Download Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century 1915-1995

TWENTIETH
CENTURY
WORLD
HISTORY
Five Cases of
Genocide in
the Twentieth
Century
1915-1995
PLEASE SEE
NOTES ON
THE PDF,
PAGE 4.
LESSONS IN WORLD HISTORY
By Alan Rosenfeld, Department of History, The University of California, Irvine
Teacher Consultant, Lorraine Gerard, Century High School, Santa Ana
Faculty Consultant, Kenneth Pomeranz, Professor of History, The University of California, Irvine
Managing Editor, Tova Cooper, Ph.D.
The publication of this CD has been made possible largely through funding from GEAR UP Santa Ana. This branch of GEAR UP has made
a distinctive contribution to public school education in the U.S. by creating intellectual space within an urban school district for students
who otherwise would not have access to the research, scholarship, and teaching represented by this collaboration between the University
of California, the Santa Ana Partnership, and the Santa Ana Unified School District. Additional external funding in 2004-2005 has been
provided to HOT by the Bank of America Foundation, the Wells Fargo Foundation, and the Pacific Life Foundation.
THE UCI CALIFORNIA HISTORY-SOCIAL SCIENCE PROJECT
The California History-Social Science Project (CH-SSP) of the University of California, Irvine, is dedicated to working with history teachers in Orange County to develop innovative approaches to engaging students in the study of the past. Founded in 2000, the CH-SSP
draws on the resources of the UCI Department of History and works closely with the UCI Department of Education. We believe that the
history classroom can be a crucial arena not only for instruction in history but also for the improvement of student literacy and writing
skills. Working together with the teachers of Orange County, it is our goal to develop history curricula that will convince students that
history matters.
HUMANITIES OUT THERE
Humanities Out There was founded in 1997 as an educational partnership between the School of Humanities at the University of California, Irvine and the Santa Ana Unified School District. HOT runs workshops in humanities classrooms in Santa Ana schools. Advanced
graduate students in history and literature design curricular units in collaboration with host teachers, and conduct workshops that engage
UCI undergraduates in classroom work. In the area of history, HOT works closely with the UCI History-Social Science Project in order
to improve student literacy and writing skills in the history classroom, and to integrate the teaching of history, literature, and writing
across the humanities. The K-12 classroom becomes a laboratory for developing innovative units that adapt university materials to the
real needs and interests of California schools. By involving scholars, teachers, students, and staff from several institutions in collaborative
teaching and research, we aim to transform educational practices, expectations, and horizons for all participants.
THE SANTA ANA PARTNERSHIP
The Santa Ana Partnership was formed in 1983 as part of the Student and Teacher Educational Partnership (STEP) initiative at UC Irvine.
Today it has evolved into a multi-faceted collaborative that brings institutions and organizations together in the greater Santa Ana area to
advance the educational achievement of all students, and to help them enter and complete college. Co-directed at UC Irvine by the Center
for Educational Partnerships, the collaborative is also strongly supported by Santa Ana College, the Santa Ana Unified School District,
California State University, Fullerton and a number of community based organizations. Beginning in 2003-2004, HOT has contributed
to the academic mission of the Santa Ana Partnership by placing its workshops in GEAR UP schools. This unit on Five Cases of Genocide
in the Twentieth Century reflects the innovative collaboration among these institutions and programs.
CONTENT COUNTS: A SPECIAL PROJECT OF THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
This is one in a series of publications under the series title Content Counts: Reading and Writing Across the Humanities, supported by
a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Content Counts units are designed by and for educators committed to promoting a deep, content-rich and knowledge-driven literacy in language arts and social studies classrooms. The units provide
examples of “content reading”—primary and secondary sources, as well as charts, data, and visual documents—designed to supplement
and integrate the study of history and literature.
A publication of Humanities Out There and the Santa Ana Partnership
(including UCI’s Center for Educational Partnerships, Santa Ana College, and the Santa Ana Unified School District).
Copyright 2005 The Regents of the University of California
WORLD HISTORY: 1915-1995
Five Cases of Genocide
in the Twentieth Century
UNIT INTRODUCTION FOR TEACHERS
This unit of the H.O.T. World
History series introduces students to the evils of genocide
through an examination of five
monstrous cases in world history. In addition to the Armenian
Genocide (Standard 10.5.5) and
the Jewish Holocaust (Standard
10.8.5), which are mentioned
explicitly in the California State
Content Standards for tenth
grade World History, we also
study the Nazi-led extermination
of the Sinti and Roma, the Serbian “ethnic cleansing” of Bosnian Muslims in 1994, and the
mass-slaughter of ethnic Tutsis
at the hands of Hutu extremists
in Rwanda in 1994. Although
the unit does not examine additional instances of genocide in
the Ukraine (1932), Cambodia
(1975), and Guatemala (1982),
it does suggest additional resources on these topics for teachers who wish to address them. By
having students investigate and
contemplate the recurrence of
genocide in various geographical regions over an eighty-year
duration, this unit also seeks
to develop students’ historical
analysis skills, encouraging them
to “compare the present with the
past, evaluating the consequences of past events and decisions
and determining the lessons
that were learned” (California
State Standards, Chronological
and Spatial Thinking Skill I).
Furthermore, this unit responds
to Assembly Bill 1273, passed by
the California State Legislature
in 1985, which states that “the
State Department of Education
shall develop a model curriculum for use by school districts
maintaining grades 7 to 12, inclusive, to be incorporated into
existing history or social studies
courses offered by these districts
relating to the issue of genocide.”
Of course, the greater goal is to
educate our students regarding
the dangers of racial, religious,
and ethnic tensions, prejudices,
and bigotry, helping to foster in
them a greater appreciation for
the values of tolerance and crosscultural understanding.
Through a close examination
of primary sources—such as photographs, political propaganda
posters, government documents,
firsthand participant-observer
accounts, and survivor testimonies—we hope to provide our
students with a deeper understanding of the evils of genocide
as it has been experienced at the
individual, familial, and community levels. Themes addressed
in this unit include ethnic and
religious prejudice, the severity of daily life for refugees, the
struggle for survival for prisoners in segregated ghettos and
concentration camps, techniques
of organization developed for the
implementation of mass extermination, the difficult question of
how to assign responsibility and
blame, and the painful memories
of genocide survivors. Although
not addressed explicitly in the
lesson material, this unit is sustained by the belief that we have
much to gain by placing historical occurrences of genocide
under a comparative gaze, not
for the purposes of ordering or
ranking their severity or significance, but for helping students
to understand that genocide is
a recurrent phenomenon that
must be guarded against with the
utmost dedication and vigilance.
Rather than offering comprehensive coverage of each of the
pertinent historical events under examination—which would
not be feasible in such a limited
space—the objective here is to
engage our students’ natural
thirst for learning by introducing
to them the relevant terms and
concepts and the central areas of
historical discussion and debate.
All of the materials contained in
this unit are user-friendly, ready
to be photocopied immediately
and distributed to students without any additional preparation
required on your part. We have
also included valuable lists of
books, films, and internet resources that provide either practical background information or
materials that can be adapted
easily for use in your high-school
classroom.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
3
CALIFORNIA HISTORY-SOCIAL SCIENCE STANDARDS ADDRESSED
IN THIS UNIT
Skills: Grades Nine through Twelve
 Chronological and Spatial Thinking Skills
 Students compare the present with the past, evaluating the consequences of past events
and decisions and determining the lessons that were learned.
 Students use a variety of maps and documents to interpret human movement, including
major patterns of domestic and international migration, changing environmental
preferences and settlement patterns, the frictions that develop between population
groups, and the diffusion of ideas, technological innovations, and goods.
 Historical Research, Evidence, and Point of View Skills
 Students distinguish valid arguments from fallacious arguments in historical
interpretations.
 Students identify bias and prejudice in historical interpretations.
 Students evaluate major debates among historians concerning alternative interpretations
of the past, including an analysis of authors’ use of evidence and the distinctions
between sound generalizations and misleading oversimplifications.
 Historical Interpretation Skills
 Students show the connections, causal and otherwise, between particular historical
events and larger social, economic, and political trends and developments.
 Students recognize the complexity of historical causes and effects, including the
limitations on determining cause and effect.
 Students interpret past events and issues within the context in which an event unfolded
rather than solely in terms of present-day norms and values.
 Students understand the meaning, implication, and impact of historical events and
recognize that events could have taken other directions.
NOTES ON THE PDF:
1) Please note that in this pdf document the page numbers are two off from the printed curriculum.
For example, page 2 in the printed curriculum is now page 4 in this pdf document.
2) We apologize if some of the hyperlinks are no longer accurate. They were correct at the time of
printing.
3) Full-page versions of the images in this unit—some in color—can be found at the back of this pdf.
4) You can easily navigate through the different parts of this document by using the “Bookmark” tab
on the left side of your Acrobat window.
4
Lessons in World History
Content Standards: Tenth Grade
 10.5 Students analyze the causes and course of the First World War
 10.5.1 Analyze the arguments for entering into war presented by leaders from all sides
of the Great War and the role of political and economic rivalries, ethnic and ideological
conflicts, domestic discontent and disorder, and propaganda and nationalism in mobilizing
the civilian population in support of “total war.”
 10.5.4 Understand the nature of war and its human costs (military and civilian) on all
sides of the conflict, including how colonial peoples contributed to the war effort.
 10.5.5 Discuss human rights violations and genocide, including the Ottoman
government’s actions against Armenian citizens.
 10.7 Students analyze the rise of totalitarian governments after World War I
 10.7.3 Analyze the rise, aggression, and human costs of totalitarian regimes (Fascist and
Communist) in Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union.
 10.8 Students analyze the causes and consequences of World War II
 10.8.5 Analyze the Nazi policy of pursuing racial purity, especially against the European
Jews; its transformation into the Final Solution; and the Holocaust that resulted in the
murder of six million Jewish civilians.
 10.8.6 Discuss the human costs of the war, with particular attention to the civilian and
military losses in Russia, Germany, Britain, the United States, China, and Japan.
 10.9 Students analyze the international developments in the post-World
World War II world
 10.9.6 Understand how the forces of nationalism developed in the Middle East, how
the Holocaust affected world opinion regarding the need for a Jewish state, and the
significance and effects of the location and establishment of Israel on world affairs.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
5
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
Books on the Armenian Genocide
Auron, Yair. The Banality of Indifference: Zionism and the Armenian Genocide. New Brunswick and London:
Transaction Publishers, 2000. An Israeli scholar, Auron places the Jewish Holocaust in a comparative
context through his study of the Armenian genocide, another twentieth-century example of ethnic
cleansing. In particular, Auron examines the “attitudes of the Jewish community in Palestine and of
the Zionist leadership toward the massacres.”
Dadrian, Vahakn. The History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the
Caucasus. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2003. Dadrian, a leading scholar on the Armenian
Genocide, offers a thorough academic analysis of the genocide from a variety of perspectives. Her
study, which includes an investigation of archival materials in Armenian, Turkish, German, English,
and French, will prove to be a fascinating resource for teachers with a genuine interest in expanding
their knowledge of the Armenian Genocide.
Libaridian, Gerard. A Crime of Silence: The Armenian Genocide. London: Zed Books, 1985. This book
contains a collection of scholarly essays presented at a special convocation of the Permanent People’s
Tribunal on the Genocide of the Armenians. The Tribunal’s meeting coincided with the seventieth
anniversary of the start of the genocide (in 1915) and was attended by a collection of prestigious
jurists, theologians, and academics from across the globe, including three former Nobel Prize winners.
Miller, Donald E. Survivors: An Oral History of the Armenian Genocide. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1993. Donald Miller and his wife, Lorna Touryan Miller (who co-authored the book, and is the
daughter of survivors of the genocide), provide an oral history that is the culmination of personal
interviews conducted with one hundred Armenian Genocide survivors, many of whom eventually
immigrated to the United States and settled in southern California.
Books on the Jewish Holocaust (including Sinti and Roma)
Burleigh, Michael and Wolfgang Wipperman. The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 1991. This well-researched study situates a variety of Nazi-era primarysource documents—including photographs, posters, ministerial and personal correspondence,
medical records, and legal codes—in historical context, in an effort to evaluate the extent to which the
Third Reich can be conceptualized as a racial state. What is particularly valuable about this text is its
discussion of the Nazi persecution of homosexuals and the Sinti and Roma alongside its discussion of
the mass extermination of European Jewry.
