written and verbal attacks on Jewish people and others. His book, Mein Kampf, and his recorded speeches gave the world advance notice of what he would do as the leader of Germany.  After he gained power in 1933, he took steps that were both brutal and organized. He and his associates showed an unusual ability to respond rapidly to unexpected developments.  Germany’s acquisition of   Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 allowed him to expand the scope of his actions. His successful invasion of Poland in September 1939, which prompted Britain and France to declare war on Germany, encouraged him to increase the brutality of these measures.  Starting then, Hitler and his associates conducted a continent-wide extermination program. Their justification was that ethnic Germans needed more “Lebensraum,” more living space. They could get it only by eliminating the people who already lived there. Hitler and his associates designed the program as they went along. At first, they conducted ad hoc massacres in Germany and in the countries they acquired.  Over time, they industrialized the process and dramatically increased its scale. German corporations supported the effort in ways large and small. Many individual Germans participated.  This course examines this 12-year-long process.

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Jean Gora had a long career as a researcher in the banking and life insurance industries.  Her job involved presenting research results to clients all over the world.  She has taught ICL classes on the subprime mortgage crisis, the war in Bosnia, and (16 years ago) life under the Third Reich.  She lived in Europe much of the 1950s, when virtually all of the adults except her father's colleagues had lived under the control of NAZI Germany.  She has close ties with family in modern Germany, and she has degrees from Mount Holyoke College and Johns Hopkins University.