Sometimes research goes in an unexpected direction…researching an account of a Holocaust survivor led to shocking accounts of the brutality of the Nazis during World War II as they attempted to systematically eliminate Jewish people in a way we now understand as genocide. Seventy-three years after the end of World War II, the horrors of the genocide committed by the Nazis are fading as the generation who survived the atrocities passes away and our schools fail to educate students about the Holocaust. We cannot forget what happened then, or the continuing instances of genocide around the world. The staggering numbers of people killed are appalling but don’t convey the horror experienced by individuals who survived genocide. It’s through those personal stories that we learn both the depravity of individuals and the strength one can summon to endure evil.
The Jewish Virtual Library provides a wealth of information about the Holocaust including the basic history of the Holocaust, the persecution, biographies, and the aftermath. From here we can learn about the arc of events in World War II as seen through the lens of time, but other resources provide more detailed stories from individuals who experienced the Nazi concentration camps. These stories tell us what it really meant to endure and survive.
Sadly, the Holocaust is but one of many genocides in recent world history. Others include the Genocide in Darfur, the Rwandan Genocide, Genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Killing Fields: The Cambodian Genocide, Mao Tse-tung’s Cultural Revolution, the Rape of Nanking, the Ukrainian Genocide, the Armenian Genocide, the Herero Genocide, the Genocide of Native Americans, and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The Genocide Education Project assists educators to teach about human rights and genocide, particularly the Armenian Genocide. Many other resources are also available to assist educators in teaching about genocide.
“The mission of the Foundation for Genocide Education is to work with governments to ensure that genocide and the steps leading to it are taught in high schools in Canada and in the United States.” The Foundation has created a video to explain the importance of genocide education in schools. Unfortunately, genocide is not a relic of our past; it continues today in many locations such as Myanmar, Syria, Iraq, and South Sudan. The Foundation for Genocide Education teaches the 8 stages of genocide which one can witness on the news worldwide. Education is one vital step in preventing future genocides.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum supports and engages in work to prevent genocide. The Early Warning Project is a “tool to alert policy makers and the public to places where the risk for mass atrocities is greatest.” The Responsibility to Protect is a joint project which adopted the principle “Responsibility to Protect (R2P)” as a mandate to protect civilians and prevent mass atrocities. The Genocide Prevention Task Force provided “practical policy recommendations to enhance the capacity of the US government to respond to emerging threats of genocide and mass atrocities.” These project are undertaken in cooperation with groups and countries willing to prevent genocide.
As noted in our prior blog post, December 9, 2018 marks the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. With this anniversary, the United Nations is undertaking a campaign to appeal for Universal Ratification by the 45 United Nations Member States who have not yet ratified the Genocide Convention. You read that correctly, even after 70 years, 45 of the 193 member states of United Nations have not ratified the Genocide Convention.
Imagine a world fully committed to the elimination of genocide.