Frank, Anne. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. New York: Random House, 1995. First published in
1947, this authentic diary of a teenage Jewish girl living in hiding during the Nazi occupation of her
native Amsterdam provides a vivid image of the horrors of genocide experienced on a personal level
through the eyes of an optimistic youth.
Kaplan, Marion. Beyond Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany. New York and Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1998. Rather than rushing forward to a discussion of the death camps and the
Holocaust, Kaplan examines the gradual erosion of Jewish public life in Nazi-era Germany, including
strategies of accommodation, survival, and resistance among Jewish Germans and their non-Jewish
relatives, friends, and neighbors.
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Lessons in World History
Kluger, Ruth. Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered. New York: The Feminist Press, 2001. Kluger
recounts her firsthand experiences of the Holocaust as a young prisoner in a number of Nazi death
camps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau. She also describes her life after liberation, in which she settled
briefly in Germany before immigrating to the United States.
Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz: The Nazi Assault on Humanity. New York: Touchstone, 1996.
First published in 1958 under the Italian title, Se questo é un huomo (If This is a Man), Levi’s
autobiographical piece provides a disturbingly vivid portrayal of the banality and senselessness of
everyday life in the Nazi death camps.
Lewin, Rhoda, ed. Witness to the Holocaust: An Oral History. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1990. This text
contains a collection of brief interview excerpts from over forty different firsthand witnesses to the
Holocaust, and is divided into three categories: survivors of concentration camps, survivors who were
not in concentration camps, and American liberators.
Books on the Ethnic Cleansing of Bosnia
Gallagher, Tom. The Balkans After the Cold War: From Tyranny to Tragedy. London and New York:
Routledge, 2003. Gallagher traces the course of ethnic strife in the former Yugoslavia following the
collapse of eastern-bloc Communism in 1989, highlighting the failure of Western foreign policy to
stem the rising tide of violence in the region.
Gutman, Roy. A Witness to Genocide: The 1993 Pulitzer Prize-winning Dispatches on the “Ethnic Cleansing”
of Bosnia. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1993. This is a compilation of field reports
written by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who witnessed the Serb-led ethnic cleansing of Bosnia.
O’Shea, Brendan. Crisis at Bihac: Bosnia’s Bloody Battlefield, including the Carter Peace Initiative, Croatia
Reclaims Western Slavonia, and the Fall of the Krajina Serbs. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton, 1998.
O’Shea chronicles the twists and turns of strategic alliances among Serb and Bosnian armed forces
during a siege on the Bihac Pocket in 1994-1995. He explains the historical significance of the Bihac
Pocket, which is situated at the border of the old (Muslim) Ottoman and (Christian) Habsburg
Empires, and became embroiled in international turmoil once again during the war in Bosnia.
Rogel, Carole. The Breakup of Yugoslavia and the War in Bosnia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.
This text provides historical background on the Balkan region in general, as well as on the formation
and disintegration of Yugoslavia. Additional resources include a chronology of events, a series of brief
biographies of the key players involved in the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina, a collection of primarysource documents, and a useful annotated bibliography. This book is perfect for teachers looking to
expand their knowledge on the subject of the breakup of Yugoslavia and the development of national
consciousness (and conflict) in the Balkan region.
Sarhandi, Daoud. Evil Doesn’t Live Here: Posters from the Bosnian War. New York: Princeton Architectural
Press, 2001. This text contains a vast assortment of fascinating, full-colored political posters from the
Bosnian War. Teachers may wish to analyze the critical social commentary in some of the posters with
their students as a means of teaching students to hone their image-analysis skills.
Books on the Rwandan Genocide
African Rights. Rwanda: Death, Despair and Defiance. London: African Rights, 1994. Published by a human
rights organization based in the United Kingdom, this text provides a detailed (700-page account) of
the Hutu-led extermination of ethnic Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994, and includes a wealth of interviews
with witnesses and survivors.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
7
Longman, Timothy. Proxy Targets: Civilians in the Burundi War. New York: Human Rights Watch,
1998. Published by the New York based international Human Rights Watch (www.hrw.org), Proxy
Targets represents the organization’s efforts to expose the horrors of the ethnic conflict in Rwanda
and Burundi and to educate the public on the evils of genocide. In addition to short excerpts from
interviews with victims and witnesses, the text provides a historical overview of ethnic tensions in the
region.
Prunier, Gérard. The Rwanda Crisis: A History of Genocide. London: Hurst & Company, 1998. Written by
a journalist and specialist on Uganda, this book provides a comprehensive history of Rwandan society
from the early European colonial period though the genocide of 1994.
Salem, Richard. Witness to Genocide: The Children of Rwanda. Drawings by Child Survivors of the Rwandan
Genocide of 1994. New York: Friendship Press, 2000. This book is unusually interesting in a number
of respects. Not only does it include an engaging foreword written by former First Lady and current
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, but the book also provides a collection of colored sketches created
by child survivors of the Rwandan genocide. These moving drawings—two of which are featured in
this unit—provide a unique resource for attempts to engage students by personalizing the horrors of
genocide.
Umutesi, Marie Béatrice. Surviving the Slaughter: the Ordeal of a Rwandan Refugee in Zaire. Trans. Julia
Emerson. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004. Umutesi, a member of the educated,
postcolonial Rwandan intellectual elite, provides a history of the Hutu-Tutsi ethnic conflict from the
1960s through the horrors of the 1990s, including a firsthand account of her experiences living in a
crowded refugee camp in Zaire. Not only does this book provide an account of the ethnic violence
from a female perspective, but it also reveals how the Rwandan genocide ruined the lives of Hutus and
Tutsis alike.
Films
The Armenian Genocide: Annihilation of the Armenian Population of the Ottoman Empire, 1915-1923.
Produced for the Curriculum Development and Supplemental Materials Commission of the State of
California, this 25-minute documentary is designed to present the historical context surrounding the
Armenian Genocide as well as stimulate student discussions about racism and the threat of genocide
in the present. This film and others are available through the Armenian Film Foundation
(http://armenianfilm.org).
Genocide. 1983. Presented by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and re-released on DVD in 2002, this
documentary film—narrated by Elizabeth Taylor and Orson Welles—focuses on the fate of the
millions of European Jews who fell victim to Hitler’s Final Solution during the Second World War.
Genocide in the First Half of the 20th Century. 2002. The first half of a two-part documentary series, this
film covers the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, the 1923 Rosewood Massacre, Stalin’s forced famine in the
Ukraine, the Japanese Rape of Nanking, and the Holocaust.
Genocide: the Horror Continues. 2002. The second half of the aforementioned series, this film examines
more recent examples of genocide in Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Burundi and Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia,
Indonesia and East Timor, and Chechnya.
The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century. 1996. This eight-part KCET/BBC documentary series
examines a variety of themes related to the First World War, including a discussion of the Armenian
genocide in Episode 4, “Slaughter.”
Hotel Rwanda. 2004. This critically acclaimed historical drama starring Don Cheadle was nominated for
three Academy Awards in 2005. Set in the midst of the Rwandan genocide of 1994, this film provides
an emotionally powerful confrontation with one of the most monstrous events of recent history.
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Lessons in World History
Liberation. 1994. Containing narrations from stars such as Whoopi Goldberg, Ben Kingsley, and Patrick
Stewart, this documentary is the companion piece to the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Genocide,
examining the end of the war and the fate of concentration-camp prisoners after the moment of
liberation.
Memory of the Camps. 1985. This documentary film presents archival footage of the Nazi death camps
taken by British and American photographers in 1945, including scenes of the gas chambers,
crematoria, medical experimentation labs, and emaciated survivors.
Night and Fog. 2003. This classic piece of French cinema was first released as a major motion picture in
1955 under the title Nuit et brouillard. The film combines footage of the abandoned Nazi death camps
ten years after liberation with disquieting wartime images from the battlefront.
Schindler’s List. 1993. This Hollywood blockbuster directed by Steven Spielberg won seven Academy
Awards in 1994, including Best Picture and Best Director. Based on the true story of a (non-Jewish)
German industrialist who saved more than 1,000 of his Jewish factory laborers from the horrors of
Auschwitz, Schindler’s List is a gut-wrenching movie of real-life drama.
The Triumph of Evil. 1999. A BBC/Frontline production that examines the extermination of ethnic Tutsis
in Rwanda in 1994 and focuses on the delayed responses of Britain, France, the United States, and the
United Nations.
Yugoslavia: The Death of a Nation. 1996. Originally shown on the Discovery Channel in 1995, this sixhour award-winning documentary provides live footage of the war in the former Yugoslavia as well as
interviews with some of the leading players.
Electronic Resources on the Armenian Genocide
Armenian National Institute
www.armenian-genocide.org/
The Armenian National Institute, headquartered in Washington DC, provides a variety of pedagogical
resources on its website, including lists of suggested readings and instructional videos, detailed maps
of the Armenian Genocide, collections of historical photos and primary-source documents, and
firsthand accounts from survivors.
Armenian Genocide
www.armeniangenocide.com
In addition to active online forums in which members discuss issues surrounding the history
and memory of the Armenian Genocide, this website also contains a collection of primary-source
documents from the period between 1915 and 1923.
Peace Pledge Union: “Genocide: Armenia 1915”
www.ppu.org.uk/genocide/g_armenia.html
An independent organization based in the United Kingdom, the Peace Pledge Union was initially
founded in 1934 by Dick Sheppard, a priest of the Church of England, in response to the Nazi seizure
of power in Germany. The organization’s website provides educational resources on the history of
eight different cases of genocide: Namibia (1904), Armenia (1915-23), the Ukraine (1932), the
Holocaust (1939-45), Cambodia (1945), Guatemala (1982), Rwanda (1994), and Bosnia (1995). The
site features a series of topical talking points (on prejudice, name calling, obeying orders, etc.) that
provide excellent material for stimulating class discussions and debates. The section on the Armenian
genocide includes general historical background (from the seventh century B.C. forwards), a detailed
timeline of the genocide, and a collection of eyewitness accounts.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
9
Electronic Resources on the Holocaust
The Anne Frank Center
www.annefrank.com
An international, not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting religious and ethnic tolerance,
the Anne Frank Center strives to “help young people and communities explore and challenge
discrimination, intolerance, and bias-related violence in a positive and constructive way.” Its website
contains a special section designed for teachers, which includes a list of recommended readings and
sample lessons focused on the life of Anne Frank and the history of the Holocaust.
The Museum of Tolerance
www.museumoftolerance.com
Located in Los Angeles, California and affiliated with the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Museum of
Tolerance strives to educate the public on the history of the Holocaust, as well as on general issues
of racism and bigotry in the United States. Its website contains a variety of online resources for
educators, including maps, photographs, a glossary of key terms, timelines, and bibliographies.
Paul Halsall’s Internet Modern History Sourcebook
www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.html
Paul Halsall, a professor of History at Fordham University in New York, has amassed an enormous
collection of primary-source documents, including materials on the Holocaust. After you click on the
link titled “Holocaust” (located on the toolbar on the left side of the page), you will find an abundance
of useful materials covering topics such as anti-Semitism, the Final Solution, the Roma, homosexuals,
and pre- and post-Holocaust genocides.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
www.ushmm.org
The online version of the internationally acclaimed Holocaust Memorial Museum located in our
nation’s capital, this site should be the launching point for any teacher searching for pedagogical
aids related to teaching the Holocaust. The museum provides an enormous digital photo archive,
collections of testimony from Holocaust survivors, and a series of professional quality exhibitions
covering Kristallnacht, the life of Anne Frank, the Rwandan genocide, the recent crisis in Darfur,
Sudan, the Nazi persecution of homosexuals, and additional topics. The site also contains a section
designed specifically for educators (www.ushmm.org/education/foreducators/), with teaching
materials, model lesson plans, and online teaching workshops.
Peace Pledge Union: “Talking about Genocide: the Holocaust”
www.ppu.org.uk/genocide/g_holocaust.html
Described above in the section on electronic resources about the Armenian Genocide, this site also
features a section on the Holocaust, including a detailed timeline, a collection of firsthand accounts
from survivors, and a series of historical case studies.
Electronic Resources on the Genocide of the Sinti and Roma
Sinti and Roma on the Holocaust Teacher Resource Center
www.holocaust-trc.org/sinti.htm
This site provides information on the history of the Sinti and Roma under Nazi rule, the text of a
pamphlet originally published by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and links to a series
of primary-source documents.
