Facing History Educator Resources Feed

April Is Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month

AdamBernstein — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 19:35:05 +0000

April 12, 2012

In several states, April is designated Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month. In honor of this, we have compiled a collection of resources relevant to each of the genocides that have commemorative dates this month.

Explore:
Genocide Resource Collection

Early April 1945: Buchenwald

As US forces approached Buchenwald concentration camp, thousands of prisoners were forced to join the evacuation marches. Approximately one third of these prisoners died from exhaustion en route or shortly after arrival, or were shot by the SS.

April 11, 1945

In expectation of liberation, organized prisoners seized control of the camp. Later that afternoon, US forces entered Buchenwald. By April 12, 1945, journalists, including Edward R Morrow arrived at the camp.

Between July 1937 and April 1945, the SS imprisoned some 250,000 persons from all countries of Europe in Buchenwald.

Explore:
Leon Bass remembers when he, a nineteen-year-old African-American sergeant, arrived at Buchenwild
Edward R. Murrow's report from Buchenwald

April 5, 1992: Serbia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina

As Yugoslavia began to unravel in the late 1980s, ethnic tensions and nationalist attitudes grew. The Serb leader Slobodan Milošević went on an offensive in an attempt to keep its republics together and to unite Serb communities in the region.

When Bosnia and Herzegovina defied Milošević and declared independence on April 5, 1992 Bosnian Serb leaders began a military campaign to clear all the Muslim communities that stood in the way of this vision of a “Greater Serbia.” The violence reached its tragic peak in the summer of 1995 in Srebrenica, where Serbs massacred over 8,000 Muslim men. After three years of indecisive actions, NATO forces finally began an aerial bombing campaign that halted the violence. All told, the Serbs were responsible for the deaths of as many as 100,000 Bosnians.

Explore:
Worse Than War: Genocide and Eliminationism
Larisa Kasumagic on the Culture of Silence

April 7, 1994: Rwanda

In the 1980s a group of Tutsi (and some Hutu) formed an army—the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA)—which invaded Rwanda in 1990 with the hope of repatriating refugees who escaped the Hutu dominant regime to nearby countries. This led to a civil war and then to a power-sharing agreement in 1993. The next year, the plane of the Hutu president of Rwanda, Juvénal Habyarimana, was shot down. Hutu extremists seized control of the government and use this opportunity launch a genocidal campaign against the Tutsi. Between April and July 1994, Hutu extremists brutally murdered as many as 800,000 of their fellow Rwandans.

Explore:
Worse Than War: Genocide and Eliminationism

April 17, 1975: Cambodia

The Khmer Rouge seized power in Cambodia and immediately began to expel to the countryside hundreds of thousands of people suspected of connections with the former government or with the West. As many as 1.7 million of them died in agrarian camps (commonly known as the “killing fields”) and in prisons and interrogation centers. The genocide ended in 1979 after Vietnam invaded Cambodia.

Explore:
Biography: Arn Chorn Pond
Everybody has a Story
Worse Than War: Genocide and Eliminationism

April 19, 2012: Yom Ha'Shoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day

Facing History observes Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, by encouraging schools and communities to engage in conversations about the importance of memory and the legacy of difficult histories in today's society. In the words of Facing History executive director Margot Stern Strom, “The stories of our survivors are not lost in their passing...We hear their voices and we will honor them as we look to future generations take up her mantle. We need young people to be interested in their community and to not be bystanders in a world that needs the strong voices of upstanders.” Learn more about Yom HaShoah and Facing History in your community.

April 19, 1943: Warsaw Ghetto uprising begins.

Explore:
The Jews of Poland: The Warsaw Uprising
History, Memory and Memorials: Willy Brandt’s Silent Apology

April 24, 1915 - Armenia

Armenian Genocide begins. On this one day, Ottoman authorities arrested some 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople. By 1923, more than one million ethnic Armenians had been killed.

