A Curriculum Guide for Teaching Genocides with a focus

on the Holodomor, the Famine Genocide in Ukraine. Created by Motria Melnyk

January 2011

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Table of Contents Genocide Introduction Enduring Understandings Essential Questions Learning Objectives and Learning Outcomes Timeline of Genocides What is Genocide? Eight Stages of Genocide Armenian Genocide The Ukrainian Genocide/Famine – Holodomor The Holocaust The Cambodian Genocide The Bosnian Genocide The Rwandan Genocide The Darfurian Genocide Activities Classroom Activities Templates Timeline Template Newspaper Article Template Venn Diagram Template “What Was Happening in the World” Template Eight Stages of Genocide Template Eight Stages of Genocide Blank Template Activities based on the Ukrainian Genocide Poster Eight Stages of Genocide and the Ukrainian Genocide/Famine Eight Stages of Genocide and the Ukrainian Genocide/Famine Template Death by Starvation Newspaper Article What Was Happening in the World during the Ukrainian Genocide/Famine Template Venn Diagram – Holocaust and Holodomor Bibliography

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Introduction

The Illinois House passed House Bill 312 in March of 2005 and by the Illinois Senate in

May of 2005. It was signed into law on August 5, 2005, thus expanding Holocaust and

genocide education for Illinois elementary and high school students. It states that all

public elementary and high schools, in addition to learning about the Nazi atrocities of

the 20th century, should have a unit covering genocide throughout the world, including

incidents in Armenia and Ukraine, and recent incidents in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda

and Sudan. The State of Illinois has mandated that the study of genocides be taught to all

students K-12.

When to teach genocides? Brenda M. Trofanenko, a professor of curriculum and

instruction in the College of Education at Illinois, feels that elementary school students

lack the baseline historical knowledge and critical sensibility necessary to understand the

various implications of state-sponsored mass murder.

“Younger students don’t have the ability to capture all the information and knowledge

necessary to understand both the historical and emotional context of difficult knowledge

like genocide. They don’t understand the big picture yet. Once they have an

understanding of concepts such as significance, continuity and change, cause and

consequence, and moral judgment, students can logically think through and ask questions

about why certain events have happened. Although genocide is a very difficult subject for

students that are developmentally not ready to grasp this horror, there are books that

touch upon the subject and are appropriate for younger children (e.g., Enough by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch).

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The Genocide Curriculum in this booklet is geared toward middle school to high school

students. It is an overview of the different genocides. Students can further research each

genocide to understand it more fully.

The activities were designed to be general and open ended, so that the study of any

genocide can be adapted to each activity.

The least known of the genocides, the Ukrainian Famine/Genocide -Holodomor- has been

used as an example to portray how the activities can be used.

“The study of all genocides is very important. In order to prevent genocide, we must first

understand it. We must study and compare genocides and develop a working theory about

the genocidal process.”

* Excerpted from "How We Can Prevent Genocide", Building An International

Campaign to End Genocide, by Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, President, Genocide Watch.

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Enduring Understandings:

1. Systems can create inequalities.

2. Genocides are avoidable. Each event was the result of government decisions, compliance of citizens, and the lack of interference from other nations.

3. Genocides bring out the very best (e.g., sacrifice to help the suffering of humanity) and the very worst of humanity, (e.g., no reaction to the suffering of humanity).

Essential Questions:

Individual and Society: Identity

What are the various factors that shape identity? In what ways do others define our identity? How does society influence our identity and the choices we make? How does where we are from influence who we are?

Membership: We & They How do people make distinctions between “us” and “them”? Why do they make these distinctions? What is community? How are decisions made about who belongs and who is excluded? How does a society integrate immigrants and how do immigrants transform societies?

Human Behavior, Race and Membership, Genocides, etc.

What choices do people make in the face of injustice? What makes it possible for neighbor to turn against neighbor? How are genocide and other acts of mass violence humanly possible? What choices do people make that allow collective violence to happen? Who decides how laws or rules are applied? How can we ensure that laws and rules are applied to everyone in the same way?

Judgment, Memory and Legacy

What is justice? How can it be achieved? What does justice look like after genocide? How can individuals and societies remember and commemorate difficult histories? What is the purpose of remembering? What are the consequences of forgetting? How do you evaluate the legacy of historical events?

Choosing to Participate

Why do some people stand by during times of injustice while others try to do something

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to stop or prevent injustice? What factors influence decision-making in the face of injustice? Under what conditions are most people likely to feel more responsible for helping others? What factors reduce feelings of personal responsibility? What obstacles keep individuals from getting involved in their communities and larger world? What factors encourage participation? What can we, as individuals, groups and nations, do to prevent massive acts of violence in the future?

Learning Objectives:

• Create an understanding of genocides as not an isolated event, but a systematic repression of human rights

• Identify warnings, signals and attitudes that may lead to genocide • Engage in collaborative project-based work which will reflect views toward

genocide • Investigate and analyze genocides • Explore geopolitics and international response to various genocides

Learning Outcomes: • Demonstrate an understanding of the evolution from prejudice to genocide • Engage in group dialogue, sharing views and finding similarities and differences

between genocides • Develop a working knowledge of general human rights issues that impact the

world • Identify geopolitical factors that were a response to the various genocides • Engage in research skills, oral/written evaluation, reading/writing activities, and

collaborative projects to achieve learning objectives

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Genocide

What is genocide?

Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic,

racial, religious, or national group. The term genocide did not exist before 1944. While

serving in the U.S. State Department, Gregory Stanton studied the genocide in

Cambodia. Subsequently, in analyzing the genocide in Rwanda, he saw similarities

between both and realized that the Rwandan genocide developed in the same way as the

genocide in Cambodia. The result of his findings was his Eight Stages of Genocide,

which he presented to the US State Department in 1996. He established that these stages

are the steps that every genocide goes through. In examining the Darfurian genocide,

one may surmise that it follows the same course.

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Eight Stages of Genocide

• Classification: the division into “us and them.” This is extremely common in human

society. While it is not a sign that genocide is on the way, genocide would be

impossible without an “us” and a “them”.

• Symbolization: words or symbols are applied to the “them”: the yellow star that Jews

had to wear under Hitler, skin color, classifications put on ID cards. Again, the

symbolization of human differences is common and is not necessarily a sign of

genocide, but genocide cannot proceed unless there is some distinct way to tell

people apart.

• Dehumanization: the “them” become social pariahs: they are seen as less than

human, as animals or a kind of disease. The Tutsis in Rwanda were called

cockroaches before they were killed by the thousands. Killing them was no

longer murder – it was just ridding the country of something bad. Dehumanizing

words, like “nigger,” belong to this step. Unlike the first two steps,

dehumanization is not commonly found in most societies! It is the first step of the

road to genocide.

• Organization: To kill people in large numbers you need organization: leaders,

followers, a chain of command, duties, meetings, guns, training, hate speeches.

Sometimes it is the government that does this, but often it is a paramilitary group

that seems to be acting on its own (but which the government is either secretly

helping or at least turning a blind eye toward). The killing might start at this stage,

but not on a huge scale. Examples: the SS in Nazi Germany, the Ku Klux Klan in

America, and the Janjaweed in Darfur.

• Polarization: The first people killed in any genocide are not the pariahs themselves

but those in the mainstream who speak up for them. The voices in the middle are silenced through threats, arrests or even killings. The message of hate now goes

unchallenged.

• Preparation: the pariahs are often separated from the rest of the country – into

ghettos, camps, reservations or some undesirable part of the country. Their

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property is taken from them (they are not coming back!). This step leaves them

defenseless.

• Extermination: the mass killings, the genocide is set in motion.

• Denial: The leaders of the genocide downplay it or tell complete lies denying there

was a genocide. As long as they are in denial the killings can go on.

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Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide took place during World War I between the years 1915-

1918 against the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey).

The Young Turk political faction of the Ottoman Empire sought the creation of a new

Turkish state extending into Central Asia. Those promoting the ideology called "Pan

Turkism" (creating a homogenous Turkish state) now saw its Armenian minority

population as an obstacle to the realization of that goal. Thus, extermination of the

Armenian people began.

The Armenian people suffered abduction, torture, massacre, starvation and were

methodically massacred throughout the Ottoman Empire. The great bulk of the Armenian

population was forcibly removed from Armenia and Anatolia to Syria, where the vast

majority was sent into the desert to die of thirst and hunger It is estimated that 1.5 million

Armenians perished between 1915 and 1923, half of the approximately three million

Armenian population that had dwelled in Armenia for 3000 years.

Survivors of this genocide were forced into exile and have never been able to

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return. An entire people and their history, were virtually erased within years. Although

the Young Turk government took precautions and imposed restrictions on reporting and

photographing, there were many foreigners in the Ottoman Empire who witnessed these

atrocities. Among them were U.S. diplomatic representatives and American missionaries.

They were the first to send news to the outside world about the unfolding genocide. Some

of their reports made headline news in the American and Western media. Also reporting

on the atrocities committed against the Armenians were many German eyewitnesses. The

international community condemned the Armenian Genocide. In May 1915, Great

Britain, France, and Russia advised the Young Turk leaders that they would be held

personally responsible for this crime against humanity. There was a strong public outcry

in the United States against the mistreatment of the Armenians. To this day, the Turkish

government denies that genocide against the Armenians was carried out.

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The Ukrainian Genocide Famine

Holodomor

Holodomor, the Ukrainian famine/genocide of 1932-1933 was not caused by a

bad harvest, natural disaster or the consequence of war. Ukraine was the last place one

would have expected famine, for it had been known for centuries as the "breadbasket of

Europe.” The Holodomor (translated "murder by hunger") !was a man-made famine

created by the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

When Lenin died in 1924, Joseph Stalin succeeded him. To Stalin, the strong

national consciousness of the Ukrainian people and the continuing loss of Soviet

influence in Ukraine, were completely unacceptable. To crush the peoples’ free spirit, he

resorted to the same methods he had used within the Soviet Union. Beginning in 1929,

over 5,000 Ukrainian scholars, scientists, cultural and religious leaders were arrested after

being falsely accused of plotting an armed revolt. Those arrested were either shot without

a trial or deported to prison camps in remote areas of Russia.