10
Lessons in World History
Electronic Resources on the Rwandan Genocide
Human Rights Watch: “Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda”
www.hrw.org/reports/1999/rwanda
Human Rights Watch, an international organization based in New York, provides an abundance of
materials related to the Rwandan Genocide on its website. Teachers will find an extensive online
study that relies on oral testimony and written documentation, including previously unpublished
documents from diplomats and UN staff. The site presents both an in-depth analysis of the
implementation of the genocide and of the international community’s failure to respond in a timely
manner.
Yale University’s Genocide Studies Program: “Rwandan Genocide Project”
www.yale.edu/gsp/rwanda
In addition to offering extensive coverage of the Holocaust and the Cambodian Genocide under the
Khmer Rouge, this website—created by the Yale Center for International and Area Studies—provides
full-text links to scholarly essays and articles about the Rwandan Genocide, as well as satellite maps of
Rwanda and databases of perpetrators and victims.
Peace Pledge Union: “Genocide: Rwanda (1994)”
www.ppu.org.uk/genocide/g_rwanda.html
Described above in the section on electronic resources about the Armenian Genocide, this site also
features a section on the Rwandan Genocide, which includes general historical background (from the
colonial period forward) and a collection of eyewitness accounts.
United Nations’ International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
www.ictr.org/default.htm
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was the first international court to obtain a judgment
on the crime of genocide. Its website contains newsletters, legal documents, court case records, and
statements of judgments pertaining to the prosecution of the perpetrators of the Rwandan Genocide.
Electronic Resources on the Bosnian Genocide
Peace Pledge Union: “Genocide: Bosnia (1995)”
www.ppu.org.uk/genocide/g_bosnia.html
Described above in the section on electronic resources about the Armenian Genocide, this website has
a section on the Bosnian Genocide that includes general historical background, a chronology of the
genocide, and a collection of eyewitness accounts.
Center for Balkan Development
www.friendsofbosnia.org
This website of an organization dedicated to rebuilding the former Yugoslavia provides, among other
resources, a documentary photography/text exhibit on the Bosnian Genocide from the perspective of
survivors, as well as an exhibit of art made by Bosnians in 1992.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
11
KEY TERMS
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
Anti-Semitism: hatred, prejudice, and discrimination directed towards Jews or Judaism. Since the term
“Semitic” also refers to a broader collection of ethnic and national groups originating in the Middle
East, including the ancient Babylonians, Phoenicians, and modern-day Arabs, “anti-Semitic” can
convey a more wide-ranging meaning. Indeed, in an effort to underscore Jews’ supposed “Other-ness,”
the Nazis’ anti-Semitic propaganda of the 1930s and 1940s often depicted European Jews as having
close racial affinities with Egyptians, Arabs, and Turks.
Aryan: a term used by the Nazis to describe their mythic “master race” of Nordic “supermen,” typically
characterized by their healthy physiques, fair skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. German citizens of
Jewish and Polish descent were characterized as non-Aryan “sub-humans,” deemed racially unfit for
membership in the Nazi Volksgemeinschaft (ethnic community). Historically, however, the term Aryan
referred to an ancient Indo-Iranian ethnic group that inhabited the territory that now constitutes Iran,
Afghanistan, and northern India. In the Nazi lexicon, the Nordic Aryan was viewed as the diametrical
opposite of the Semitic Jew. In Nazi Germany, numerous sites, including businesses, public baths,
and park benches, were marked “Aryans only” as a means of segregating Jewish Germans from the
Volksgemeinschaft.
Concentration Camp: a particularly harsh and often large-scale camp or penal institution created to
house political prisoners, enemy aliens, and prisoners of war. The term is often associated with the
Nazis, who created a vast network of Konzentrationslager (concentration camps) across Germany
and Eastern Europe that housed so-called Volksfeinde, enemies of the people. In addition to antiNazi political dissenters, these camps held large numbers of Jews, “Gypsies” (Sinti and Roma),
and homosexuals even before the start of the Second World War. By 1942 at the latest, certain
concentration camps had been turned into “death camps,” equipped with the technological and
organizational facilities to carry out mass extermination and genocide.
Deportee: a person who has been ordered to leave his or her homeland by government authorities or an
occupying power. In this particular unit, we are examining cases in which large-scale deportation was
carried out as a means of “ethnic cleansing” rather than as punishment for an actual crime.
Ethnic Cleansing: a euphemism used to describe the state-sponsored extermination of Bosnian
Muslims at the hands of Serbian armed forces in the early 1990s. Bosnians were driven from their
homes, terrorized, raped, forced into concentration camps, and (often) murdered. The United Nations
imposed sanctions on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and established a war crimes tribunal in
response to the killings.
Exterminate: to remove or eliminate something completely by killing it at its roots or source. Since
the term “exterminate” is commonly used to refer to the elimination of insects, pests, or vermin, it
captures the inhumanity involved in genocide. Ausrotten, the German word for “exterminate,” is used
to describe the removal (or ripping out) of weeds from a garden and is also closely related to one of
the German words for genocide: Ausrottung.
Forced Labor: a system of production in which people are coerced into performing certain work tasks
and activities against their will, often without any form of wages or compensation. For the purpose of
this unit, it is important for students to understand that forced labor was crucial to the concentration
camp system of the Nazis, regardless of the degree of production. That is to say, forced labor also
served the desired function of simultaneously humiliating and disciplining prisoners.
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Lessons in World History
Gas Chamber: an infamous type of facility constructed by the Nazi leadership during the Second World
War in order to expedite the extermination of concentration camp prisoners, including millions
of European Jews and large numbers of Sinti and Roma. The Nazis initially designed gas chambers
in psychiatric hospitals at the outset of the war in order to “liberate” beds for fallen soldiers by
eliminating ‘hereditarily ill’ (non-Jewish) patients from the nation’s hospital wards. The gas chambers
were designed to look like communal showers (complete with fake shower heads) and prisoners were
asked to undress and carry a bar of soap with them, in an effort to pacify the frightened victims into
believing that they were actually about to cleanse themselves. However, after the chamber was sealed,
a lethal gas was released, which was potent enough to kill off the prisoners within a few minutes.
Genocide: the systematic and planned extermination of an entire national, racial, political, or ethnic
group. In this unit, we introduce the key term by isolating the word’s two components, “geno-”
(related to one’s genes or biological make-up) and “-cide” (killing). Similarly, one of the German
terms for genocide—Völkermord—is comprised of two roots corresponding to people or ethnic groups
(Völker) and murder (Mord). (The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of
the Crime of Genocide describes genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in
part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”)
Massacre: to kill a large number of people violently, indiscriminately, and without due cause. The term
is cited regularly in connection with acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing, particularly the Armenian
genocide of 1915 at the hands of the Turks.
Propaganda: information or ideas—often exaggerated or presenting only one side of an issue—that
are spread to promote a certain cause or shape public opinion in a certain way. Once the Nazi party
came to power in Germany, it established systematic control over the national media (including radio,
cinema, and publishing houses) as part of a coordinated effort to indoctrinate the German public
with a Nazi worldview. This was accomplished by a tactical bombardment of propaganda targeting
Communists, Jews, Sinti and Roma, and homosexuals (among others) as enemies of the state.
Refugee Camp: a temporary shelter or area of settlement created for people displaced due to an
ongoing war or as a result of ethnic or religious conflict. In this particular unit, we focus on camps
created to house refugees who were evicted from their homelands due to ethnic or religious prejudice.
Secede: to withdraw formally from membership in a federation, association, or nation-state. Although
students might be more familiar with the idea of secession in the context of the American Civil War,
in this unit we discuss secession in the context of the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s and the
subsequent mass slaughter of Bosnian Muslims. After the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe,
the culturally diverse nation of Yugoslavia began to fracture along ethnic lines. In June of 1991 the
regions of Macedonia, Slovenia and Croatia announced their independence, seceding from Serbdominated Yugoslavia. By the time the international community recognized the independence of a
fourth (Bosnian) Republic in 1992, a civil war had already erupted in the former Yugoslavia, with the
principle locus of conflict taking place between Croats and Serbs. It was during this conflict that the
genocide of Bosnian Muslims took place. Yugoslavia’s remaining two republics eventually became the
nation of Serbia and Montenegro.
Sinti and Roma: the politically-correct term used to describe the ethnic group commonly known
in English as “Gypsies” and in German as “Zigeuner.” Although the English term “Gypsy” is a
corruption of the word “Egyptian,” anthropologists believe that the ancestors of the migratory Sinti
and Roma originated in India rather than North Africa.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
13
TEACHER’S GUIDE AND ANSWER KEY
PART ONE:
Introduction
The unit begins with a brief
language exercise designed to introduce students to the concept
of genocide by examining its
etymological roots. We hope to
expand our students’ vocabulary
while developing their ability to
identify the root components of
meaning in an unknown word.
In this exercise, students are
confronted with eight different
words (including “genocide,”
14
Lessons in World History
containing the suffix “-cide”)
and are asked to draw lines
between the words and their
corresponding meanings before
inducing the meaning of the
ending “-cide.” After completing
the exercise, the students should
know a few new academic terms
and should understand that the
suffix “-cide” means to kill or
destroy. Finally, the students are
asked to speculate on the mean-
ing of the prefix “geno-” before
being provided with the definition of the complete word. The
accompanying passage and photograph are meant to establish
a mood of serious investigation
and solemn introspection.
STUDENT WORKSHEETS
PART ONE:
Introduction
The English language has many words to describe different types of killing.
ACTIVITY
Draw a line for the term on the left to its correct meaning on the right:
Fratricide
killing another person
Homicide
killing yourself
Infanticide
killing an insect or pest
Matricide
killing your brother
Pesticide
killing a baby
Suicide
killing your father
Patricide
killing your mother
Regicide
killing a king
GENOCIDE
• What is the meaning of the suffix, “-cide”?
• What is the meaning of the prefix, “geno”?
Hint: think of words like gene, genetics, and genome
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
15
USHMM
IMAGE 1:
Mass grave of victims of genocide at the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp
What is genocide? Genocide is one of
the worst events imaginable in human history, but the world has witnessed it several
times in the last 100 years. Genocide is fueled by fear, hatred, racism, and violence.
It is often organized by political leaders
and carried out against ethnic or religious
minorities. Here is an official definition:
Genocide = The systematic and planned
extermination of an entire national,
racial, political, or ethnic group.
Genocide is one of the most despicable
legacies of human history, but it nevertheless still continues today. In this unit, we
will study five instances of genocide in human history, including two that took place
within your lifetime.
Glossary
legacy: something handed down to us from someone in the past.
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Lessons in World History
TEACHER’S GUIDE AND ANSWER KEY
PART TWO:
The Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide
provides the launching point for
our study of genocide. The first
photograph in this unit shows a
single Armenian shepherd posing with the national landmark
of Mt. Ararat in the background.
This picture presents an image
of a rural and pastoral lifestyle,
and the accompanying questions
encourage students to imagine
everyday existence in the Caucasus region in the early-twentieth
century, before the outbreak of
the First World War and the ensuing slaughter of the Armenian
subjects of the Ottoman Empire.
In response to the question that
asks students how the man’s life
might be different from theirs,
they might mention technological deficiencies, including
the absence of computers, the
internet, and in all likelihood,
automobiles, telephones, and
electricity in this man’s life. Nevertheless, students might note
similarities in lifestyle, including work responsibilities, family
life, daily meals, festivals and the
consumption of alcohol, and
religious practices (Armenians
are Christians, like many of the
students who will be using this
material). Not all Armenians
were shepherds, though; you can
explain to students that before
the Genocide, many Armenians
worked as professionals and
businesspeople, and that their
financial success was one of the
reasons for their persecution. As
a Christian minority, Armenians
were also perceived by Turkish
nationalists (the Young Turks)
as a threat to the creation of a
homogenous Turkish state.
In addition to the basic purpose of helping students unfamiliar with Armenia to conceptualize its geographic position,
the map activity included in this
section has two goals closely
aligned with the California State
Standards. First, by identifying
the historical location of Armenia before tracing the flow of
refugees across the Ottoman Empire (into what are now Syria and
Iraq), students practice “us[ing]
a variety of maps and documents
to interpret human movement,
including major patterns of domestic and international migration” (Chronological and Spatial
Thinking Skill). Furthermore, by
asking students to compare the
area covered by historic Armenia with early-twentieth-century
Armenia, and teaching them that
the nation of Armenia was not
a self-governing political entity
at the time of the First World
War, we hope to make students
aware of “the role of political
and economic rivalries, ethnic
and ideological conflicts, domestic discontent and disorder,
and propaganda and nationalism in mobilizing the civilian
population in support of “total
war” (Content Standard 10.5.1).