Explore:
Crimes against Humanity and Civilization: The Genocide of the Armenians
Armenian Genocide Resource Collection
Taner Akçam: Why is the Armenian Genocide Important?

April 2003 – Darfur

In 2003 violence broke out in Darfur, a region in western Sudan, between local tribes and government-backed militia. In April, Sudanese refugees begin arriving in eastern Chad to escape the fighting in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

April 25, 2003 - Rebels, later becoming the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), attack a Sudanese government airfield, destroying multiple Antonov bombers and helicopter gunships, and seizing a large amount of ammunition and heavy weapons. In retaliation, the Sudanese government began a systematic campaign to destroy the people of the western region of Sudan and their livelihood. It is estimated that by 2005, the Sudanese government and its forces had contributed to the death of more than 300,000 Darfuris and to the rape, torture, and displacement of more than 2.5 million people.

Explore:
Darfur Resource Collection
Worse Than War: Genocide and Eliminationism

April 29, 1945: American forces liberate the Dachau concentration camp

Explore:
Holocaust Resource Collection
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Dachau

Short post

A Guide to the Film BULLY: Fostering Empathy and Action in Schools

Nicky Enriquez — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:16:40 +0000

Bullying.jpg

The film BULLY follows five stories of children and families who are affected deeply by bullying within the course of a school year. With intimate glimpses into homes, classrooms, cafeterias, and principals’ offices, the film offers insight into the lives of bullied, ridiculed children. Historically, seemingly small instances of labeling and ridicule have catastrophic consequences for the marginalized groups involved. This film brings those “small” instances into the spotlight creating a space to discuss the effects of bullying. The accompanying guide tells the personal stories of those bullied, and suggests that improving school climate takes fostering a reflective and engaging learning community.

Features include:

• Essential background information about bullying, including testimony and research findings from experts who have studied the effects of bullying on children, parents, and communities.

• Facinghistory.org/safeschools provides additional resources about creating safe and caring school environments.

• A “toolbox” of discussion strategies that will help facilitate honest, open dialogue about the film with groups of students and adults alike.

Study Guide

Short post

Attachment	Size
A_Guide_to_the_Film_BULLY.pdf	1.51 MB

Genocide and Eliminationism: A study guide to accompany the film "Worse than War"

Nicky Enriquez — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:50:45 +0000

Genocide_cover_front_lores_small.jpg

This guide has been produced to accompany Daniel Jonah Goldhagen and Mike DeWitt’s film Worse than War. At the core of the film is a chilling fact: “All told,” says Goldhagen in the film, “in [the last 100 years], there have been more than 100 million innocent victims of genocide—more than all the combat deaths in all the wars fought during that time everywhere in the world.”

In order to understand and confront this unsettling truth, Goldhagen—a genocide expert and author—proposes a series of probing questions: Why do killers kill? What is the role of leaders in instigating and in carrying out genocidal acts? Why do the international community and the United Nations fail to intervene to stop such violence? And, what can be done to prevent future genocides? Using excerpts from the film, primary sources, and reflective questions, this guide is designed to help educators in tackling these and other complex issues in their classrooms. It is also intended to encourage students to empathize with the victims of genocide and engage them in the moral and political debates surrounding these questions.

Features include:

Introduction by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, author of Worse than War: Genocide, Eliminationism, and the Ongoing Assault on Humanity.
5 maps featuring each of the regions discussed in the guide.
List of additional resources where educators and other readers may find additional and background information on topics covered by the film and guide.
Film time codes and selected film excerpts for educators to accompany each section of the guide.

Study Guide

Short post

Attachment	Size
Genocide_and_Eliminationism.pdf	3.64 MB

A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism

Nicky Enriquez — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 17:16:08 +0000

Purchase

A_Convenient_Hatred_book_cover flat orig.jpg

A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism (432 pp) is an accessible history of antisemitism. This book masterfully communicates the magnitude of this hatred over the centuries and reveals why so many people in so many places have found antisemitism a most “convenient hatred.”