Stalin also imposed the Soviet system of land management by the state known as

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collectivization. All privately owned farmlands and livestock were seized in a country

where 80 percent of the people were farmers. Stalin believed that the peasant landowners

known as “kulaks” would be instrumental in any national aspiration. He believed any

future revolts would be led by the “kulaks”. Thus he proclaimed that it was necessary to

liquidate the “kulaks” as a class and declared the “kulaks” "enemies of the people." The

borders of Ukraine were closed, which prevented any food from coming into the country.

Soviet police inside Ukraine went from house to house seizing any stored up food,

leaving farm families without a morsel. All food was considered to be the "sacred"

property of the State. Anyone caught stealing State property, even an ear of corn or

stubble of wheat, could be imprisoned for not less than ten years or shot. In 1932-1933,

while the Soviet government sold massive quantities of Ukrainian grain to foreign

markets, starvation quickly ensued throughout Ukraine. In 1932-1933, an estimated 10

million people perished from starvation.

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The Holocaust

The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and

murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.

"Holocaust" is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire." The Nazis under the

leadership of Adolph Hitler came to power in Germany in January 1933. They believed

that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien

threat to the so-called German racial community. The Holocaust began in 1933 and ended

in 1945 when the Nazis were defeated by the Allied powers. The first step against

German Jews was the boycott of all Jewish-run businesses.

The Nuremberg Laws issued in 1935 began to exclude Jews from public life,

stripped German Jews of their citizenship, prohibited marriages between Jews and

Germans and set the legal precedent for further anti-Jewish legislation. These laws

excluded Jews from public places like parks, fired them from civil service jobs (i.e.

government jobs), forced Jews register their property, and prevented Jewish doctors from

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treating anyone other than Jewish patients.

During the night of November 9-10, 1938, Nazis incited a pogrom against Jews in

Austria and Germany. This night of violence included the pillaging and burning of

synagogues, breaking windows of Jewish-owned businesses, looting of these stores, and

physically attacking many Jews. Approximately 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to

concentration camps.

After World War II started in 1939, the Nazis began ordering Jews to wear a

yellow Star of David on their clothing so that they could easily be recognized and

targeted. Nazis began ordering all Jews to live within certain, very specific, areas of big

cities, called ghettos.

Nazis would then order deportations from the ghettos. In some of the large

ghettos, 1,000 people per day were loaded up in trains and sent to either a concentration

camp or a death camp.

One of the first concentration camps was Dachau, which opened on March 20,

1933. From 1933 until 1938, most of the prisoners in the concentration camps were

political prisoners (i.e. people who spoke or acted in some way against Hitler or the

Nazis) and people the Nazis labeled as "asocial." While concentration camps were meant

to work and starve prisoners to death, extermination camps (also known as death camps)

were built for the sole purpose of killing large groups of people quickly and efficiently.

Some prisoners transported to these extermination camps were told to undress to

take a shower. Rather than a shower, the prisoners were herded into gas chambers and

killed. Auschwitz was the largest concentration and extermination camp built. It is

estimated that 1.1 million people were killed at Auschwitz.

Six million Jews were killed by the Nazis in the Holocaust, approximately two-

thirds of all Jews living in Europe. In addition to Jews, the Nazis targeted homosexuals,

gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the disabled for persecution.

It is estimated that 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust.

193315115

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The Cambodian Genocide

By 1975, the U.S. had withdrawn its troops from Vietnam. Cambodia also lost its

American military support which resulted in their government becoming corrupt and

incompetent. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army,

consisting of teenage peasant guerrillas, marched into Phnom Penh and, on April 17,

effectively seized control of Cambodia.

Once in power, Pol Pot began a radical experiment to create an agrarian utopia in

Cambodia, which he renamed the Democratic Republic of Kampuchea. Khmer Rouge’s

polices were guided by its belief that the citizens of Cambodia had been tainted and

corrupted by exposure to outside ideas, especially those from the capitalist West.

He began by declaring, "This is Year Zero," and that society was about to be

"purified." Capitalism, Western culture, city life, religion, and all foreign influences were

to be extinguished in favor of an extreme form of peasant Communism.

The Khmer Rouge persecuted those who were educated, such as doctors and

lawyers, and those who were or had been in the military or police force. Its goal was to

create a society in which no one competed against another and all people worked for the

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common good. This was accomplished by placing people in collective living

arrangements, or communes. All foreigners were thus expelled, embassies closed, and

any foreign economic or medical assistance was refused. The use of foreign languages

was banned. Newspapers and television stations were shut down, radios and bicycles

confiscated, and mail and telephone usage curtailed. Money was forbidden. All

businesses were shuttered, religion banned, education halted, health care eliminated, and

parental authority revoked. Thus, Cambodia was sealed off from the outside world.