Indeed, the Armenian Genocide
can be seen as a particularly heinous by-product of an emergent
Turkish nationalism that viewed
the Armenian population of the
Ottoman Empire as an alien—
and potentially treacherous—element. Lacking a nation-state of
their own, the inhabitants of the
Armenian homeland were situated at the crossroads between two
massive geopolitical entities that
found themselves on opposite
sides of the trenches during the
Great War: the Czarist Russian
Empire and the Turkish-dominated Ottoman Empire. When
the war broke out, Armenians
could either take up arms against
their brethren residing in the
enemy empire or risk being seen
as disloyal subjects by the ruling powers of their own empire.
Turkish authorities soon began
threatening and persecuting Armenian communities scattered
across the Ottoman Empire.
The next image (#5) and accompanying questions are designed to prompt the students
to contemplate the employment
of public executions, a practice
noticeably absent in the United
States and other democratic nations today. As shown in this
photo, Ottoman authorities
rounded up suspected Armenian
dissenters for public executions
during the First World War. The
event shown in this photo took
place in the Ottoman imperial
capital of Constantinople (now
Istanbul), far removed from the
Armenian homeland. In many
imperial societies, public executions have been carried out as
an overt demonstration of the
power of the monarch and the
political authorities. The act is
meant to instill a sense of fear
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
17
into the populace and to reinstitute conformity to political
hierarchies and unquestioned
obedience to the sovereign. This
is noticeably different from modern democracies, which place a
greater emphasis on individual
liberties and the enforcement
of justice. When executions do
occur—although many citizens
of modern democracies reject execution entirely—their purpose
is generally understood to be the
protection of society as a whole
through the removal of dangerous or deviant persons. There
is no strategic need to make the
executions public, since it is the
result of the execution rather
than the graphic display that is
considered important. Of course,
decisions to grant certain government officials and victims’ family
members permission to view an
execution are made for quite different reasons in modern democratic societies; this practice is
certainly not carried out for the
purpose of frightening observers
into submitting to state power.
The next activity asks students to imagine and grapple
with the dilemma that faced
the Armenian people following
the outbreak of the First World
War. Since Armenian communities were divided evenly between
the warring Russian and Ottoman empires, Armenians were
left with an unpleasant choice:
if they joined the imperial army,
they would have to fight against
their fellow Armenians; if they
refused to join, they could be
imprisoned or even killed as
traitors to their empire. This
question can be personalized
for our students by asking those
students with family members
living abroad (whether they are
in Mexico, Vietnam, South Korea, Iran, etc.) to imagine what
18
Lessons in World History
they would do if war broke out
between the United States and
that country. What would they
do if they were drafted into the
American armed forces? Would
they join and risk the possibility
of fighting against family members living in the foreign country,
or would they attempt to find a
different solution? This initial
question could serve as a launching point to begin a broader discussion: where do loyalties to the
state begin and loyalties to one’s
family end (or vice versa)? Is one
expected to prioritize one over
the other on every occasion, or
does the correct course of action
depend on the details of each
particular situation?
The next informational blurb
and set of follow-up questions
are designed to help gender the
horrors of genocide by encouraging the students to contemplate
the ways in which the experiences of men and women might
have been different. In discussing
the questions, you can note that
it was Armenian men who faced
conscription into the Ottoman
armed forces and Armenian men
who served as the principal targets of public execution. On the
other hand, Armenian women
typically bore the burden of caring for and protecting their children on the refugee trail while
under constant threat of sexual
predation or rape at the hands
of Turkish soldiers. Additionally,
the Christian wives of fallen Armenian soldiers were sometimes
forced to marry (Turkish) Muslim men who were often considerably older than they were.
Although students might wish to
argue over whether men or women had an “easier” time of it, the
important point to drive home is
that men and women often experienced the horrors of genocide
in remarkably different ways.
The next passage in this section is followed by a question
that asks students whether one’s
obligation to “follow orders”
could serve as a justifiable defense in cases of genocide. This
view, voiced often by ex-Nazi
middlemen during the postwar
War Crimes Tribunals, will be
explored again later in the unit.
You can point out to students
that in order to answer the preceding question, one needs to examine instances of dissent to determine how those who refused
to carry out such orders were
punished. If the perpetrators had
the possibility of opting out of
assignments but elected not to
do so, such a defense would be
weakened considerably.
The final activity in this section of the unit asks students
to analyze a primary source in
the form of an official telegram
sent by the U.S. Department of
State, reprimanding the Ottoman government for “crimes of
Turkey against humanity and
civilization.” The question of
what type of offense constitutes a
crime against humanity was also
discussed in the H.O.T World
History unit entitled The Consequences of World War II: Japan
and Germany, which contained
an exercise that could be adapted
for use here (exercise is on the
next page).
Although there are no correct
answers to the question posed
in this activity, students might
mention torture, rape, mutilation, cannibalism, and attacks on
children as examples of criminal
acts that they feel should be codified formally as international war
crimes.
WHAT IS A “WAR CRIME”?
Many Germans and Japanese were tried for war crimes after World War II, including “Crimes Against Humanity.” But how do we decide if a soldier has committed
a war crime, or has just performed his duty? Here are some examples of “Crimes
Against Humanity”:
• Murder
• Extermination
• Enslavement
• Persecution on racial grounds
Is there anything else you would add to the list?
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
19
STUDENT WORKSHEETS
PART TWO:
The Armenian Genocide
Look at the Armenian man
pictured here.
• How do you think his
life is different from
yours?
• How might his life be
similar to yours?
IMAGE 2:
An Armenian shepherd poses near Mt. Ararat
Armenians are part of an
ancient civilization, tracing
their roots back over 4,000
years. Armenia adopted
Christianity as the official
state religion in the 4th
century, making it one of
the first Christian nations
in the world. The current
Republic of Armenia was
established in 1991, when
Armenians who had lived
under Soviet rule declared
their independence. However, at different points in
history, Armenia covered a
much larger territory.
20
Lessons in World History
IMAGE 3:
The Church of Tekor (4th-5th Century) in 1915
MAP ACTIVITY
IMAGE 4:
This map shows the current borders of the Republic of Armenia, as well as historic Armenia
1. Use your pen to color in the Republic of Armenia on the map above.
2. Use your pen to trace the border of historic Armenia on the map above.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
21
THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
The Armenian genocide took place
during World War I, in the lands of the
Ottoman Empire. In addition to modernday Turkey, that large empire included
what are now Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel,
Palestine, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. At
one time, the Empire also extended into
the Balkan region of Southeastern Europe.
The Armenian man shown in the picture
was executed in the Ottoman capital city
of Constantinople (now Istanbul).
The death penalty is legal in 38 states
in the U.S., including California.
Public execution of an Armenian in the Ottoman
capital of Constantinople
IMAGE 5:
• Have you ever seen an execution?
You probably answered “no,” since public executions are not performed in the United
States.
• Why do you think some governments in the world still perform them?
22
Lessons in World History
Although the great majority of the Ottoman Empire’s
inhabitants were Muslims,
there were also large Armenian, Jewish, and Kurdish
communities. When World
War I broke out, the Armenian population was spread
across both the Ottoman
(2,100,000) and Russian
(1,700,000) empires. Since
these two empires were
fighting against each other,
Armenians were left with a
terrible dilemma. If they
joined the army, they would
have to fight against their
fellow Armenians. If they
refused to join the army,
they could be imprisoned
or even killed as traitors to
their empire. What would
YOU do?
• Do you have any close friends or family members who live in another country?
• If so, which country?
• If your nation’s government forced you to join the army in a war against this other
country, what would you do? Why? Would it be a hard decision, or any easy one?
Why?
Glossary
inhabitants: people who live in a particular place.
dilemma: a problem that does not have a clear solution.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
23
Families of
Armenian deportees
on the road
IMAGE 6:
During World War I,
Turkish authorities forcibly
deported Armenian families
from their homeland. The
deportees were taken to
concentration camps hundreds of miles away, to the
desert regions of what are
now Syria and Iraq.
Armenians were often
given the choice of either
converting to Islam or being deported. The wives
of Armenian soldiers were
often forced to marry Muslims. In the photo above,
we see Armenian deportees
fleeing their homeland to
live in camps in the desert.
Without proper food and
shelter, many of them died
along the way.
• In which ways might the deportation have been harder for men?
• In which ways might the deportation have been harder for women?
24
Lessons in World History
Many of the Armenian
prisoners in the camps—
including women and
children—were eventually
IMAGE 7:
killed, even though they
were unarmed.
In April 1916 a German
witness at the Ras-ul-Ain
camp reported that “every
day for almost a month 300
to 500 victims were taken
from the camp and slain.”
Armenian deportees in a camp in the Syrian desert
When those who carried out the killings were questioned, they replied that they had been
acting on orders.
• Do you think that this is a reasonable defense? Why? Why not?
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
25
Here is an original
telegram sent by the
U.S. Department of
State to the Turkish
government, warning
them to end the massacre of Armenians.
Part of the message
reads:
For about a month
the Kurd and Turkish
population of Armenia
has been massacring
Armenians . . . Inhabitants of about one hundred villages near Van
were all murdered.
Telegram
sent by the U.S.
Department of
State to the Turkish
government in
1915
IMAGE 8:
The author of the message describes these killings as “crimes of Turkey against humanity
and civilization.”
• Do you agree? Why? Why not?
26
Lessons in World History
TEACHER’S GUIDE AND ANSWER KEY
PART THREE:
The Jewish Holocaust
This segment of the unit responds directly to the California
State Content Standards (10.7.3,
10.8.6, 10.8.7, and 10.9.6) by
examining several facets of the
Nazi-led genocide of European
Jewry. The first paragraph in
this section points out to students that Jews had been residing on German soil for over one
thousand years prior to the Nazi
seizure of power in 1933. In fact,
tens of thousands of German
Jews had served patriotically in
the Kaiser’s army during the First
World War. Nevertheless, Adolf
Hitler (born and raised in rural
Austria) and other Nazi leaders
viewed Jews (as well as Sinti and
Roma) as an alien and potentially
subversive element, and as a
threat to the health and purity of
the German national body. Since
Jewish communities (as well as
communities of Sinti and Roma)
were scattered throughout the
European continent, Nazi ideologues argued that they could
never be expected to devote
themselves fully to the German
nation. Although anti-Semitism
and the persecution of Jews
had a long history in Europe,
twentieth-century racial-biological theories enabled the Nazis to
formulate a particularly virulent
and distinctly modern version of
anti-Semitism that eventually led
to the so-called Final Solution,
the decision to pursue the mass
extermination of all European
Jewry.
The term “Aryan” was used
by the Nazis to describe their
mythic “master race” of Nordic
“supermen,” typically character-
ized by their healthy physiques,
fair skin, blonde hair, and blue
eyes. Although the term Aryan
originally referred to an ancient
Indo-Iranian ethnic group (who
inhabited territories in what
are now Iran, Afghanistan, and
northern India), in the Nazi
lexicon it referred to a member
of the Nordic race and the NaziGerman national community.
Numerous sites, including businesses, public baths, and park
benches, were marked “Aryans
only” as a means of segregating
off Jewish Germans (and Sinti
and Roma) from the Volksgemeinschaft. Instead of merely writing
off this German social practice as
an aberration, however, it might
be useful to have your students
consider some of the similarities
between Nazi discrimination
and the system of segregation
that existed in the United States
during this period (the 1930s).
While Jim Crow conditions in
the American South meant that
that public facilities and private
businesses were often marked
“whites only” and were thus off
limits to African Americans, the
Chinese Exclusion Acts, discriminatory property laws, and
anti-miscegenation laws here in
California made life quite difficult for Asian Americans. The
questions provided as a followup to the opening paragraph
aim to personalize the issue of
racial persecution for students
by having them discuss instances
in their own lives in which they
were personally discriminated
against. The third and final question asks students whether they
would have been permitted to sit
on a park bench in Nazi Germany marked “only for Aryans.” In
this case, students should understand that they would not have
been counted as Aryans merely
because they were neither Jewish
nor “Gypsy.” Rather, the term
Aryan referred only to members
of an alleged race of Nordic supermen (and superwomen), as
outlined above.
