What is genocide? The deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation

DIRECTIONS  Analyze each primary source: what do you think is going on, how does it make you feel?  Record your analysis in your chart  Then I will reveal information about the photo. Compare your analysis with the new information: how do you feel now that you have more information?

Warsaw, Poland, Photo #1

Prewar photograph of three Jewish children with their babysitter. Two of the children perished in Warsaw, Poland,

Kovno, Lithuania, 1943 Photo #2

Two cousins shortly before they were smuggled out of the Kovno ghetto. A Lithuanian family hid the girls and both survived the war. No one in their family survived. Kovno, Lithuania, 1943

Berlin, Germany, 1935 Photo #3

An author and actor who was imprisoned in 1937 for 27 months for homosexuality. In 1942, he was deported to a concentration camp where he was a prisoner for 3 years. Berlin, Germany, 1935

 Everyday you walked out in the morning, you see somebody is laying dead, covered with newspapers…and people used to carry the dead people in little wagons, bring them down to the cemetery and bury them in mass graves. And every day thousands and thousands died just from malnutrition because the Germans didn't give anything for the people in the ghetto to eat. There was no such thing. You can't walk in and buy anything, or getting any rations. It's your hard luck. If you don't have it, you die, and that's what it was.

Warsaw Ghetto Conditions Abraham Lewent, age 13  Everyday you walked out in the morning, you see somebody is laying dead, covered with newspapers…and people used to carry the dead people in little wagons, bring them down to the cemetery and bury them in mass graves. And every day thousands and thousands died just from malnutrition because the Germans didn't give anything for the people in the ghetto to eat. There was no such thing. You can't walk in and buy anything, or getting any rations. It's your hard luck. If you don't have it, you die, and that's what it was. Source #4

March-August 1942 Photo #5

A prisoner who has been subjected to low pressure experimentation. For the benefit of the Luftwaffe, air pressures were created comparable to those found at 15,000 meters in altitude, in an effort to determine how high German pilots could fly and survive. (March - August 1942)

April 16, 1945 Photo #6

Survivors suffering from malnutrition and a variety of other diseases in a section of the hospital barracks. The inmates in the upper bunks were unable to go to the latrine, making the sanitation in this section intolerable and immediate evacuation necessary. (April 16, 1945)

April 15, 1945 Photo # 7

American soldiers walk past rows of corpses removed from the barracks to their left. (April 11-15, 1945 )

What Do You Do When This Has Never Happened Before?  The word ‘genocide’ did not exist until the 1940s  There was no legal mechanism for the international community to respond to mass-murder against a people  If a person killed someone on the street, he/she would be charged with murder  But what happens if the government attempted to kill an entire group of people?

So, What’s the Next Step?  The Allies worked together to create a plan that would rid Germany of any remnants of the Nazi Party and their beliefs  Nuremberg Trials  Held in Nuremberg, Germany from  Allied military courts tried more than 200 Nazi and military officials  Many men pleaded that they were simply following orders and that Hitler was the source of all the crimes  Dozens were sentenced to death for their roles in the Holocaust and their war crimes

Impact of the Nuremberg Trials  The Nuremberg trials established that all of humanity would be guarded by an international legal shield and that even a Head of State would be held criminally responsible and punished for aggression  The failure of the international community to develop binding norms of international criminal law was illustrated by the slow pace of various UN committees with drafting both a code of crimes against the peace and security of mankind and the statutes for an international criminal court

Ethnic Cleansing v. Genocide  Ethnic cleansing as a concept has generated considerable controversy.  Ethnic cleansing and genocide can be distinguished by the intent of the perpetrator:  The primary goal of genocide is the destruction of an ethnic, racial, or religious group  The main purpose of ethnic cleansing is the establishment of ethnically homogeneous lands, which may be achieved by any of a number of methods including genocide.

Directions: Read “Defining Genocide” and answer the guided questions. Be prepared to share your answers with the class Time: 15 minutes

Never Again… Never Happened  Nazis were not isolated incidents, which we have since consigned to history.  Hundreds of thousands and in some cases millions of people have been murdered in:  Russia  Cambodia  Chile  Philippines  Congo  Bangladesh  Uganda  Iraq  Indonesia  East Timor  El Salvador  Burundi  Argentina  Somalia  Chad  Yugoslavia  Rwanda