All of Cambodia's cities were then forcibly evacuated. At Phnom Penh, two

million inhabitants were evacuated on foot into the countryside at gunpoint, and as many

as 20,000, died along the way. Millions of Cambodians, accustomed to city life were now

forced into slave labor in Pol Pot's "killing fields" where they soon began to die from

overwork, malnutrition and disease, on a diet consisting of one tin of rice (180 grams) per

person every two days. Workdays in the fields began around 4 a.m. and lasted until 10

p.m., with only two rest periods allowed during the 18 hour day, all under the armed

supervision of young Khmer Rouge soldiers eager to kill anyone for the slightest

infraction. Starving people were forbidden to eat the fruits and rice they were harvesting.

After the rice crop was harvested, Khmer Rouge trucks would arrive and confiscate the

entire crop. Throughout Cambodia, deadly purges were conducted to eliminate

remnants of the "old society" - the educated, the wealthy, Buddhist monks, police,

doctors, lawyers, teachers and former government officials. Ex-soldiers were killed along

with their wives and children. Anyone suspected of disloyalty to Pol Pot, eventually

including many Khmer Rouge leaders, was shot or bludgeoned with an ax. "What is

rotten must be removed," a Khmer Rouge slogan proclaimed.

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The Bosnian Genocide

Bosnia (Herzegovina) is one of several small countries that emerged from the

break-up of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was composed of ethnic and religious groups that

had been historical rivals, and included the Serbs (Orthodox Christians), Croats

(Catholics) and ethnic Bosniaks and Albanians (Muslims).

Nazi Germany invaded and partitioned Yugoslavia during World War II. After

Germany’s defeat, Josef Broz Tito, led a fierce resistance movement and reunified

Yugoslavia under the slogan "Brotherhood and Unity," merging together Slovenia,

Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, along with two self-governing

provinces, Kosovo and Vojvodina. After Tito’s death in 1980, and without his strong

leadership, Yugoslavia quickly tumbled into political and economic chaos. In the 1980’s

Slobodan Milosevic, a Serbian, gained power through religious hatred and nationalism

and provoked tensions between Serbs and Muslims by encouraging Serb nationalism in

the republics where there were large Serb communities. Over the years, the bitterness

and hostility of the rival ethnic and religious groups sharing the same country was

brewing and bubbling, until a civil war finally erupted in the early 1990s. In 1991

Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia declared independence. Bosnia parted from Yugoslavia

and became an independent nation in 1992. The largest population of Bosnia was made

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up of Muslims, while Serbs became the minority, accounting for about 32% of the

Bosnian population. Once Bosnia was declared an independent nation, many of the Serbs

residing in Bosnia were bitter and decided to take action. Between April 1992 and

November 1995, Serbia set out to “ethnically cleanse” Bosnian territory by systematically

removing all Bosnian Muslims. It is documented that approximately 200,000 lives were

taken during the occurrence of the Bosnian genocide. In the course of the war as many as

1 million Muslims in Bosnia were forced to flee their homes.

The procedure of the Bosnian genocide was comparable to the Holocaust. Men

were systematically lined up and grouped to be gunned down and brutally murdered.

Boys over the age of 13 were also main targets of the Serbs during the Bosnian genocide.

Many Bosnian Muslims were driven into concentration camps, where women and young

children were victims of sexual violence and rape, and many were starved. The Bosnian

genocide is a truly horrific event that left thousands of families separated. Even today,

there are people considered missing and thousands more without a proper burial and

funeral.

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The Rwandan Genocide

Most of the Rwandan population belonged to the Hutu ethnic group, traditionally

crop-growers. For many centuries Rwanda attracted Tutsis - traditionally herdsmen -

from northern Africa. For 600 years the two groups shared the business of farming,

essential for survival. They also shared their language, their culture, and their nationality.

There had been much intermarriage. Tutsis tended to be landowners and Hutus, worked

the land, with the Hutus outnumbering the Tutsis. When the European colonists came,

they selected the Tutsis as the privileged group, and thus introduced class awareness, as

well as modern weapons.

The Hutus acquired power and were taking away Tutsi rights. Tutsi were

excluded from secondary schools and universities. Many Tutsis retreated into

neighboring countries where they trained their soldiers. Tensions, resistance and internal

conflicts grew. In 1990 civil war began. 1993 brought a cease-fire and the UN negotiated

a multi- party constitution. The Hutu leaders and extremists, however, opposed Tutsi

involvement in government.

On April 6 1994 the plane carrying Rwanda's president was shot down, most

probably the work of an extremist. This was the trigger needed for the Hutus' planned

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'Final Solution' to go into operation. The Tutsis were accused of killing the president, and

Hutu civilians were told, by radio and word of mouth, that it was their duty to destroy the

Tutsis out. Hutus who were sympathetic to the Tutsi were killed also. These events began

the Rwandan Genocide, which was a systematic killing against the Tutsi minority and the

opposition to the Hutu majority.

Local officials rounded up victims and began slaughtering victims. Tutsi men,

women and children were killed in schools and churches by people they knew -

neighbors, friends, work partners, even relatives.

It is estimated that from April 6 to the middle of July, Hutu militia groups killed

800,000 to 1 million Rwandans.

