Great Plains

Physical and Social Spaces of Exclusion: Nazi Germany and the Great Plains

Focusing on Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Oklahoma, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, this programming explores the broad themes of nation-building, displacement and deportation, othering, exclusion, intergenerational trauma, intersecting victim’s voices, resiliency, and rebuilding. Although different in many ways, the history of racism and antisemitism in Nazi Germany and the Plains region of the United States illuminates some universal phenomena common to the histories of persecution of those considered “others” in society. This initiative pays special attention to the intersections between Holocaust studies and the history of minority groups in the United States, including Native American experiences, Japanese incarceration, the great migration north, and the persecution of African Americans in the 1920s–1940s, as well as the historical persecution of people with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ community.

For more information on this Regional Program, please contact Campus Outreach Programs at campusoutreach@ushmm.org.