Genocide

1
Genocide
  Genocide is the deliberate extermination of a
racial, religious or ethnic group (Chambers
Dictionary)

• Memorial Day 27th January

Discussion Point Why is 27th January
significant? (answer will follow later)
Workpack and resources can be found at
http//www.activehistory.co.uk/hmd
2
What is it? Why is it important?

• Genocide is mass murder deliberately planned and
  carried out by individuals brought up to see
  their nationality, their race or their religion
  as being somehow superior to that of other
  people.
• Casual prejudice, racism, grievance, intolerance,
  aggression, injustice and oppression all start
  small.
• We need to spot and stop them in our own minds,
  families and communities before they grow and get
  out of control.
• To do that, the way genocide becomes possible has
  to be understood. This means looking at the long
  history of genocide, as well as its symptoms in
  the present.
• Understanding these will help to avert future
  horrors.

3
UN Definition

• Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on the
  Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
  Genocide defines it as
• Any of the following acts committed with intent
  to destroy, in whole or part, a national, ethnic,
  racial, or religious group, such as killing
  members of the group causing serious bodily or
  mental harm to members of the group deliberately
  inflicting on the group conditions of life
  calculated to bring about its physical
  destruction in whole or part imposing measures
  intended to prevent births within the group or
  forcibly transferring children of the group to
  another group.

Sierra Leone, 1990s disabled people are more
expensive to maintain then dead ones, so more
damaging to the enemy
4
Example the Holocaust

• The Holocaust is the most infamous example of a
  Genocide the deliberate attempt by the Nazis to
  exterminate the Jewish people.
• The Nazis also attempted to exterminate other
  groups such as Gypsies Homosexuals the Disabled
  and other religious and ethnic minorities.

5
What is Holocaust Memorial Day?

• Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) was designated by
  the United Nations General Assembly in 2005 to
  commemorate the end of the Holocaust which
  resulted in the annihilation of 6 million
  European Jews and millions of others by the Nazi
  regime.
• January 27 is the date, in 1945, when the largest
  Nazi death camp in Auschwitz (Poland) was
  liberated by Soviet troops.
• HMD is now used as an opportunity to promote
  tolerance and understanding between races,
  nationalities, religions and ethnic groups.

6
How will we study it?

• Session 1. What events in the world, your country
  and your family deserve to be remembered?
• Session 2. What would be your design for a
  Holocaust Memorial?
• Session 3/4. Personal Display Piece Your own
  design for a memorial / evaluation of an existing
  one / research on a particular genocide
• Session 5. Work is placed on display for the
  school to view and discuss

Workpack and resources can be found at
http//www.activehistory.co.uk/hmd