The Rwandan Genocide is widely considered a failure for the United Nations and

the complaisance of many western nations including the United States, France, and

Belgium has drawn heavy criticism. While the United Nations had a special envoy to

Rwanda, led by Romeo Dallaire, the UN Security Council failed to respond to the

tragedy, and even reduced the size of Dallaire's force, for the first months of the

genocide. Other nations, including the United States were reluctant to become involved in

what was initially interpreted as a "local conflict."

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Genocide in Darfur

Since its independence from Great Britain in 1956, Sudan, Africa's largest

country, has experienced civil war almost continuously (except from 1971-1982).

Darfur, located in western Sudan has become a critical site in Sudan’s civil war.

Darfur is divided by religion, ethnicity, tribal differences, and economic disparities.

The population of Darfur is comprised of many tribes of settled peasants who identify as

African and nomadic herders who identify as Arab. The majority of both are Muslim.

Throughout much of Darfur’s history, considerable tension has existed amongst

its various Arab and non-Arab populations. Recent competition over access to land and

water has aggravated the strife between Arabs, who are primarily nomadic herdsmen, and

non-Arab farmers. In February 2003, the non-Arab ethnic groups of Darfur launched an

uprising against the Khartoum government. They struck out against the government,

accusing it of oppressing non-Arabs, and favoring Arabs. The government responded by

implementing their campaign of genocide, enlisting the help of Arab militia in Darfur

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called the Janjaweed. The Janjaweed are the armed militia supported by the Sudanese

Government to carry out the genocide. The dispute is racial, not religious: Muslim Arab

Sudanese are killing Muslim black Sudanese. In the ongoing genocide, African farmers

and others in Darfur are being systematically displaced and murdered at the hands of the

Janjaweed.

The genocide in Darfur has claimed 400,000 lives as a result of attacks and

induced malnutrition and disease. The majority of these had been women, children and

civilian men. More than one hundred people continue to die each day; five thousand die

every month. This genocide has displaced over 2, 500,000 people.

The Janjaweed will enter a village on horse back or camel. They then cause as

much mayhem and terror as possible: destroying houses and buildings, shooting the men,

gang raping the women and children and shooting any who try to escape. The village is

generally destroyed, families dispersed and separated, most killed. Those who manage to

escape then attempt the long journey to an IDP (internally displaced persons) camp. The

violence is now spilling onto neighboring Eastern Chad. The Sudanese government has

resisted U.N. appeals for intervention. Instead, it continues to support the Janjaweed’s

systematic assaults against non-Arab Darfurians.

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Activities

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Classroom Activities:

Assign students to be a “Reporter on Assignment”

Write an article describing a particular genocide. Begin the article with a strong title that will

captivate the audience. Include any appropriate background to better understand the event. Give

details to explain the event and answer who, what, when, where, why.

Research Genocide

Paper should include:

Definition of genocide

What political, economic, and social causes and events led to the genocide?

Analyze American and world response

Discuss the 8 Stages of Genocide

Students should have a good understanding of each stage.

Students are divided into pairs and after researching a genocide, they will analyze the events that

occurred and match these events of the genocide with Stanton’s Eight Stages of Genocide. (see

template)

Overall discussion questions to follow this activity:

What is the significance of using the 8 stages of genocide?

What are the similarities and differences between the different genocides?

What does this discussion tell us about genocide prevention?

Create a Power Point or Slideshow

Use technology to explain a particular genocide. Show the events happening in the United States at

that time and the United States response to that genocide.

Have a Genocide Report Day

Groups of students research a particular genocide, and using visual aids (posters, timelines, etc.) will

report their findings to the class.

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Discussion Groups:

Why are genocides permitted to happen again and again? If developed nations can use every

available effort to stop nuclear proliferation or work together toward global environmental reform,

why can they not exercise those same energies in preventing and stopping the genocides of recent

history?

After the Holocaust, the international community promised "never again" - the world would not

stand by and allow genocide to occur. Too often, however, world leaders have not lived up to this

obligation. Since 2003, the Darfur region of western Sudan has been the site of killing and

displacement that many believe rises to the level of "genocide." The international response, most

agree, has been rather muted. Based on the evidence, ask students if the crisis in Darfur should be

legally termed "genocide." Why or why not? Working as a class, decide what kind of response, if

any, the United States and the world should undertake, to alleviate the situation.

What effect, if any, do you think the 2011 referendum on independence will have on the situation in

Darfur?

Genocides Timeline:

After researching the various genocides, create a timeline from 1915-until present. Cut out the maps

and information and build a timeline that describes where and when the genocides took place, who

was responsible and who was president in the United States during the various genocides.

Venn Diagram

Analyze two genocides you have studied. Use the Venn Diagram to show similarities and

differences.

Poster

Create a poster using technology. Use images and phrases that will describe the genocide you are

portraying.

Genocide and the World

Connect genocide to world events that were taking place at the same time.

