Dear Teacher

1. Dear Teacher Dear Teacher: I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no man should witness: • Gas chambers build by Learned engineers • Children poisoned by Educated physicians • Infants killed by Trained nurses • Women and babies shot and burned by High School and College graduates So I am suspicious of education. My request is: Help your students become human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated Eichmanns. Reading, writing and arithmatic are important only if they serve to make our children more human. • From: Can it Happen Again? Chronicles of the Holocaust, eds. Roselle K. Chartock and Jack Spencer (New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc., 2001)

2. Background to the Background • These tiny shoes were for a little girl, Doris Mathes. • She was born, June 14, 1942 and gassed to death on Jan. 17, 1944, in the largest concentration camp located in Auschwitz, Poland. • There are many pictures of large warehouses of shoes, such as the one on the left, as well as glasses, suitcases, etc. • However, this pair of shoes is very symbolic. They connect an individual’s story to pictures and numbers that sometimes my seem unbelievable or overwhelming.

3. Raphael Lemkin • Less than 100 years ago, mass killing was not punishable by law - even if there was proof. For example, an Armenian man SoghomonTehlirian (1921), was put on trial after killing one of the leaders of the Armenian Genocide. • Raphael Lemkin (soon to be Jewish Lawyer) watched the trial in amazement and asked the question: “Why is it a crime for Tehlirian to kill a man, but it is not a crime for his oppressor to kill more than a million men?” • Raphael Lemkin made it his life work to have genocide recognized as a punishable crime internationally. • He became even more passionate in his pursuit of this after many members of his family died during the Holocaust. • He was the force behind the 1948 Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment
of the Crime of Genocide.

4. The Genocide Convention 1948 • The governments that signed the document agreed: “Genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.” • They also agreed that genocide involves “the INTENT to destroy, in WHOLE OR IN PART, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.” • Reference to “cultural genocide” was removed. (Which countries would have opposed this? Why them?)

5. The Two Elements of Genocide • There are two elements of the crime of genocide: 1) the mental element, meaning the"intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such", and 2) the physical element which includes five acts described in sections a, b, c, d and e (explained below). A crime must include both elements to be called "genocide."

6. The Mental Element of Genocide (Intent) • “Intentional” means purposeful. Intent can be proven directly from statements or orders (eg. The Final Solution). • More often, it must be inferred from a systematic pattern of coordinated acts (eg. The Ukrainian Famine). • Intent is different from motive. Whatever may be the motive for the crime (the taking of someone else’s land, national security/protecting your land from invasion, etc.), if the perpetrators commit acts intended to destroy a group, even part of a group, it is genocide; this is why the phrase "in whole or in part" is important.

7. So When Does It Become Genocide? • Perpetrators need not intend to destroy the entire group. • Destruction of only part of a group (such as its educated members, or members living in one region) is also genocide. • Most authorities require a substantial number of group members to die (mass murder) in order for the “intent to destroy” part of the definition to be fulfilled. • But an individual criminal may be guilty of genocide even if he kills only one person, so long as he knew he was participating in a larger plan to destroy the group.

8. The Physical Element: Genocidal Acts • Punishable Acts: The following are genocidal acts when committed as part of a policy to destroy a group’s existence • Killing members of the group includes direct killing and actions causing death. • Causing serious bodily or mental harm includes inflicting trauma on members of the group through widespread torture, rape, sexual violence, forced or coerced use of drugs, and mutilation.

9. The Physical Element: Genocidal Acts • Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to destroy a group includes the deliberate deprivation of resources needed for the group’s physical survival, such as clean water, food, clothing, shelter or medical services. Deprivation of the means to sustain life can be imposed through confiscation of harvests, blockade of foodstuffs, detention in camps, forcible relocation or expulsion into deserts.

 • Prevention of births includes involuntary sterilization, forced abortion, prohibition of marriage, and long-term separation of men and women intended to prevent procreation.

 • Forcible transfer of children may be imposed by direct force or by fear of violence, duress, detention, psychological oppression or other methods of coercion.

10. Getting People to Kill • How do instigators of genocide get ordinary people to overcome their respect for human life? • Fear of being killed - kill or be killed • Mob mentality • Obedience to authority. (ex: Milgram shock therapy)

11. Expectation of Impunity • Hitler said, “No one remembered the Armenians”(He also remarked on the genocidal treatment of North American Aboriginal People because he knew Americans and Canadians had denied it. • Rwanda - used Nazi literature • Sudan - encouraged by lack of response to Rwanda

12. First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist - so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat - so I did nothing. Then they came for the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew - so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left who could stand up for me. ~Martin Niemeoller

13. Bystanders • Bystanders are a key component that allows genocide to occur and continue. • Fear - Rwandan moderates were targeted for death. • Believe the “us-them” propaganda • Have something to gain from the victims death such as land, money, jobs, consumer goods.

14. Genocide and Gender • Men are usually the first to be killed In many countries men are the leaders and hold the important positions of power. Men are also seen as more of a physical threat. (kill them before they organize and resist) • Men are mostly likely to do the killing

15. Rape and Sexual Violence • Rape and sexual violence Used as a military and genocidal weapon • Custom, culture and religion have built an image of women as bearing the “honor” of their communities. Disparaging a woman’s sexuality and destroying her physical integrity have become a means by which to terrorize, demean and “defeat” entire communities, as well as to punish, intimidate and humiliate women • Rape and Sexual Violence is usually committed together with: kidnapping, beating, torture, murder

16. Responding to Genocide • Worldwide response to genocide is complicated by many factors: • Disagreement about Human Rights • Time wasted writing official definitions, international agreements and reports. • Ignoring truths or feelings that make us uncomfortable: There is fear among governments that genocide may be occurring in a country that they have an important relationship with. (Getting involved could hurt that relationship). • Denial is one of the biggest obstacles to preventing and punishing the crime of genocide (eg. Turkey and the USSR).

17. Apathy • Apathy - There is nothing to gain from getting involved. • We will recommend to our government not to intervene as the risks are high and all that is here are humans. • The United States said they had no friends instead they only have interests and in Rwanda there were no interests. • “Ultimately there are some who believe some humans are more human than other humans” ~Western Bureaucrats to General Romeo Dallaire in Rwanda, April 1994.