Holocaust & Genocide Studies Syllabus

Students will examine the root causes which led to the rise of the Nazi party and the reaction of Germans--and the world--to Hitler and his plans of genocide. Then will then focus on an in-depth analysis of Genocide using the Holocaust as a foundation. The course is designed to have students question themselves as to what their role has been and will be as human rights violations occur throughout the world. We will identify roles as well as look at the stages of genocide. We will analyze the seeds of hatred that began as racism and bigotry and eventually grew into the murder of men, women, and children. Specifically, we will look at the history of anti-Semitism and its role in the emergence of the Holocaust, and we will also look at genocidal case-studies in Armenia, Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Darfur.

This is an 11-12th grade class with the prerequisite of World History.

Class Materials: Echoes and Reflections of the Holocaust

Websites: Yad Yashem

US Holocaust Memorial Museum

MEDIA:Above and Beyond 2015

1915 The Armenian Genocide: The story of the Armenians, 2013

Adolf Hitler Youth Speech, 5 minutes

America and the Holocaust, 1994, 2005. PBS @ WGBH Boston

Armenian Genocide, 2006 by Two Cats productions with Oregon Public Broadcasting

Bosnian War (1992-1995) - Muslim Genocide

Child Soldiers Around the World: The Silent Armies, 5 minutes

Global Issues for Students: Genocide

Death Camp Treblinka: Survivor Stories, BBC.

Genocide – Worse than War, partial, PBS

Hidden in Silence: a true story based on StefaniaPodgorska, 2010 – Holocaust

Holocaust: Dachau & Sachsenhausen, 2006. (Parts only)

Into The Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport. 2000 – Holocaust

Nazi Book Burning, USHMM

Not in Our Town, Billings, Montana 5 minutes, PBS

Nuremberg: Tyranny on Trial, 1995. A & E

Cambodia Killing Fields by CNN

Darfur Now: Six stories, one hope, 2007

Darfur, Lost Boys, CBS News

Facing Sudan, 2007.

Rwanda: Do Scars Ever Fade? 2004 A & E

Rwanda, USHMM Eyewitness Testimony

Schindler’s List (maybe) – Holocaust

No Place on Earth, 2013 based on Secret of Priest's Grotto: A Holocaust Survival Story

Srebrenica: The Trauma of the Blue Berets, 2008. 9 min

They Looked Away; narrated by Mike Wallace, 2004. – Holocaust

X-Men First Class Never Again, 1 minute

USHMM

Some may contain disturbing images. Others are also found on YouTube

Books: Hot Topics: Genocide by Mark Friedman – USED as the Textbook for class $10.00

HOLOCAUST: Four Perfect Pebbles: a Holocaust story by Lila Perl

The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the impossible became possible…on Schindler’s List.

By Leon Leyson

Escape: Children of the Holocaustby Allan Zullo

The Family Whistle: A Holocaust Memoir of Loss and Survival by Simon Eichel with Lee S. Kessler

I Have Lived a Thousand Years: Growing Up in the Holocaust by Livia Bitton-Jackson

In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer by Iren Gut Opdyke with Jennifer Armstrong

Kindertransportby Olga Levy Drucker

Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale: my father bleeds history by Art Speigelman

The Nazi Hunters by Neal Bascomb

Rutka's Notebook: A Voice from the Holocaustby Rutka Laskier, Daniella

Zaidman-Mauer and Kelly Knauer

Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi

Survivors: True Stories of Children in the Holocaust by Allen Zullo and Mara Bovsun

We are Witnesses: Five Diaries of Teenagers Who Died in the Holocaust by Jacob Boas

We Got the Water: Tracing my family’s path through Auschwitz by Jill Gabrielle Klein

ARMENIA Genocide: The Road from Home: A true story of courage, survival and hope by David Kherdian

The Knock at the Door: a journey through the Darkness of the Armenian Genocide by Margaret

Ajemian Ahnert

CAMBODIA: Alive in the Killing Fields: Surviving the Khmer Rouge Genocide by Nawuth Keat with

Martha E. Kendall

First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (P.S.) by Loung Ung

GUATEMALA: Testimony: Death of a Guatemalan Village by Victor Montejo

RWANDA: We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families: stories from

Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch

SIERRA LEONE: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

SUDAN: Lost Boy, Lost Girl: Escaping Civil War in Sudan by John Bul Dau and Martha Arual Akech

They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky: the true store of three Lost boys from Sudan by Benson Deng,

Alephonsion Deng, and Benjamin Ajak with Judy A. Bernstein

Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur by Halima Bashir

Assignments:

Current Events: 1 each quarter. Written and oral presentation

Projects:Qtr. 1: Read a book, create a visual display, and then individually answer questions in an essay.

Qtr. 2: Research and describehow many atrocities you can find.

Grades:

Employability10%

Homework / Classwork25%

Tests35%

Quizzes20%

Projects10%

Bell Questions: Two per day. Quizzes will be given throughout the quarter. Bell Test at the end of the quarter when you must turn in your daily bell questions with answers highlighted.

Holocaust and Genocide Course Outline

Unit I—Who Remembers the Armenians?2 weeks

  • 1st genocide of 20th century – Herero people in Namibia
  • The Growth of Prejudice
  • UN Declaration of Human Rights
  • The Eight Stages of Genocide
  • Armenia Time Line
  • The Denial of Genocide
  • “The Armenian Genocide”

Unit II—Echoes and Reflections of the Holocaust8-9 weeks

  • Anti-Semitism
  • Post WW1 Germany & Treaty of Versailles
  • Nazi Germany
  • The Ghettos
  • The Final Solution
  • Jewish Resistance
  • Rescuers and Non-Jewish Resistance
  • Survivors and Liberators
  • Perpetrators, Collaborators, and Bystanders
  • The Children
  • Nuremberg Trials

Unit III—Never Again? The Khmer Rouge of Cambodia1 week

  • The Khmer Rouge
  • S21
  • Year Zero

Unit IV—Death of a Nation—Bosnian Genocide in Yugoslavia1 week

  • Multinational State
  • Serbs and Bosnians
  • “The Death of A Nation”

Unit V—100 Days of Genocide in Rwanda1 week

  • Hutus
  • Tutsis
  • “Ghosts of Rwanda”

Unit VI—Not on Our Watch? Genocide in Darfur and 2 weeks

the Future of Genocide

  • Crisis in Darfur
  • Triangles of Truth
  • Genocide Intervention Network
  • Other areas of unrest; past (Guatemala) & present (North Korea, ISIL)