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Templates

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1915 – 1923 1.5 million

killed

1932 – 1933 10 million

killed

1941 – 1945 6 million

killed

1975 – 1979 1.7 million

killed

1992 -1995 100,000 killed

1994 800,00 killed

2003 400,00 killed

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Atrocities against Bosnian Muslims

and Croatian civilians by Bosnian

Serb Forces

Vietnamese,

Chinese, Muslims and Buddhist monks

killed by Khmer Rouge Communist

Party

African farmers

murdered by Janjaweed

government

Systematic murder

of Jews by Adolph Hitler

Mass slaughter of Christians

by Turks

Artificial Famine

inflicted by Joseph Stalin

The Hutu tribe

wanted to eradicate the Tutsi tribe

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Who was President in the US?

United States President:

Woodrow Wilson and Warren G. Harding

United States President:

Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter

United States President:

Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman

United States President:

George w. Bush

United States President:

George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton

United States President:

Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano

Roosevelt

United States President:

Bill Clinton

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Newspaper Article Template

Picture

Headline

Article (include who, what, where, when and why)

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Venn Diagram Analyze two genocides you have studied. Use the Venn Diagram to show similarities and differences.

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Genocide:

What was happening in the world during the __________________?

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Eight Stages of Genocide - template

Classification:

The division into “us” and “them.” This is extremely common in human society. While it is not a sign that genocide is on the way, genocide would be impossible without an "us" and a "them".

Symbolization:

Words or symbols are applied to the them: the yellow star that Jews had to wear under Hitler, skin color, classifications put on ID cards. Again, the symbolization of human differences is common and is not necessarily a sign of genocide, but genocide cannot proceed unless there is some sure way to tell people apart.

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Dehumanization:

The “them” become social pariahs: they are seen as less than human, as animals or a kind of disease. The Tutsis in Rwanda were called cockroaches before they were killed by the thousands. Killing them was no longer murder – it was just ridding the country of some- thing bad. Dehumanizing words belong to this step. Unlike the first two steps, dehumani -zation is not commonly found in societies! It is the first step on the road to genocide.

Organization:

To kill people in large numbers you need organization: leaders, followers, a chain of command, duties, meetings, guns, training, hate speeches. Sometimes it is the government that does this, but often it is a paramilitary group that seem to be acting on its own (but which the government is either secretly helping or at least turning a blind eye towards). The killing might start at this stage, but not on a huge scale. Examples: the SS in Nazi Germany, the Ku Klux Klan in America, and the Janjaweed in Darfur.

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Polarization:

The first people killed in any genocide are not the pariahs themselves but those in the mainstream who speak up for them. The voices in the middle are silenced through threats, arrests or even killings. The message of hate, now goes unchallenged.

Preparation:

The pariahs are often separated from the rest of the country into ghettos, camps, reservations or some undesirable part of the country. Their property is taken from them (they are not coming back!). This step leaves them defenseless.

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Extermination:

The mass killings, the genocide set in motion.

Denial:

The leaders of the genocide downplay it or tell complete lies and say there never was a genocide. As long as they are in denial the killings can go on.

.

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Eight Stages of Genocide: Match the following events to the Stages of Genocide

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Eight Stages of Genocide: Match the following events to the Stages of Genocide

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HOLODOMOR Ukrainian Genocide/Famine

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HOLODOMOR

Dictator

Extermination

RememberanceAcknowledgement

Truth

FAMINE Starvation

Kulaks

HOLODOMOR

Communism

GENOCIDE

Collectivization

Type to enter text

Ukrainian Nationalim

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Eight Stages of Genocide and the Ukrainian Famine

1. Classification - All cultures have categories to distinguish people into ‘us and them’ by ethnicity, race, religion, or nationality. In Ukraine the “us” and “them” were the Soviet authorities, on the one hand, and the Ukrainian peasantry and Ukrainian nationalism on the other. 2. Symbolism - We give names or other symbols to the classifications. In Ukraine the members of the Ukrainian peasantry were referred to as “kulaks,” a common term that referred to more prosperous farmers. 3. Dehumanization – One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases. “Kulak” became synonymous with the Ukrainian peasantry, as well as Ukrainian nationalism. The term was used by Stalin and his supporters to label those who opposed his regime. Kulaks were branded as leeches, vampires, spiders, vermin, demonic bloodsuckers, and subhuman. The peasants, Stalin said, had to be “eliminated” and “liquidated as class.” He proclaimed, “kulaks are not human beings” and incited an all-out campaign against this so-called “class enemy” who “had no souls” and for whom there was to be no pity. 4. Organization – Genocide is always organized, usually by the state, often using militias to provide deniability of state responsibility. Communist party officials and Red Army soldiers organized to confiscate Ukrainian grain. Special commissions were sent to Ukraine to execute the grain seizure. The secret police and police officials went from farm to farm, confiscating crops and livestock. Urban workers and Stalin’s supporters assisted in the efforts. !!5. Polarization – Extremists drive the groups apart. Hate groups broadcast polarizing propaganda. Extremist terrorism targets moderates, intimidating and silencing the center. Moderates are most able to stop genocide, so they are the first to be arrested and killed. Ukraine’s peasant farmers were differentiated from the working class and industrial workers through propaganda. Community and religious leaders as well as members of the Ukrainian intelligentsia were identified, targeted, removed from society. Some were executed; many were deported to Russian gulag camps. Others simply disappeared. 6. Preparation – Victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or religious identity. Death lists are drawn up. Members of victim groups are forced to wear identifying symbols. Their property is expropriated. They are often segregated into ghettoes, deported into concentration camps, or confined to a famine-struck region and starved. Ukraine’s borders were closed. An internal passport system was set up under the guise of industrial efficiency to keep peasants from moving from one section of the country to