The book chronicles the evolution of antisemitism through powerful stories that allow readers to see themselves in the tarnished mirror of history. It also provides insights into universal aspects of human behavior, particularly the power of ideas—even mistaken ideas—to shape thought, judgment, and ultimately behavior. The first chapter opens in Egypt more than 2,500 years ago and explores the antisemitic stereotypes and myths that arose there under Persian, and later, Roman rule. The book closes with an important chapter on antisemitism today. That chapter considers the newest justifications for antisemitism—including Holocaust denial and the use of traditional antisemitic libels to demonize both the state of Israel and Jews in general. In addition, the chapter confronts the challenges of learning from this uncomfortable history.

Other highlights include:

The events that eventually led to the separation of Christianity from Judaism.
The impact of early Islam on attitudes toward Jews in the Middle East and beyond.
The consequences of the Crusades for Jews in Europe and the Middle East.
The effects of the Protestant Reformation and Catholic responses to the Reformation on antisemitism.
The results of the Enlightenment on both the growth of political rights for Jews and other minorities in Europe and on new justifications for antisemitism and racism.
The impact of the Industrial Revolution and other modernizing forces on the treatment of Jews.
The prevalence of antisemitic conspiracy theories during and immediately following World War I.
The Holocaust and the role antisemitism played not only in shaping Nazi policies but also in the way the world responded to the genocide.
The ways antisemitism became a convenient “tool” in the Cold War and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism is an authoritative new resource that will help readers of all backgrounds explore the roots of this ancient hatred, better understand the present, and help change the future.

To access our media kit, read reviews and praise, or learn more about the distribution and availability of this book, please visit: http://convenienthatred.facinghistory.org/

**eBook also available.**

Resource Book

Short post

Remembering 9/11 Ten Years Later

Nicky Enriquez — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 20:21:55 +0000

August 29, 2011

In the coming weeks, the world will mark the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3000 people in and around the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon, and on flight 93 over Shanksville, PA.

Schools, houses of worship, and communities are exploring their own ways to remember the attacks and consider their legacy. How will your community remember? A critical part of the Facing History and Ourselves program considers how we choose to remember the past, and what those choices say about who we are.

Will your community have a public commemoration? How is the anniversary being talked about in the various media that you follow? Does your community have a monument or memorial to remember the attacks? If not, are there any monuments or memorials in your community? What story do they tell?

Below are links to several different websites that explore attempts to remember 9/11. As you view the sites consider:

Who is telling the story?
What story do they hope to tell?
Who is the audience?
What choices were made by those choosing to remember?
How do those choices impact the story they tell?
Compare the different choices individuals or groups made in their attempt to remember?
What is the message that you take away?

Memory, History, and Memorials: 9/11 Case Study

This link to the Facing History and Ourselves website Memory, History, and Memorials discusses the spontaneous memorials that people created after 9/11, alongside links to several resources about the challenges of memory in the first few months after the attacks.

9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Center

Website for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center, which will open on September 11, 2011 on the site of the former towers. The memorial site contains extensive resources on the new memorial and museum, on those who died as well as survivors and rescuers, on the history of the Twin Towers, and on responses, memorials, and tributes from many communities and schools.

Tribute Center WTC

Tribute WTC Visitor Center offers visitors to the World Trade Center site a place where they can connect with people from the September 11th community. Through walking tours, exhibits and programs, the Tribute WTC Visitor Center offers "Person to Person History," linking visitors who want to understand and appreciate these historic events with those who experienced them.

Pentagon 9/11 Memorial

The Pentagon Memorial is designed so that the nation may remember and reflect on the events that occurred on September 11, 2001. The Memorial will be free and open to the public seven days a week. Groups and individuals are welcome in the Memorial each day, but guided tours are not offered; the Memorial is meant to be experienced on a more personal level.