Although the majority of the
Holocaust victims were non-German Jews who met their demise
after the outbreak of the Second
World War, the next set of informational blurbs, photographs,
and questions helps students
imagine the plight of the half a
million Jewish Germans persecuted under direct Nazi rule from
1933 onwards. The Nazis passed
a series of laws that made life
progressively more difficult for
Jewish Germans: they outlawed
inter-faith marriage, excluded
Jews from the civil service and
various professions, removed
Jewish children from German
schools, banned Jewish Germans
from driving automobiles or
owning radios, and forced Jews
to surrender all of their precious
metals. In response to the questions provided, students might
identify logical reasons for depriving Jewish Germans—whom
the Nazis believed to be national
enemies—of the various rights,
privileges, and possessions described above. By confiscating
precious metals, for example,
Nazi authorities took away a
valuable means of stored wealth,
making it more difficult for Jew-
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
27
ish Germans to flee the country
and start a new life abroad. Taking away their radios deprived
them of the ability to communicate with the outside world
(via foreign broadcasts) or to
use the radio waves to organize
their own resistance movement.
Revoking their driver’s licenses
also decreased their mobility,
but few people could afford their
own cars during that time period anyway. Automobiles were
a symbol of wealth and social
status, and preventing Jews from
driving was intended to solidify
their inferior position in the Nazi
social hierarchy.
Nazi racial ideology maintained that one could identify a
Jew through his or her appearance. Physical characteristics, including hair, eye, and skin color,
as well as the shape of one’s nose,
were interpreted as signs of a
person’s religious (and racial)
background. In reality, however,
there were many Jewish Germans
with blonde hair, blue eyes, and
fair skin, just like the so-called
Aryans. In fact, Jewish Germans
with these physical characteristics had a much better chance of
surviving the Holocaust, in large
part because other Germans had
a hard time believing that people with distinctively “Aryan”
physical traits could possibly
be Jewish! The Nazis solved
this identity problem by forcing
Jews to wear conspicuous yellow Stars of David on the outer
layers of their clothing. The picture shown in Image 12—which
contains a newly-married couple
dressed with yellow stars on
their wedding day—reveals the
severity with which this rule was
enforced.
One way of convincing the
non-Jewish majority living in the
Third Reich that Jewish Germans
28
Lessons in World History
were not members of the national
community was to portray them
as “Orientals,” as a racial element
alien to the European Occident
entirely. Even though the largest segment of the world’s Jewish population lived in Europe,
Nazi propaganda portrayed Jews
as a foreign ethnic group linked
racially to Egyptians, Arabs, and
Turks, in an effort to underscore
their supposed “Other-ness.”
Both of the posters included in
this part of the unit formed a
small link in the Nazis’ multimedia propaganda campaign of
anti-Semitism, a coordinated effort to indoctrinate the broader
German public in a distinctly
Nazi worldview in which Jewish
Germans were viewed as (a) an
alien element in German society
and (b) a threat to the purity and
survival of the Aryan race. In the
first poster, the negative connotation of the word bastard, a term
used to describe children born
out of wedlock, reinforces the
idea of the Jew as tainted and inferior. In this case, however, the
message, which reads “The Jew is
a Bastard,” portrays the Jew as a
tainted and inferior racial hybrid,
a mixture of various non-European peoples from around the
world. The second poster, entitled “The racial composition of
the Jew,” is meant to convey the
same central message of Jews’ alleged racial impurity. It is worth
mentioning to students that if
the racial difference between
Jewish and Christian Germans
had really been as evident as
Nazi propaganda claimed it was,
there would have been no need
for Nazi ideologues to spend so
much time and money educating
the public in this matter. Teachers might also wish to discuss
issues of gender with their students, since the Nazi depiction
of the Jew was invariably a male
image, as are the representations
contained in these two posters.
The stereotypical figure of the
Jew, gendered as a male, was also
often portrayed as a sexual predator, seeking to contaminate the
national body by defiling pure
Aryan women. Students might
want to contemplate why it is
that predators and aggressors in
general are typically represented
as males.
The final segment dealing
with the Jewish Holocaust fastforwards to the Nazi invasion
of Poland and other areas in
the East, providing the historical context required to discuss
the Final Solution. In answer to
the first question in this section,
you can discuss how Polish Jews
residing in overcrowded urban
ghettos under Nazi occupation
were forced to deal with countless tribulations, including (a) a
loss of legal rights and protection, (b) a scarcity of foodstuffs
and malnutrition, (c) lack of
proper sanitation, (d) a high rate
of disease and infection without
the possibility of proper medical care, (e) lack of mobility, (f)
inability to seek employment
outside of the ghetto, (g) the
possibility of mistreatment at
the hands of Nazi soldiers or S.S.
men, and (h) the increasingly
imminent threat of transportation to a death camp.
The second set of questions
asks students to consider the
inadequate food rations provided
to Jewish and non-Jewish Poles
living under German occupation. One obvious reason for the
insufficient rations was that the
exigencies of warfare made it
difficult to produce, collect, and
distribute produce across battlefronts. Nevertheless, the data
tells us that the average German
received 6 times as many calories
as the average Pole and 10 times
as many calories as the average
Jew living in occupied Poland
in 1941. When considering the
reasoning that supported such
a heinous practice, the students
should evaluate the quotation
from the German Secretary of
State, Herbert Backe, who explains that Poles were only to
be valued for their labor power,
while Jews were of no concern
at all. Nazi leadership clearly
placed a much lower priority on
the survival of Jews (and Catholic Poles) than it did on German
citizens, which is not necessarily
unusual or significant. However,
Nazi leaders of the occupation
failed to provide their Jewish
prisoners with a level of caloric
intake that came anywhere near
the nutritional content needed
for basic survival, and thus,
arguably, conducted genocidal
practices even before implementation of the Final Solution. In
answer to the final question, you
can explain that the Nazi decision to switch from gun-point
executions to the construction
of gas chambers was carried out
principally for two reasons: (1)
firstly, the use of gas chambers
was a more efficient practice,
allowing the Nazi leadership to
carry out its Final Solution at a
much quicker pace; (2) secondly,
even for those members of the
Nazi Einsatzgruppen (Special
Commando Forces) who were
virulently anti-Semitic, the physical work involved in continually executing unarmed people
at short-range day after day was
emotionally draining and psychologically traumatizing. Commando leaders in the field began
writing to higher-level officials
back home in Berlin, informing them that their men on the
frontline were quickly growing
weary of the blood, screams,
and general gruesomeness involved in their assignments.
This historical example provides
a rare opportunity for teachers
to help humanize—which does
not mean to defend—perpetrators of genocide. That is to say,
even for those perpetrators who
are, in principle, enthusiastically
committed to implementing a
particular genocide, the actual
brutality that it entails in practice is so vile that it demoralizes
even them.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
29
STUDENT WORKSHEETS
The Jewish Holocaust
Although Jewish people
had been living in German-speaking lands for
one thousand years, when
the Nazis came to power
in 1933 they enacted a series of laws to exclude Jews
from German society. The
Nazis attempted to create a
“racial state” populated by
what they believed to be a
superior Aryan race of tall,
fair-skinned, blond-haired,
blue-eyed supermen and
superwomen.
The Nazis claimed that
Jewish Germans were not
only religiously different
from “Aryan” Germans, but
racially different as well.
This meant that even nonobservant Jews and former
Jews who had converted
to Christianity were still
marked for persecution.
The signs shown here read
“Jews are not welcome
here!” and “The Jews are
our misfortune!”
USHMM
PART THREE:
Anti-Semitic signs from Nazi Germany: “The Jews are not welcome
here” and “The Jews are our misfortune.”
IMAGE 9:
Discuss the following questions with your classmates.
• Have you ever been denied entry to a place because of your race, ethnicity, or religion?
If so, when? Why?
• If so, how did this make you feel? Did you do anything about it?
30
Lessons in World History
IMAGE 10:
Aryan-only Park Bench in Nazi Germany
In addition to Jews, the Nazis persecuted Communists, homosexuals, “Gypsies,” and
people with disabilities. No one from these groups was allowed to become a full member
in the Nazis’ racial state.
This park bench above is marked, “Nur für Arier,” “Only for Aryans.”
• If you had lived in Nazi Germany, could you have sat here? Why/Why not?
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
31
USHMM
IMAGE 11:
Germans pass by a Jewish-owned store destroyed by the Nazis
In late 1938, Nazi policies
against the Jews moved from
discrimination to outright
violence. On the night of
November 9th, Nazi storm
troopers attacked Jewish-
owned shops and destroyed
Jewish synagogues in an
incident commonly known
as Kristallnacht.
A series of discriminatory laws were passed: Jew-
Glossary
synagogues: Jewish houses of prayer.
precious metals: valuable metals, such as gold, platinum, and silver.
32
Lessons in World History
ish children were forbidden
to attend German schools.
Jews were forced to surrender all of their precious
metals, driver’s licenses,
and radios.
Discuss the following questions with your classmates.
• Why would the Nazis want to take precious metals away from Jewish Germans?
• Why would they want to take away their driver’s licenses?
• Why would they want to take away their radios?
• Can you tell if someone is Jewish by his or her appearance?
The six-sided star, known
as the “Star of David,”
had long been a symbol of
Jewish people around the
world. Although the Nazis
claimed that Jews were a
separate race of people, in
reality it was often hard to
determine whether or not
someone was Jewish based
solely on his or her appearance. In September 1941,
the Nazis passed a law that
required all Jews to wear a
yellow Star of David at all
times, even during weddings!
A Jewish
bride and groom wear
the Star of David
IMAGE 12:
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
33
USHMM
IMAGE 13:
Anti-Semitic propaganda poster from Nazi Germany
Even though the largest segment of the world’s
Jewish population lived in
Europe, Nazi propaganda
portrayed Jews as a foreign
element in Europe.
The Nazi propaganda
poster above reads “The
Jew is a bastard.” The most
common meaning of “bastard” is a child born out of
wedlock, but its meaning
in this poster is clearly different.
• What do you think the word is supposed to mean in this poster?
34
Lessons in World History
The poster below is entitled “The racial composition of the Jew.” The figure in the middle
(with the arrows pointing towards it) is supposed to represent the “Jewish race.”
• What do you think the main message of this poster is?
IMAGE 14:
USHMM
Anti-Semitic
propaganda
poster from Nazi
Germany
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
35
When Hitler came to
power, Germany itself
had about 560,000 Jewish citizens. However,
neighboring Poland contained 3,000,000 Jews,
which was about 10 percent of its entire population. Six million Jews
were eventually killed
across Europe.
As the Nazi army advanced through Poland
(begining in 1939), it
forced Jews to leave their
homes and move into
overcrowded ghettoes in
the Polish cities. A wall
was built around the
ghettoes to prevent Jews
from leaving, and armed
guards were ordered to
shoot anyone who attempted to escape.
Jewish
boy in the ghetto
USHMM
IMAGE 15:
• What kinds of problems do you think people living in these ghettoes had?
List three:
1.
2.
3.
36
Lessons in World History
During the Nazi occupation of Poland, both Poles and Jews had to rely on the German army
for food. The German Secretary of State, Herbert Backe, designed a plan for distributing
food in Poland. He wrote:
I will tell the Poles to look after themselves—we were not to blame
for the war. I am only interested in the Poles in so far as I see in
them a reservoir of labor, but not to the extent that I feel it is a
governmental responsibility that they will get a specific amount to
eat . . . The majority of the Polish people will be treated better than
the Jews. We have no interest in the Jews.
Daily Calorie Content Rations for 1940 and 1941*
1940
1941
Poles:
737
669
Jews:
413
253
Germans:
?
2,613
Nutritionists generally agree that a daily intake of at least 1400 calories is necessary for an
adult to survive.
• Why do you think that Jews and Poles were given such small rations?
*Quotation and data from Jeremy Noakes, ed., Nazism, 1919-1945, Volume 4
Glossary
reservoir: a large or extra supply; reserve supply.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
37
IMAGE 16:
Executions of
Lithuanian Jews
As the German army advanced through eastern Europe, the Nazis sent special
commando forces behind
them to execute Jews and
other “enemies.” At first,
the killings took place at
gun point. However, the
• Why do you think this change was made?
38
Lessons in World History
Nazi leadership eventually
decided to construct gas
chambers to execute Jews.