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another, as well as to keep them from crossing the Ukrainian border into other countries. Peasants were confined to farms and were prohibited from working in the city. 7. Extermination – begins and quickly becomes the mass killing legally called ‘genocide.’ It is ‘extermination’ to the killers because they do not believe their victims to be fully human. When it is sponsored by the state, the armed forces often work with militias. Food was only distributed to those Ukrainian peasants who had met their grain quota. The quotas were purposely made unrealistic. Peasants could barely meet the demands (if at all) and they were denied rations. Officials went to every farm and seized the last bits of food as punishment. All foreign and local aid was blocked from getting to the peasants. Bodies soon lined the streets and piled up in the fields as people starved by the thousands. Up to10 million people perished, although the exact numbers will probably never be known. 8. Denial – “is the eighth stage that always follows genocide. The perpetrators of genocide dig up the mass graves, burn the bodies, try to cover up the evidence and intimidate the witnesses. They deny that they committed any crimes, often blame what happened on the victims, and block investigations. Stalin refuted every allegation of a famine. Census figures were altered to hide millions of famine-related deaths. He had total control of the media. Even American press that had visited Ukraine knew a great deal about the famine, which they chose not to report. New York Times writer and Pulitzer Prize winner Walter Duranty actively denied in public what he confirmed in private. All evidence of the famine-genocide was locked away for decades behind the Soviet “Iron Curtain,” only coming to light in the mid-1990s when the Cold War ended and Ukraine gained back independence.

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Eight Stages of Genocide Template

Classification: The division into “us” and “them.” This is extremely common in human society. While it is not a sign that genocide is on the way, genocide would be impossible without an "us" and a "them".

Symbolization: Words or symbols are applied to the “them”: the yellow star that Jews had to wear under Hitler, skin color, classifications put on ID cards. Again, the symbolization of human difference is common and is not necessarily a sign of genocide, but genocide cannot proceed unless there is some sure way to tell people apart.

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Dehumanization: The “them” become social pariahs: they are seen as less than human, as animals or a kind of disease. The Tutsis in Rwanda were called cockroaches before they were killed by the thousands. Killing them was no longer murder – it was just ridding the country of something bad. Dehumanizing words belong to this step. Unlike the first two steps, dehumanization is not commonly found in societies! It is the first step on the road to genocide.

Organization: To kill people in large numbers you need organization: leaders, followers, a chain of command, duties, meetings, guns, training, hate speeches. Sometimes it is the government that does this, but often it is a paramilitary group that seem to be acting on its own (but which the government is either secretly helping or at least turning a blind eye towards). The killing might start at this stage, but not on a huge scale. Examples: the SS in Nazi Germany, the Ku Klux Klan in America, and the Janjaweed in Darfur.

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Polarization: The first people killed in any genocide are not the pariahs themselves but those in the mainstream who speak up for them. The voices in the middle are silenced through threats, arrests or even killings. The message of hate, now goes unchallenged.

Preparation:

The pariahs are often separated from the rest of the country – into ghettos, camps, reservations or some undesirable part of the country. Their property is taken from them (they are not coming back!). This step leaves them defenseless.

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Extermination:

The mass killings, the genocide set in motion.

Denial: The leaders of the genocide downplay it or tell complete lies and say there never was genocide. As long as they are in denial the killings can go on.

.

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Eight Stages of Genocide: Match the following events to the Stages of Genocide

Stalin refuted every allegation of a famine. Census figures were altered to hide millions of famine-related deaths. He had total control of the media. Even American press that had visited Ukraine knew a great deal about the famine, which they chose not to report. New York Times writer and Pulitzer Prize winner Walter Duranty actively denied in public what he confirmed in private.

In Ukraine the “us” and “them” were Soviet authorities, on the one hand, and the Ukrainian peasantry and Ukrainian nationalism on the other.

Food was only distributed to those Ukrainian peasants who had met their grain quota. The quotas were purposely made unrealistic. Peasants could barely meet the demands (if at all) and they were denied rations. Officials went to every farm and seized the last bits of food as punishment. All foreign and local aid was blocked from getting to the peasants.

Communist party officials and Red Army soldiers organized to confiscate Ukrainian grain. Special commissions were sent to Ukraine to execute the grain seizure. The secret police and police officials went from farm to farm confiscating crops and livestock. Urban workers and Stalin’s supporters assisted in the efforts.

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In Ukraine the members of the Ukrainian peasantry were referred to as “kulaks”, a common term that referred to more prosperous farmers.

.

Kulak” became synonymous with the Ukrainian peasantry as well as Ukrainian nationalism. Stalin and his supporters to label those who opposed his regime used the term. Kulaks were branded as leeches, vampires, spiders, vermin, demonic bloodsuckers, and subhuman. Stalin proclaimed, “kulaks are not human beings, who had no souls and for whom there was no pity.