Flight 93 National Memorial

Flight 93 National Memorial has a place on the nation's honor roll of iconic places which includes Gettysburg and Pearl Harbor. Why is this ground so special? Why is this story so important? What began as an ordinary morning ended as a historic day when a common field in Pennsylvania was forever changed. Discover a story of courage, action, and honor.

Lesson Idea: Creating Your Own Memorial to the September 11 Attacks

For years, Facing History and Ourselves has helped teachers design memorials projects. After establishing an understanding of the potential power of memorials and monuments, teachers and students construct their own personal monuments or memorials. In many cases, these projects are guided by a series of questions including:

What would you like people to feel or think about when they visit the monument that you are designing?
Who is it built for? Where would you want it to be constructed? Who will be the audience?
What message will it convey? What point of view will it assume?
How can your monument be most effective in connecting the public to the point in the past that you have chosen to remember?

Facing History’s Educator Workshop: How to Talk with Students about 9/11, Ten Years Later

This summer, to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the 2001 attacks, Facing History offered a special workshop to New York City area educators. Facing History Senior Program Associate Tracy Garrison-Feinberg told an interviewer: “This event shaped the 21st century, and is to continuing to shape it. It’s is a crucial part of who we have become.”

Additional Resources

From Newsday: Teachers: 9/11 'our history, generation'

Short post

Pope Warns Against Antisemitism in New Book

IlanaKlarman — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 18:51:27 +0000

March 29, 2011

Pope Benedict XVI, the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church, has taken an important step in recent months to combat antisemitism. He is publishing a new book in which he devotes extensive theological argument to making the case that there is no basis in Christian scripture for blaming the Jewish people for the death of Jesus Christ, defusing a long-held source of religious bitterness.

For centuries, some Christians used parts of the New Testament to blame all Jews for the death of Christ, and to justify the persecution of Jews. Beginning in the 1960s, the Catholic Church officially abandoned this belief.

But now, a reporter writes, Benedict goes further in an effort to correct this wrong:

The Catholic Church issued its most authoritative teaching on the issue in its 1965 Second Vatican Council document “Nostra Aetate,” which revolutionized the church’s relations with Jews by saying Christ’s death could not be attributed to Jews as a whole at the time or today.

Benedict comes to the same conclusion, but he explains how with a thorough, Gospel-by-Gospel analysis that leaves little doubt that he deeply and personally believes it to be the case.

The book, Jesus of Nazareth II, is the second installment to Benedict’s 2007 Jesus of Nazareth, which described the early years of Christ’s life and teachings. The new book, set to be released in March, concerns the final part of Christ’s life, his death, and resurrection.

“Holocaust survivors know only too well how the centuries-long charge of ’Christ killer’ against the Jews created a poisonous climate of hate that was the foundation of anti-Semitic persecution whose ultimate expression was realized in the Holocaust,” said Elan Steinberg of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants. The pope’s book, he said, not only confirms church teaching refuting the deicide charge “but seals it for a new generation of Catholics.”

Discussion Questions:

Who is responsible for speaking out against antisemitism and other forms of racism? What are the consequences of a strong stand? What are the consequences of silence? What might the consequences be of the Pope’s stand?
What power do words have to turn neighbor against neighbor? When hateful words have been spoken, what can individuals, groups, and leaders do to mitigate their effects?

Related Facing History Resources

Theme - Antisemitism

Video: Father Robert Bullock
Father Robert W. Bullock, a founding leader of Facing History and Ourselves, was dedicated to building bridges between the Catholic and Jewish communities. As a scholar, he delved into the Holocaust and the roots of Christian antisemitism.

External Link

Pope exonerates Jews for Jesus’ death in new book, The Patriot Ledger, March 2, 2011

Short post

Decision-Making in Times of Injustice Lesson 11

AdamBernstein — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 14:27:09 +0000

The Nazis in Power: Propaganda and Conformity

Overview:

This lesson is part of the following unit:
Decision-Making in Times of Injustice: a unit to supplement Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior

In this lesson, students will analyze several examples of Nazi propaganda in order to identify the messages that permeated German society, and to consider the impact these messages might have had on the actions and attitudes of German children, women, and men.