TEACHER’S GUIDE AND ANSWER KEY
PART FOUR:
The “Gypsy” Genocide
Although it is not mentioned
explicitly in the California State
Standards, the Nazi persecution
and genocide of Europe’s Sinti
and Roma communities was
carried out simultaneously with
the mass extermination of European Jewry, using the same exact
methods and instruments. The
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates that of the
approximately one million Sinti
and Roma living in Europe before the war, up to 220,000 were
killed by the Nazis and their accomplices. As early as 1938, S.S.
chief Heinrich Himmler argued
that “the aim of measures taken
by the State to defend the homogeneity of the German nation
must be the physical separation
of Gypsydom from the German
nation, the prevention of miscegenation and finally the regulation of the way of life of pureand part-Gypsies” (Burleigh and
Wipperman 121). By 1942, Himmler had given the order for the
evacuation of all Sinti and Roma
living in German lands to concentration camps in the East. As
discussed earlier, the politically
correct term used to describe
the ethnic group commonly
known in English as “Gypsies”
and in German as “Zigeuner” is
“Sinti and Roma.” Although the
English term “Gypsy” is a corruption of the word “Egyptian,”
anthropologists believe that the
ancestors of the migratory Sinti
and Roma originated in northern
India rather than Egypt or North
Africa. Like Jews, Sinti and
Roma living in the Third Reich
were considered to be carriers of
alien blood, and were prohibited—through anti-miscegenation
legislation—from having marital
relations with “Aryan” Germans.
The initial set of pictures and
informational blurbs in this section introduces students to the
Sinti and Roma and explains
how Nazi ideologues came to
view them as an alien element
and a threat to the German
national community. Students
who have completed the “Jewish Holocaust” segment of this
unit will recognize similar Nazi
attitudes and practices at work
in the persecution of Sinti and
Roma that they encountered in
regard to Jewish Germans. In response to the question provided,
students should identify the
various reasons that Nazi leaders felt that the presence of Sinti
and Roma constituted a serious
national problem: (1) they were
perceived to be racially inferior
and non-European in origin, (2)
through the possibility of sexual
relations with “Aryan” Germans,
they were seen as a threat to the
purity of the racial composition
of the national community, (3)
they were seen as work-shy and
therefore a drain on the national
economy, and (4) communities
of Sinti and Roma were highly
mobile, making it difficult for
German authorities to collect
taxes from them or regulate their
activities. Like Jews, Sinti and
Roma were executed in large
numbers by SS Einsatzgruppen
and deported to concentration
camps such as Auschwitz, where
they were marked for extermination.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
39
STUDENT WORKSHEETS
PART FOUR:
The “Gypsy” Genocide
A Sinti
and Roma caravan
in the forests of
Prussia
Although they are often
called “gypsies” in English
(from the word “Egyptian”), the people we call
by that name are properly
known as Sinti and Roma.
Their ancestors originally
came from the Punjab region of northern India and
first came to Germany in
the fifteenth century. The
Sinti and Roma prefer a nomadic lifestyle, constantly
roaming the countryside in
large groups.
Although they practiced
a version of Christianity, their lifestyle was quite
different from settled Germans. “Gypsies” in Nazicontrolled Europe were
soon accused of being beggars, thieves, spies, and users of harmful magic. Like
40
Lessons in World History
USHMM
IMAGE 17:
IMAGE 18:
A “Gypsy” couple imprisoned in a German concentration camp
the Jews, the “Gypsies”
were considered to be carriers of “alien blood.” Also
like the Jews, they were not
permitted to marry or have
sexual relations with those
of “German blood.”
As had happened with
the Jews, after the German invasion of the Soviet
Union, Eastern Europe’s
Sinti and Roma population
was marked for extermination. German soldiers and
police began rounding up
“gypsies” and shooting
them or deporting them to
concentration camps for
gassings.
IMAGE 19:
Sinti and Roma as prisoners in a German concentration camp
• Why do you think the Nazis considered the “Gypsies” to be an “inferior race”?
List three possible reasons:
1.
2.
3.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
41
TEACHER’S GUIDE AND ANSWER KEY
PART FIVE:
The Concentration Camps
The Nazis established an
extensive network of so-called
Konzentrationslager (concentration camps) throughout the Third
Reich and the occupied lands of
Poland, where they could carry
out their more heinous ambitions out of sight from the civilian population. While the camps
created within the borders of
Germany before the start of the
Second World War were typically
work camps, many of the camps
set up in occupied Poland were
death camps whose function was
to expedite the extermination of
Jews and other groups, with little
regard for the labor productivity of the prisoners. European
Jews, however, were certainly
not the only group of people
that fell victim to the horrors
of the Nazi concentration camp
system. In addition to Jews and
to the Sinti and Roma, the camps
housed foreign POWs and significant numbers of non-Jewish
Germans: Communists, religious
dissenters, homosexuals, and the
so-called “work-shy.” The passages and questions provided in
this segment are designed to help
students conceptualize the trials
and trauma faced by concentration camp residents, including
those who survived. The sign
on the front gate of Auschwitz I,
which read, “Arbeit macht frei”
(“Work makes you free”) was
merely a sadistic joke. Prisoners could not “earn” their freedom through hard work; rather,
labor inside of concentration
camps was designed to humiliate, dehumanize, and debilitate
them. While it is possible that
Nazi leaders decided to place
42
Lessons in World History
this unique greeting on the gates
of Auschwitz in order to instill
a sense of discipline and false
hope in the prisoners, it might
also have been the case that the
expression “Arbeit macht frei”
was a cruel play on words with
the medieval German expression
“Stadtluft macht frei” (“City air
makes you free”), a reference to
the fact that serfs could be relieved of their feudal obligations
after one year’s residence inside
town walls.
In their postwar trials, former
Nazi leaders presented evidence
of the genocide in disturbingly emotionless language. The
chilling testimony presented
here—from Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoess—provides
a detailed description of the
technique used to exterminate
concentration-camp prisoners
through gassings. Hoess’s statement reveals that the jewelry and
gold teeth were removed from
corpses, a practice that seemed
rational to him, considering the
context of the war. Nazi leaders
were concerned about efficiency
and expediency—in finances as
well as genocide—and gold teeth,
when melted down, could provide a valuable revenue stream
for a nation at war. The dead
bodies, of course, were cremated
daily at on-site incinerators.
The Concentration
Camps: Liberation
The gradual liberation of the
Nazi death camps by the Allied Forces in 1945 exposed the
international public to horrors
beyond its imagination. At the
end of the war, United States
General (and future President)
Dwight D. Eisenhower insisted
on inspecting the concentration
camps firsthand. Even a seasoned veteran of mortal combat
like Eisenhower was mortified
by what he witnessed, describing
the sights as “so overpowering as
to leave [him] a bit sick.” As an
example, the bundles of human
hair discovered by the Soviet soldiers who liberated Auschwitz
came from camp prisoners who
were shorn before being gassed.
The hair was used to make blankets and to stuff pillows. Once
again, it is important to discuss
the context of the war in order
for students to grasp the disturbing level of inhumanity involved
in this practice.
While the prisoners marked
for extermination undoubtedly
welcomed the liberation of the
camps by Allied Forces, the
victims’ trials and tribulations
were certainly not all behind
them. In response to the question provided, students should
be encouraged to understand
that survivors grappled with
numerous problems, such as
(a) malnutrition and scarcity of
food, (b) widespread disease, (c)
the grim reality that many family members and loved ones had
perished, (d) a lack of money
and financial assets, (e) a lack of
a home (or even a home country) to return to, (f) anxiety over
the inevitable search for a new
job or career, and (g) psychological trauma, including survivor’s
guilt.
STUDENT WORKSHEETS
The Concentration Camps
USHMM
PART FIVE:
IMAGE 20:
The entrance gate at Auschwitz
The most infamous Nazi concentration camp was located in Auschwitz, Poland. The sign
on the front gate read, “Arbeit macht frei,” or “Work makes you free.”
• Do you think that prisoners who worked hard were set free?
• Why/Why not?
• If not, why do you think this greeting was placed above the entrance gate?
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
43
USHMM
IMAGE 21:
Prisoners at the Buchenwald Camp perform forced labor
Rudolf Hoess was the
commander of the camp at
Auschwitz, where 3,000,000
people—mostly Jews—were
killed. A small percentage
of the prisoners were cho-
sen for forced labor, but the
great majority of Auschwitz
inmates were exterminated
in gas chambers. After the
war, Hoess was tried and
convicted for crimes against
humanity. During his trial
for war crimes, Hoess explained how the executions
worked:
I used Cyclon B, which we dropped into the death chamber from a
small opening . . . It took from 3 to 15 minutes to kill the people in
the death chamber depending upon climatic conditions. We knew
when the people were dead because their screaming stopped. We
usually waited about one half hour before we opened the doors
and removed the bodies. After the bodies were removed our special
commandos took off the rings and extracted the gold from the teeth
of the corpses.
44
Lessons in World History
USHMM
IMAGE 22:
Two of the ovens at Dachau
Discuss the following questions with your classmates.
• Why do you think the prison guards removed rings and gold teeth from the dead
bodies?
• What do you think they did with these things?
• What do you think happened to the dead bodies?
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
45
USHMM
THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS: LIBERATION
IMAGE 23:
General Eisenhower inspects the camp at Ohrdruf
At the end of World War II, United States General (and future President) Dwight D. Eisenhower insisted on inspecting the concentration camps firsthand.
After visiting the camps, Eisenhower said:
The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation,
cruelty and bestiality were so overpowering as to leave me a bit
sick . . . I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in a position
to give firsthand evidence of these things if ever, in the future,
there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to
propaganda.
46
Lessons in World History
USHMM
Some concentration camp prisoners managed to survive until the end of the war. Of
course, these survivors were glad to be liberated from their Nazi captors, but their lives
did not become idyllic overnight.
IMAGE 24:
Prisoners at the Dachau camp after liberation
• What kinds of problems do you think the survivors might have had?
List three:
1.
2.
3.
Glossary
bestiality: extremely brutal and animal-like behavior.
idyllic: simple and carefree.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
47
USHMM
When the Soviet Army liberated the concentration camp at Auschwitz, they found 18,000
pounds of human hair!
IMAGE 25:
Bales of human hair found at Auschwitz
• Where do you think the hair came from?
• What do you think the hair was supposed to be used for?
48
Lessons in World History
TEACHER’S GUIDE AND ANSWER KEY
PART SIX:
The Bosnian Genocide
From the foundation of the
Yugoslav state following the
dismantling of the Ottoman
Empire at the end of World War
I through the outbreak of World
War II, and again throughout
the Cold War, the various ethnic
groups of Yugoslavia lived in
relative peace with one another
despite cultural and religious differences. However, after the fall
of the Soviet Union and the Iron
Curtain, the culturally diverse
nation of Yugoslavia began to
fracture along ethnic lines. The
various ethnic regions of Serbdominated Yugoslavia began to
secede and declare their independence, including Macedonia
(1991), Slovenia (1991), Croatia
(1991), and Bosnia-Hercegovina
(1992). The three major ethnic
groups in Bosnia, however, were
deeply divided over the question
of independence, and the region
eventually erupted into warfare.
While Croats and Serbs brought
imported armed forces into Bosnia relatively quickly, Bosnian
Muslims lacked such forces until much later. Reports of mass
slaughter under the guise of
“ethnic cleansing” soon began
to filter out to the world through
the international news media.
Although the Bosnian Genocide is not explicitly integrated
into the California Content Standards, this segment of the unit
addresses several Skills Standards, prompting students to
compare earlier genocides with
this late-twentieth century case,
“evaluating the consequences of
past events and decisions and
determining the lessons that
were learned” (Chronological
and Spatial Thinking Skill).
Indeed, the first passage comes
from an American journalist’s
interview with a Bosnian Muslim
leader, who evoked memories of
the Holocaust in his appeal to
the international community by
exclaiming, “It’s like Jews being
sent to Auschwitz.” The map
activity addresses another Skills
Standard by introducing students to the United Nations’ and
European Community’s joint
peace proposal for Bosnia, the
Vance-Owen plan. The goal of
the exercise is to help students
understand that the various ethnic groups inhabiting Bosnia in
the early 1990s were intensely
intermingled. While it is true
that Muslims, Croats, and Serbs
were each more concentrated in
some of Bosnia’s ten provinces
than they were in others, these
provinces were not adjacent to
one another. In response to the
follow-up questions, students
should be encouraged to understand that each Bosnian province contained residents from
all three ethnic backgrounds,
who sometimes even lived on
the same street or in the same
building as each other. In fact,
40 percent of marriages in the
Bosnian city of Sarajevo crossed
Serbian/Bosnian/Croatian divides. In that sense, to separate
Bosnia along ethnic lines in 1993
was just as problematic a task as
it would be to divide Los Angeles
County along ethnic lines today.
