November 10, 2010 - Polk State College will offer a course entitled Holocaust Literature (LIT 1201) during its spring term. Through literature and films, PSC Professor Howard Kerner will examine the evildoers who sent millions of innocent people to die in gas chambers and the individuals who hid, protected and rescued many others.

The 3-credit hour class will be held on Tuesday evenings on the Winter Haven campus beginning January 11, 2011. Registration for PSC’s fall term is now being conducted at the college’s Lakeland, Lake Wales and Winter Haven locations and online at www.polk.edu.

Kerner has been teaching for 40 years, the past 20 years as Professor of English and Communications at Polk State College. His interest in this subject stems from the fact that many relatives were killed in the Holocaust. He also has written numerous essays for Salem Press about the Holocaust and its literature; one of those essays about Anne Frank led him to developing this course.

Two years ago, he hosted a community discussion/presentation of the film Anne Frank Remembered at Polk State College. Following that presentation, PSC President Eileen Holden asked him if he would be interested in creating a course on Holocaust Literature. “Thanks to her encouragement, I spent that term reading and watching documentaries,” Kerner said. The course was first offered successfully in 2009.

Professor Kerner decided to focus a portion of his course on the people he calls the Rescuers. “Nobody knows their names, but there were so many people that risked their lives for others during this period.” As a result, this course is divided into two sections. “The first half is about what human beings have done to other people. The second half is about what human beings have done for other human beings,” he said. 

He compared creating this course to solving a jigsaw puzzle. “There has been so much written and filmed about the Holocaust. Creating this course is like fitting the pieces of a puzzle together. It worked! In 40 years of teaching, I never had a more life-altering experience than teaching this course,” he said. 

For more information about the Literature of the Holocaust class, call Professor Kerner at 292-3619.