Ukraine’s borders were closed. An internal passport system was set up under the guise of industrial efficiency to keep peasants from moving from one section of the country to another, as well as to keep them from crossing the Ukrainian borders into other countries. Peasants were confined to farms and were prohibited from working in the city.

Ukraine’s peasant farmers were differ- entiated from the working class and industrial workers through propaganda. Community and religious leaders as well as members of the Ukrainian intelligentsia were identified, targeted, and removed from society. Some were executed; many were deported to Russian gulag camps. Others simply disappeared.

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DEATH BY STARVATION IN UKRAINE THE BREADBASKET OF EUROPE

Poltava Region: A dreadful famine has engulfed Ukraine, in the northern Caucasus, and the lower Volga River area. This famine is the result of Joseph Stalin's policy of forced collectivization. The heaviest losses occurred in Ukraine, which had been the most productive agricultural area of the Soviet Union. Stalin is determined to crush Ukrainian nationalism and is creating a devastating purge of the Ukrainian intelligentsia. The famine has left Ukraine politically, socially, and psycho -logically traumatized. This policy of collectivization has a disastrous effect on agricultural productivity.

Stalin has raised Ukraine's grain procurement quotas by forty-four percent. This means that there would not be enough grain to feed the peasants, since Soviet law requires that no grain from a collective farm could be given to the members of the farm until the government's quota was met. Millions of peasants are dying by starvation. Party officials, with the aid of regular troops and secret police units, are waging a merciless war of attrition against peasants who refuse to give up their grain. Witnesses say that any man, woman, or child caught taking even a handful of grain from a collective farm have been executed or deported. The NKVD and a system of internal passports prevent peasants from leaving their villages. Another witness stated that it is terrifying to walk through the village as one can see swollen people moaning and dying. When asked, one of Stalin's lieutenants stated that the famine is a great success. It shows the peasants who is the master here.

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UkraineHolodomor

Famine Genocide 1932-1933

What was happening in the world during the Ukrainian Famine?

January 30, 1933Germany

Adolph Hitler becomes Chancelor and then absolute dictator of Germany. He would

orchestrate the Holocaust.

March 4, 1933United States

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was sworn in as the 32nd President. The

United States was in the Depression.

1924-1953Soviet Union

Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union by fear and torture for almost thirty

years.

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Holodomor • 1932-1933 • Planned by Stalin • Took place in Ukraine

and Kuban regions • Starvation • Up to 10 million

Ukrainians were killed within one year

• Both were Genocides

• Hitler and Stalin wanted to wipe out a nation

• Jews were declared enemies of the state as were the kulaks

• No inter -national intervention

Holocaust • 1938-1945 • Planned by Hitler • Took place in many

parts of Europe • 6 million Jews were

killed over a four year span

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Bibliography

Ahnert, Margaret: The Knock at the Door: A Journey through the Darkness of the Armenian Genocide. A personal account by an American of Armenian descent interweaves two narratives in alternating chapters: mother Ester's firsthand description of coming-of-age during, and miraculously surviving, the Turkish-sponsored Armenian genocide of 1915, and the middle-aged author's own tender yet urgent reflections on her connection to the distant world of her 98-year-old mother. Cummins, Joseph: The World’s Bloodiest History: Massacre, Genocide, and the Scars They Left on Civilization This book discusses mankind's most inhumane moments giving a sobering look at some of the most destructive acts of violence in history. Dolot, Miron: Execution by Hunger: The Hidden Holocaust The story of the Ukrainian Famine told by a young Ukrainian boy, who tells the story of what he saw throughout the famine, and what he felt and thought. Filipovic, Ziata: Ziata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo

In September 1991, shortly before war broke out on the streets of Sarajevo, 11-year-old Zlata Filipovic began to keep a diary about the deaths of friends, the shortage of food, and days spent in fear. The diary is a compelling plea for peace. Pierce Julian R: Speak Rwanda . The story of ten people Hutu and Tutsi, civilians and soldiers, mothers, nurses, politicians, and orphaned children as they attempt to survive one of the most violent and deeply disturbing massacres since the Second World War.

Reiss, Johanna: The Upstairs Room A Dutch Jewish girl describes the two-and-one-half years she spent in hiding in the upstairs bedroom of a farmer's house during World War. Ung, Loung: First They Killed My Father: A Girl of Cambodia Remembers The child of a high-ranking government official in Phnom Penh, who was five when the Khmer Rouge stormed the city and her family was forced to flee. Her story of starvation, forced labor, beatings, attempted rape, separations, and the deaths of her family members is one of horror and brutality. Wallace Steidle, Gretchen: The Devil Came on Horseback: Bearing Witness to the Genocide in Darfur Author describes former Marine Captain Steidle emotions during his six months as an African Union observer of the Darfur genocide. The author describes Steidle’s frustration, horror as he witnesses and actually photographs the Janjaweed arrive on horseback to systematically rape, torture, murder and mass slaughter 200,000 men, women and children, then loot and torch one village after another.