Download the PDF

Short post

Network Status:

Public

Decision-Making in Times of Injustice Lesson 14

AdamBernstein — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 14:06:25 +0000

The Holocaust

Overview:

This lesson is part of the following unit:
Decision-Making in Times of Injustice: a unit to supplement Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior

The purpose of this lesson, and the following one, is to give students an awareness of the enormity of the crimes committed during the Nazi Holocaust and to help them grasp the fact that thousands of ordinary people-teenagers, fathers, daughters, brothers, etc.- participated in perpetrating these crimes, while thousands more stood by and quietly witnessed the suffering and death of millions of innocent people.

Download the PDF

Short post

Network Status:

Public

The Diary of Anne Frank Teacher’s Guide PBS Masterpiece Classic

CatherineOKeefe — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:38:59 +0000

Anne_Frank_cover_lo_res.jpg

Developed by WGBH in collaboration with Facing History and Ourselves, this study guide accompanies the 2010 PBS Masterpiece Classic series The Diary of Anne Frank, a new film version based on fresh information about Anne Frank’s family, life, and death. Drawing extensively on Anne's own words, including long-deleted passages of her diary, and featuring vividly-recreated scenes filmed in Amsterdam, the series aims to adapt this much-taught classic for a new generation, setting out to show young viewers that Anne was a “thoroughly modern teenager—similar in many ways to today”—who lived in anything-but-normal times.

The guide is aimed at middle school and high school teachers. Together the film and guide can serve as a key element within a larger unit on World War II, Holocaust studies, or coming-of-age literature in social studies, history, English, and writing courses. It can also be used as a resource within units on diversity, tolerance, and human rights.

Features include:

Discussion questions that aim to spark critical thinking and reflection
Suggested activities, worksheets and handouts
Extensive resources for further exploration, including companion website and links to online resources and social media

Additional Information:

The Diary of Anne Frank– PBS Masterpiece companion website

PBS Educational Media – Purchase a Copy

Study Guide

Short post

Attachment	Size
AFrank_TeacherGuide_version2_Full.pdf	1.97 MB

Democracy in Action: A study guide to accompany the film "Freedom Riders"

April Lambert — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 16:01:54 +0000

lo-res_cover_small2.jpg

Developed in partnership with PBS's AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, the guide Democracy in Action supports educators and students in their use of the documentary Freedom Riders. This film tells the powerful story of the Freedom Riders taking brave and decided actions to dismantle the structures of discrimination—specifically segregated interstate bus travel—through nonviolence.

Democracy in Action prompts students to consider the relationship between the political context in which the Rides took place and the stories and motivations of those who became Freedom Riders. The guide begins with an exploration of the identity and choices of the Riders. Then students explore the greater context of the Rides from the institutionalized and culturally-accepted racism of Jim Crow South to the adoption of nonviolent direct action to inspire social change. From this groundwork, students analyze the complexities of the relationships between the Kennedy administration, the media, and the activists in the ultimately successful desegregation of buses and bus facilities.

Features include:

A companion website that hosts film excerpts, downloadable content, and more.
Introduction by Raymond Arsenault, author of Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice.
Primary source readings, including interviews with Freedom Riders, press releases and clippings, and a conversation between Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Attorney General Robert Kennedy.
Web resources from WGBH Teachers’ Domain and PBS's AMERICAN EXPERIENCE.
Historic photographs chosen to prompt additional student reflection.
Connections questions to stimulate classroom discussions.
Film time codes and selected film excerpts for each section of the guide.

Film Excerpts:

The Student Leader
The Exchange Student
The Pioneers
The Inspiration
The Strategy
The Tactic
The Fresh Troops
The Young Witness
The Turning Point
The Governor
The Solid South
ICC Desegregation Order

Study Guide

Short post

Attachment	Size
Democracy_in_Action.pdf	8.09 MB