“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”
― Elie Wiesel
― Elie Wiesel
Questions to Ponder:
- What comparable examples are there of people's inhumanity of man?
- How is it possible for a modern society to carry out systemic murder of a people?
- What makes some people resist and others obey authority?
- Where does one draw the line between following the conscious and obeying the law?
Raphael Lemkin, a Holocaust Survivor, coined the term "genocide". Geno= race/tribe. Cide= killing.
THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE On December 9, 1948, in the shadow of the Holocaust and in no small part due to the tireless efforts of Lemkin himself, the United Nations approved the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This convention establishes “genocide” as an international crime, which signatory nations “undertake to prevent and punish.” It defines genocide as:
[A]ny of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
While many cases of group-targeted violence have occurred throughout history and even since the Convention came into effect, the legal and international development of the term is concentrated into two distinct historical periods: the time from the coining of the term until its acceptance as international law (1944-1948) and the time of its activation with the establishment of international criminal tribunals to prosecute the crime of genocide (1991-1998). Preventing genocide, the other major obligation of the convention, remains a challenge that nations and individuals continue to face.
[A]ny of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
- Killing members of the group;
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
- Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
- Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
- Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
While many cases of group-targeted violence have occurred throughout history and even since the Convention came into effect, the legal and international development of the term is concentrated into two distinct historical periods: the time from the coining of the term until its acceptance as international law (1944-1948) and the time of its activation with the establishment of international criminal tribunals to prosecute the crime of genocide (1991-1998). Preventing genocide, the other major obligation of the convention, remains a challenge that nations and individuals continue to face.
IWitness:
http://iwitness.usc.edu/SFI/
Witness is an educational website developed by USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education that provides access to nearly 1,300 full life histories, testimonies of survivors and witnesses to the Holocaust and other genocides for guided exploration. IWitness brings the human stories of the Institute's Visual History Archive to secondary school teachers and their students via engaging multimedia-learning activities. Designed to be participatory, academic and student-driven, IWitness addresses education standards from the Common Core State Standards Initiative (United States) and the International Society for Technology in Education, among others.
Witness is an educational website developed by USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education that provides access to nearly 1,300 full life histories, testimonies of survivors and witnesses to the Holocaust and other genocides for guided exploration. IWitness brings the human stories of the Institute's Visual History Archive to secondary school teachers and their students via engaging multimedia-learning activities. Designed to be participatory, academic and student-driven, IWitness addresses education standards from the Common Core State Standards Initiative (United States) and the International Society for Technology in Education, among others.
Websites:
- U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum: http://www.ushmm.org/educators/teaching-materials/materials-by-topic#genocide
- The Warning Signs of Genocide: Connecting the Lessons to the Holocaust to the World Today: www.warningsignsofgenocide.org
- Student Led Coalitions: www.standnow.org
- USC Shoah Foundation: http://sfi.usc.edu Watch testimonies from various genocides.
Movies
Documentaries:
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Examples of Contemporary Genocide:
- Bosnia: 1992-1995. 100, 000 people killed. 80% were Bosniak civilians
- Rwanda: 1994. At least 500, 000 Tutsi were killed when a Hutu extremist-led gov. launched a plan to murder the country's entire Tutsi minority and any others who opposed th government's policies.
- Darfur(Sudan):