This section of the unit introduces students to the key term
“ethnic cleansing,” a euphemism
employed by Serb leaders to describe the forcible removal and
mass slaughter of Bosnian Muslims. Since students are familiar
with each of the two components of this term, they should
be able to guess the meaning of
the phrase. However, teachers
might also wish to point out that
the use of the word “cleansing”
implies that people of a certain
ethnicity are somehow dirty or
polluted, revealing a mentality
often associated with perpetrators of genocide. This segment
also introduces the concept of
refugees to students, providing three visual aids from the
conflict in Bosnia. As described
earlier, refugees can be defined as
“people displaced due to an ongoing war or as a result of ethnic
or religious conflict,” although
refugee situations can also result from foreign occupations or
domestic political tensions. It is
impossible to say whether or not
the specific refugees shown here
ever returned home; thus, there
is no correct or incorrect answer
to this question. Nevertheless,
teachers should draw students’
attention to the first photograph, which reveals the Serb
practice of burning the roofs
off of Muslim homes, rendering them unlivable. Finally, you
might discuss the systematic use
of rape as an instrument of terror and humiliation during the
conflict, as Bosnian women held
in “rape camps” were reportedly
taunted with remarks such as,
“now you’ll have Serb babies!”
Once again you can encourage
students to consider the ways
in which genocide can be experienced differently according to
the victim’s gender.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
49
STUDENT WORKSHEETS
PART SIX:
The Bosnian Genocide
During the Cold War, the various
ethnic groups of Yugoslavia lived in
relative peace with one another despite
their cultural and religious differences.
After the fall of the Soviet Union and the
end of the Cold War, however, the various ethic regions of Yugoslavia began to
secede and declare their independence,
including Macedonia (1991), Slovenia
(1991), and Croatia (1991).
The region of Bosnia also attempted
to declare its independence, but its
three major ethnic groups (Muslims,
Croats, and Serbs) could not agree on
the matter. Bosnia soon erupted into
ethnic violence and warfare. The world
began to receive horrible reports coming out of Bosnia.
In July 1991, a Bosnian Muslim
leader told a reporter from New York’s
Newsday:
IMAGE 26:
Muslim mother and child in a refugee camp
Please try to come here . . . They are
shipping Muslim people through here
in cattle cars. Last night there were
25 train wagons . . . crowded with
women, old people and children. It’s
like Jews being sent to Auschwitz. In
the name of humanity, please come.
Glossary
secede: to end membership in an organization, association, or political entity.
50
Lessons in World History
In January 1993 the United Nations and the European Community published a joint peace
plan. They proposed diving Bosnia’s 10 provinces between the Muslims, Serbs, and Croats.
The
Vance-Owen
plan for Bosnia
IMAGE 27:
MAP ACTIVITY
1. Sections 1, 5, and 9 were to be given to Bosnian Muslims. Color them in green.
2. Sections 2, 4, and 6 were to be given to Bosnian Serbs. Color them in red.
3. Sections 3 and 8 were to be given to Bosnian Croats. Color them in blue.
The Vance-Owen plan was never implemented.
Discuss the following questions with your classmates.
• Do you think it would have worked? Could the plan have prevented mass killings of
Bosnian Muslims? Why/Why not? What might have been some potential problems
with the Vance-Owen plan?
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
51
Below is a passage from the diary of a young girl named Zlata, written on October 1,
1992:
I spend my days in the house and in the cellar. That’s my wartime
childhood. And it’s summer . . . God, what did I do to deserve being
in a war, spending my days in a way that no child should. I feel
caged.
• Was there a time in your life when you felt caged or trapped? Why?
IMAGE 28:
A house in Bosnia with its roof burned off
Serb militiamen forcibly removed Bosnian Muslims’ homes as part of program they called
“ethnic cleansing.” The homes of many Muslims had their roofs burned off by Serb militiamen.
• What do you think is meant by the term “ethnic cleansing”?
52
Lessons in World History
IMAGE 29
(left): A refugee
cooks dinner
in Serbianoccupied Turanj,
1994
IMAGE 30
(below): A
refugee family
in the former
Yugoslavia
• What does it mean to be a refugee?
• What are the most common reasons people become refugees?
• Do you think that the refugees shown here ever returned home? Why/Why not?
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
53
TEACHER’S GUIDE AND ANSWER KEY
PART SEVEN:
The Rwandan Genocide
Once part of France’s enormous colonial empire in Africa,
the tiny nations of Rwanda and
Burundi found themselves embroiled in civil war in 1994,
as a group of Hutu extremists
launched a campaign of extermination against ethnic Tutsis in
response to the assassination of
the Hutu president of Rwanda.
Over 800,000 ethnic Tutsis lost
their lives in a three-month period, leaving 300,000 orphaned
Tutsi children. Although Tutsis
represented a mere fraction of
the population of the nations of
Rwanda and Burundi—about 15
percent at the time that the genocide took place—French colonial
administrators tended to favor
them (over the majority Hutus)
during the years of colonial rule,
a practice that helped breed ill
feeling between the region’s two
main ethnic groups. The initial
map exercise is designed to build
geographical knowledge by helping students locate Rwanda and
Burundi—two nations each the
size of Maryland with a combined population of 14 million—
on a continental map of Africa.
Children who grew up in this
war-torn region of Africa routinely were exposed to guns and
violence. The first set of questions asks students to compare
their own upbringing with that
of the young child pictured in
the accompanying photograph.
The next photograph, similar
54
Lessons in World History
to the image provided in the
Bosnian segment, shows civilian
houses with their roofs burned
off, a practice clearly targeted
at families with the intention of
creating a refugee crisis. Students
are asked to consider whether or
not such a pseudo-military action constitutes a war crime, a
question that they should be
familiar with at this stage of the
lesson. Students’ answers will
vary, since this is a matter of
personal opinion, but students
should be encouraged to formulate arguments to defend their
views regarding international
codes of conduct during warfare.
It is, of course, hardly a coincidence that genocidal attacks historically tend to occur within the
context of larger wars.
The next activity attempts to
make the experience and pain
of genocide more accessible to
high-school students by having
them sympathize with the plight
of the 300,000 Tutsi children orphaned during the campaign of
ethnic cleansing and extermination. Students are provided with
two authentic full-color sketches
drawn by young survivors of the
Rwandan Genocide; the students
are then asked to assume the
voice of the victims and to compose accompanying letters to the
international community in an
effort to educate the world about
the evils of genocide. Since the
study of Rwanda culminates the
unit, teachers may want to turn
this task into an extended writing assignment. Some students
may wish to write their letters
in the persona of a teacher in
order to display their acquisition
of historical knowledge about
five different cases of genocide
in the twentieth century, as well
as their thoughtful consideration
of the issue at hand. Other students may want to imagine that
they are writing their letters to
students of their age in another
part of the world who are not
as familiar with these historical
examples of genocide. Students
should be encouraged to discuss
their own values and morals and
make recommendations regarding their audiences’ everyday social interactions. How should we
behave towards others on a daily
basis in order to minimize the
possibility of ethnic or religious
tension and attacks on those perceived as outsiders?
STUDENT WORKSHEETS
PART SEVEN:
The Rwandan Genocide
Rwanda and Burundi are
two tiny countries just east
of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly
Zaire). The two countries
have a combined popula-
IMAGE 31:
tion of 14 million people,
and each is about the size of
the state of Maryland.
Most of the inhabitants
of Rwanda and Burundi
belong to one of two ethnic
groups: the Hutus (about
80-85 percent of each
country’s population), and
the Tutsis (about 14-15
percent) of each country’s
population.
Political map of the continent of Africa
MAP ACTIVITY
Find Rwanda and Burundi on the map of Africa and circle them.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
55
In 1994, a ground-based
missile hit the plane carrying Rwandan President
(and Hutu) General Juvenal Habyarimana as it was
about to land in the city of
IMAGE 32:
Kigali. A group of Hutu extremists used the killing as
an excuse to launch a campaign of genocide against
the minority Tutsis. In a
three-month period, over
800,000 ethnic Tutsis lost
their lives, leaving 300,000
orphaned Tutsi children.
Semi-automatic machine guns are a familiar sight for this boy
• Have you ever held a gun? Does your family have a gun in your home? If so, why?
What does your family use it for?
• How do you think your life would be different if all of the people around you used
guns?
56
Lessons in World History
IMAGE 33:
Roofs were often burned off of houses
• The houses above have had their roofs burned off by enemy soldiers.
• Do you think that this is a war crime, or just a standard part of war? Why?
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
57
The picture below, titled “The War in Rwanda,” was drawn by an orphaned Tutsi child.
IMAGE 34:
The War in Rwanda
ACTIVITY
Imagine that you are a Tutsi child. You don’t have any photos or videos of what
happened. All you have is your memory and the picture you have drawn. On a separate
piece of paper, write a message to the people of the world, explaining what we can learn
from the war in Rwanda.
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Lessons in World History
President Bill Clinton traveled to Kigali, Rwanda in 1998 to pay his respect to the victims.
After his visit, he said:
Rwanda experienced the most intensive slaughter in this bloodfilled century . . . Families slaughtered in their homes, people
hunted down as they fled . . . through farmland and woods as if
they were animals . . . People gathered seeking refuge in churches
by the thousands, in hospitals, in schools. And when they were
found, the old and sick, women and children alike, they were
killed—killed because their identity card said they were a Tutsi.
IMAGE 35:
The Genocide
ACTIVITY
Imagine that you are a Tutsi child. You don’t have any photos or videos of what
happened. All you have is your memory and the picture you have drawn. On a separate
piece of paper, write a message to the people of the world, explaining what we can learn
from the genocide.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
59
TEACHER’S GUIDE AND ANSWER KEY
PART EIGHT:
Genocide: Who is to blame?
The final segment in this unit
on genocide prompts students to
grapple with the difficult question of assigning blame and guilt
by asking them to work through
a series of hypothetical cases.
These cases may be worked out
in small groups, but teachers
might also wish to consider using the information provided
here to organize class-wide mock
trials. In each of the test cases,
students are presented with an
accused accomplice to genocide
who had been caught up in the
atrocities but was not necessarily
implicated directly in ethnic extermination. After weighing the
evidence and context, students
should reach a group verdict;
they should decide if the ac-
60
Lessons in World History
cused is (A) innocent, (B) guilty
of genocide, or (C) guilty of a
crime other than genocide. It is
crucial that students be provided
with the option of convicting
the accused for a crime (even a
war crime) other than genocide,
since this will encourage them
to establish firm boundaries and
definitions as to which types of
behavior should rightfully be
categorized under the heinous
super-heading of genocide.
Groups who choose Option
C—guilty of a crime other than
genocide—should be pressed to
formulate a specific description
of the crime they believe has
been committed. Once again,
there are no clearly correct or
incorrect verdicts for these five
test cases. Rather, the goals are to
(a) help students develop a more
complex understanding of the
various contexts in which acts
of genocide are implemented,
and (b) help students formulate
and articulate their own working
definitions and understandings
of genocide.
STUDENT WORKSHEETS
PART EIGHT:
Genocide: Who is to blame?
As in war, in cases of genocide it is often difficult to assign responsibility and blame. People
caught in the middle are often forced to make difficult decisions.
ACTIVITY
Discuss each of the situations described on the next page with your group. The group
must reach a verdict together. You must decide if each person is
(A) innocent,
(B) guilty of genocide, or
(C) guilty of a crime other than genocide.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
61
CASE 1
CASE 2
Eugenie is an 18-year old Hutu woman.
Boris was a Soviet soldier captured by
When the Hutu militiamen came to
her village, they asked her at gunpoint
to tell them which houses belonged to
Tutsis. She didn’t want to help them, but
she was scared that they might kill her.
Eugenie decided to take the militiamen
to the Tutsi homes. Fifty-five Tutsis in
her village were slaughtered that night.
