Harold Marcuse (born 1957 in

Waterbury, Connecticut Waterbury is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Waterbury had a population of 114,403 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 Census. The city is southwest of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford and northeast of New York City. Waterbury i ...

) is an American

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of modern and contemporary

German history The concept of Germany as a distinct region in Central Europe can be traced to Julius Caesar, who referred to the unconquered area east of the Rhine as ''Germania'', thus distinguishing it from Gaul. The victory of the Cherusci, Germanic tribes ...

and public history. He teaches at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

.Pat Dowell
"German Filmmaker Tackles the Holocaust in 'Ninth Day' "
National Public Radio (June 1, 2005). Retrieved January 24, 2011 He is the grandson of philosopher

Herbert Marcuse Herbert Marcuse ( ; ; July 19, 1898 – July 29, 1979) was a German–American philosopher, social critic, and Political philosophy, political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. Born in Berlin, Marcuse studied at ...

Education

Marcuse majored in

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the Methodi ...

( B.A. 1979,

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

) in

Middletown, Connecticut Middletown is a city in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. Located along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, 16 miles (25.749504 km) south of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. Middletown is the largest city in the L ...

. He earned an M.A. in

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

from the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (, also referred to as UHH) is a public university, public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('':de:Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen, ...

in 1987, with a thesis about a 1949 memorial dedicated "to the Victims of National Socialist Persecution and the Resistance Struggle". In 1985, Marcuse co-produced a

photographic Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed in many ...

exhibition on monuments and memorials commemorating events of the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

periods. In 1986, he entered the Ph.D. program at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

Ann Arbor Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...

, to write a dissertation about the post-1945 history of the (former)

Dachau concentration camp Dachau (, ; , ; ) was one of the first concentration camps built by Nazi Germany and the longest-running one, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents, which consisted of communists, s ...

that examined the legacies of Dachau. Marcuse says that since the end of World War II, much art, literature and public debate in Germany have revolved around the issues of resistance, collaboration and complicity with the

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

Career

Marcuse began teaching history at UC Santa Barbara in 1992. His study of the different ways Germans memorialized events under Hitler's rule led him to research the broader question of what people get out of learning about historical events. He examines the ways historical events have been portrayed over time, and the meanings various groups of people have derived from those events and portrayals. Marcuse was instrumental in connecting a student, Collette Waddell, with a Polish

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

survivor, Nina Morecki, which led to a book about the Holocaust that discussed not just the era, but how survivors pursued their lives afterward. Marcuse has stated that his interest in history education also resulted in him becoming active in the reform of UC Santa Barbara's General Education requirements between 1997 and 2004. He is also interested in the use of

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

, such as videorecording and the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

in history education; the use of oral history in social studies teaching; and questions of public conceptions of history, often referred to as "collective memory." He serves as webmaster of the Marcuse family's website.

Personal

Marcuse and his first wife (m. 1987–2010) had two children, Aaron (born 1988) and Miriam (born 1993). On the family website, Marcuse states that he and his first wife separated in 2001 and divorced in 2010. He married again in 2012. He is the grandson of German

critical theorist Critical theory is a social, historical, and political school of thought and philosophical perspective which centers on analyzing and challenging systemic power relations in society, arguing that knowledge, truth, and social structures are fu ...

and

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

as well as a son of Herbert's son Peter Marcuse. In 2012, Marcuse stated that his interests were "history education and public exposure to history (monuments, museums, school curricula, films, ...)." This in turn led him to study the effects of the

No Child Left Behind Act The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) was a 2002 United States Act of Congress promoted by the presidential administration of George W. Bush. It reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and included Title I provisio ...

on his local school system from 2004 to 2008. Since 2002 he has worked to reform the

General Education Curriculum.

Books and selected publications

*Harold Marcuse, Frank Schimmelfennig and Jochen Spielmann (1985). ''Steine des Anstosses: Nationalsozialismus und Zweiter Weltkrieg in Denkmalen, 1945-1985.'' Museum for the History of Hamburg. *Harold Marcuse (1990). "Das ehemalige Konzentrationslager Dachau: Der mühevolle Weg zur Gedenkstätte, 1945-1968," in: ''Dachauer Hefte'' 6(1990), 182–205. *Harold Marcuse (1993). "Die Museale Darstellung des Holocaust an Orten der ehemaligen Konzentrationslager in der Bundesrepublik, 1945-1990." In: ''Erinnerung: Zur Gegenwart des Holocaust in Deutschland West und Deutschland Ost'' (Frankfurt: Haag and Herchen), 79–98. *Harold Marcuse (1998). "The Revival of Holocaust Awareness in West Germany, Israel, and the United States." In: Carole Fink, Philipp Gassert, Detlef Junker (eds.), 1968: The World Transformed (New York: Cambridge University Press), 421–38. *Harold Marcuse (1999). "Dachau: The Political Aesthetics of Holocaust Memorials," in: Peter Hayes (ed.), ''Lessons and Legacies III: Memory, Memorialization, and Denial'' (Evanston, IL: Northwestern Univ. Press, 1999), 138–168, 278–287. *Harold Marcuse (2000). "Experiencing the Jewish Holocaust in Los Angeles: The Beit Hashoah--Museum of Tolerance," on-line journal ''Other Voices'', 2:1(2000). * *"Die vernachlässigten Massengräber: Der Skandal um dem Leitenberg, 1949–50," ''Dachauer Hefte'' 19(2003), 3–23. *"Memories of the World War II and the Holocaust in Europe," in: Gordon Martel (ed.), ''A Companion to Europe, 1900–1945'' (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006), pp. 487–503. *"Holocaust Memorials: The Emergence of a Genre," ''American Historical Review'', 115:1(Feb. 2010), pp. 53–89. *"The Afterlife of the Camps," in: Jane Caplan and Nikolaus Wachsmann (eds.), ''Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany: The New Histories'' (New York: Routledge, 2010), pp. 186–211. *"Memorializing Persecuted Jews in Dachau and Other West German Concentration Camp Memorial Sites," in: William Niven and Chloe Paver (eds.), ''Memorialization in Germany since 1945'' (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 192–204. *"Nicht Rekonstruieren, sondern Rezeptionsspuren sichtbar werden lassen: Thesen zur Gestaltung der Überreste des Kräutergartens," in: Gabriele Hammermann and Dirk Riedel (eds.), ''Sanierung – Rekonstruktion – Neugestaltung: Zum Umgang mit historischen Bauten in Gedenkstätten'' (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2014), 50–64. *"The Origin and Reception of Martin Niemöller's Quotation 'First They Came for the Communists...'," Yard sign in North Carolina, First came for immigrantsin: Michael Berenbaum et al (eds.), ''Remembering for the Future: Armenia, Auschwitz, and Beyond'' (Paragon, 2016), 173–199. *"The Political Without the Personal," cholars Forum: Thomas Weber's ''Becoming Hitler: The Making of a Nazi''In: ''Dapim: Studies on the Holocaust'' 32:2(2018), 130–137.

References

External links