Is Eugenie…
the Nazis during World War II and
imprisoned in Auschwitz. Although he
was kept in the concentration camp for
3 years, Boris’ life was easier than the
Jewish prisoners’ lives. The Nazis made
him a supervisor of his barrack and
assigned him to work the ovens. Boris
never killed anyone during his time in
Auschwitz, but he personally burned
over 10,000 dead bodies, including people from his own barrack. Is Boris…
(a) Innocent
(b) Guilty of Genocide
(c) Guilty of ______________________
(a) Innocent
(b) Guilty of Genocide
(c) Guilty of ______________________
CASE 3
CASE 4
Mustafa was a general in the Ottoman
Predrag was a militiaman in the Bos-
Army during World War I. The army
was having trouble in the eastern part of
the empire; it was reported that some of
the Armenian minorities were secretly
helping Armenian fighters in the Russian Empire. Although he did not participate in the killings firsthand, Mustafa
ordered Turkish soldiers to “eliminate”
the empire’s Armenian population.
Eventually, over one million Armenians
were slaughtered. Is Mustafa…
nian Serb Army. He participated in the
“ethnic cleansing” of the town of Bihac,
in which thousands of Muslims lost their
lives. Although Predrag did not shoot
any Bosnian Muslims himself, he forced
dozens of people out of their homes at
gunpoint. Many of them were killed
by other militiamen or died of starvation months later in refugee camps. Is
Predrag…
(a) Innocent
(b) Guilty of Genocide
(c) Guilty of ______________________
(a) Innocent
(b) Guilty of Genocide
(c) Guilty of ______________________
Glossary
barrack: a building used as housing for military personnel or prisoners.
refugee: someone who flees his or her home to escape war or persecution.
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Lessons in World History
LIST OF IMAGES
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
Cover Image: “Women of Britain Say Go.” Reprinted with
permission from The Imperial War Museum, London.
Cover Image:
“Women of
Britain Say Go.”
Reprinted with
permission from
The Imperial
War Museum,
London.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
63
Cover Image: “A teenage vendor sells newspapers and armbands in the Warsaw ghetto”
(Willy Georg). Reproduced with permission from the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum (Photograph # 07525).
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Lessons in World History
Image 1: “A Mass Grave in Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp” (Arnold Bauer Barach). Reproduced
with permission from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Photograph # 32072).
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
65
Image 2: “Armenian shepherd with Mt. Ararat in the background.” Reproduced from Yair Auron, The
Banality of Indifference: Zionism and the Armenian Genocide (New Brunswick and London: Transaction
Publishers, 2000), pp. 214-215.
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Lessons in World History
Image 3: “The Church of Tekor.” Reproduced from Gerard Libaridian, A Crime of Silence: The Armenian
Genocide. The Permanent People’s Tribunal (London: Zed Books, 1985), p. 183.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
67
Image 4: “Map of historic and current Armenia.” Reproduced from Donald E. Miller, Survivors: An Oral
History of the Armenian Genocide (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), p. xii.
68
Lessons in World History
Image 5: Armin T. Wegner, “Summary executions” (Armin T. Wegner Archives). Reproduced from Armin T. Wegner and the Armenians in Anatolia, 1915: Images and Testimonies
(Milano: Guerini E. Associati, 2000), p. 87.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
69
Image 6: Armin T. Wegner, “On the way of no return” (Armin T. Wegner Archives). Reproduced from
Armin T. Wegner and the Armenians in Anatolia, 1915: Images and Testimonies (Milano: Guerini E. Associati,
2000), p. 98.
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Lessons in World History
Image 7: Armin T. Wegner, “The laagers in the desert” (Armin T. Wegner Archives). Reproduced from
Armin T. Wegner and the Armenians in Anatolia, 1915: Images and Testimonies (Milano: Guerini E. Associati,
2000), p. 117.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
71
Image 8: “Report of Allied warning to the Ottoman government to stop the massacres of Armenians,
May 29, 1915” (National Archives). Record Group 59, Records of the Department of State (RG59,
867.40 16/67).
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Lessons in World History
Image 9: “A sign posted in front of a fence that reads, ‘Jews are not wanted here.’” Reproduced with
permission from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Photograph # 66668).
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
73
Image 10: “Aryan-only park bench.” Reproduced from Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang Wipperman, The
Racial State: Germany, 1933-1945 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991), p. 87.
74
Lessons in World History
Image 11: “Germans pass by the broken shop window of a Jewish-owned business that was destroyed
during Kristallnacht” (National Archives). Reproduced with permission from the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum (Photograph # 86838).
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
75
Image 12: “Jewish bride and groom with Stars of David.” Reproduced from Marion
Kaplan, Beyond Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany (New York &
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 164.
76
Lessons in World History
Image 13: “Propaganda slide depicting Jews as the bastard sons of Asian and negroid racial groups”
(Marion Davy). Reproduced with permission from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Photograph # 17609).
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
77
Image 14: “Eugenics poster entitled ‘The racial composition of Jews,’ with German text that reads, ‘The
Jews are a mixture of alien Near Eastern, oriental, Hamite, and Negroid races’” (Verlag für nationale Literatur / Publisher for National Literature). Reproduced with permission from the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum (Photograph # 94184).
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Lessons in World History
Image 15: “A teenage vendor sells newspapers and armbands in the Warsaw ghetto”
(Willy Georg). Reproduced with permission from the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum (Photograph # 07525).
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
79
Image 16: “Executions of Lithuanian Jews.” Reproduced from Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang
Wipperman, The Racial State: Germany, 1933-1945 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991),
p. 69.
80
Lessons in World History
Image 17: “A caravan of Sinti and Roma in Prussia.” Reproduced from Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang
Wipperman, The Racial State: Germany, 1933-1945 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991),
p. 115.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
81
Image 18: “Close-up of a Gypsy couple sitting in an open area in the Belzec concentration camp” (Jerzy
Ficowski). Reproduced with permission from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Photograph # 07078).
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Lessons in World History
Image 19: “Sinti and Roma concentration camp prisoners.” Reproduced from Michael
Burleigh and Wolfgang Wipperman, The Racial State: Germany, 1933-1945 (Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 1991), p. 123.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
83
Image 20: “View of the entrance to the main camp at Auschwitz” (Instytut Pamieci Narodowej). Reproduced with permission from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Photograph # 00001).
84
Lessons in World History
Image 21: “Buchenwald prisoners at forced labor near the entrance to the concentration camp” (Instytut
Pamieci Narodowej). Reproduced with permission from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
(Photograph # 81241).
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
85
Image 22: “Two ovens inside the crematorium at the Dachau concentration camp” (National Archives).
Reproduced with permission from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Photograph # 80722).
86
Lessons in World History
Image 23: “General Dwight Eisenhower and other high ranking U.S. Army officers view the bodies
of prisoners who were killed during the evacuation of Ohrdruf, while on a tour of the newly liberated
concentration camp” (National Archives). Reproduced with permission from the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum (Photograph # 04649).
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
87
Image 24: “A group of emaciated survivors sit outside a barracks in the newly liberated Dachau
concentration camp” (Frank Manucci). Reproduced with permission from the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum (Photograph # 07969).
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Lessons in World History
Image 25: “Bales of human hair ready for shipment to Germany found in one the Auschwitz warehouses
when the camp was liberated” (Instytut Pamieci Narodowej). Reproduced with permission from the
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Photograph # 66583).
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
89
Image 26: “Bosnian Muslim mother and child in a refugee camp.” Reproduced from Carol
Rogel, The Breakup of Yugoslavia and the War in Bosnia (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press,
1998), p. 78-79.
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Lessons in World History
Image 27: “Vance-Owen plan for Bosnia.” Reproduced from Tom Gallagher, The Balkans After the Cold
War: From Tyranny to Tragedy (London & New York: Routledge, 2003), p. 113.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
91
Image 28: “A house in Bosnia with its roof burned off.” Reproduced from Brendan O’Shea, Crisis at
Bihac: Bosnia’s Bloody Battlefield (Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton, 1998), pp. 108-109.
92
Lessons in World History
Image 29: “A refugee cooks dinner in Turanj, 1994.” Reproduced from Brendan O’Shea, Crisis at Bihac:
Bosnia’s Bloody Battlefield (Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton, 1998), pp. 108-109.
Five Cases of Genocide in the Twentieth Century
93
Image 30: “A refugee family in the former Yugoslavia.” Reproduced from Brendan O’Shea, Crisis at Bihac: Bosnia’s Bloody Battlefield (Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton, 1998), pp. 108-109.
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Lessons in World History
Image 31: Political map of Africa, 2003. Reproduced from the Perry-Castañeda Map Collection (Austin:
University of Texas Library). http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/africa/africa_pol_2003.jpg
Image 32: “Young boy surrounded by machine guns.” Reproduced from Timothy Longman, Proxy Targets: Civilians in the Burundi War (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1998), p. 45.
Image 33: “Houses with their roofs burned off.” Reproduced from Timothy Longman, Proxy Targets:
Civilians in the Burundi War (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1998), p. 29.
Image 34: “Child’s drawing: the war in Rwanda.” Reproduced from Richard Salem, Witness to Genocide:
The Children of Rwanda. Drawings by Child Survivors of the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 (New York:
Friendship Press, 2000), p. 17.
Image 35: “Child’s drawing: Genocide.” Reproduced from Richard Salem, Witness to Genocide: The
Children of Rwanda. Drawings by Child Survivors of the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 (New York: Friendship
Press, 2000), p. 21.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THE UCI CALIFORNIA HISTORY-SOCIAL SCIENCE PROJECT
Robert G. Moeller, Faculty Director and Professor of History
Stephanie Reyes-Tuccio, Site Director
Eileen Powell, CH-SSP Program Assistant
http://www.hnet.uci.edu/history/chssp/
HUMANITIES OUT THERE
Julia Reinhard Lupton, Faculty Director and Professor of English and Comparative Literature
Tova Cooper, Director of Publications
Peggie Winters, Grants Manager
http://yoda.hnet.uci.edu/hot/
THE SANTA ANA PARTNERSHIP:
UCI’S CENTER FOR EDUCATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS
Juan Francisco Lara, Director
http://www.cfep.uci.edu/
THE SANTA ANA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
Lewis Bratcher, Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education
http://www.sausd.k12.ca.us/
SANTA ANA COLLEGE
Sara Lundquist, Vice-President of Student Services
Lilia Tanakeyowma, Director of the Office of School and Community Partnerships and
Associate Dean of Student Development
Melba Schneider, GEAR UP Coordinator
http://www.sac.edu/
This unit would not have been possible without the support of Professor Karen Lawrence, Dean of the School of Humanities at the
University of California, Irvine; Professor Robert G. Moeller, Faculty Director of the UCI California History-Social Science Project, who
provides ongoing intellectual leadership in all areas touching on historical research, interpretation, and teacher professional development; Dr. Manuel Gómez, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, who provided funding and has been a steadfast supporter of our work;
and the leadership of the Santa Ana Partnership, including Dr. Juan Lara, Director of the UCI Center for Educational Partnerships; Dr.
Sara Lundquist, Vice-President of Student Services at Santa Ana College; Lilia Tanakeyowma, Director of the Office of School and Community Partnerships and Associate Dean of Student Development at Santa Ana College; and Dr. Lewis Bratcher, Assistant Superintendent
of Secondary Education at the Santa Ana Unified School District.
PERMISSIONS
The materials included in this booklet are original works of authorship, works for which copyright permission has expired, works reprinted
with permission, or works that we believe are within the fair use protection of the copyright laws. This is an educational and non-commercial publication designed specifically for high school History-Social Science classes, and is distributed to teachers without charge.
Book design by Susan Reese
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“The curriculum in World History
shows students that history matters.
Demonstrating the connections
among regions that shaped a global
economy and society, these innovative
curricular units also show students
how to build bridges between the past
and the present. Correlated with the
California State Content Standards
for tenth grade world history, these
units in world history take young
historians from the industrial
revolution of the late eighteenth
century to the Cold War.”
—Robert G. Moeller,
Professor of History and Faculty Director of the
California History-Social Science Project,
University of California, Irvine
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CALIFORNIA HISTORY-SOCIAL
SCIENCE STANDARDS ADDRESSED
10.5
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Students analyze the causes and course of the
First World War.
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10.5.5
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1800
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1850
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Discuss human rights violations and genocide,
including the Ottoman government’s actions
against Armenian citizens.
10.8
Students analyze the causes and consequences
of World War II.
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10.8.5
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Analyze the Nazi policy of pursuing racial
purity, especially against the European Jews;
its transformation into the Final Solution; and
the Holocaust that resulted in the murder of
six million Jewish civilians.
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1900
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1950
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10.9
Students analyze the international
developments in the post-World World War II
world.