1. What are the steps that are taken to perpetrate a genocide?
2. What are the processes and factors needed to have a genocide take place?
3. How does the dehumanization of a group of people in society occur?
4. How did different motivations impact the persecution and outcome for the victims?
5. Why and how did people participate or become complicit in the crime of genocide?
6. Why is it important to study the stories of individuals within the context of mass atrocity?
7. What needs to be done in order to reduce the possibility of genocide in the future?

1. Our choices are shaped by the world around us and influence our identity and behavior
2. Genocide is a possible consequence of prejudice, hate, and discrimination
3. The decisions people make about who belongs and who has been excluded shape our interactions
4. Propaganda is a very powerful weapon
5. It is not possible for us to fully understand the experience of those that have suffered a genocide

1. I’m Not Leaving. Carl Wilkens 2011
2. Black Dog of Fate. Peter Balakian 1997
3. Zalta’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Wartime Sarajevo. Zlata Filipovic, 2006
4. The Terrorist Factory: ISIS, the Yazidi Genocide and Exploiting Terror. Father Patrick DesBois 2018
5. Invisible: Surviving the Cambodian Genocide: Memoirs of Mac and Simone Leng, 2017
6. Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur. Halima Bashir, 2009

1. Students will examine and discuss the ten stages of genocide and how they result in genocide.
2. Students will make a timeline of the genocides of the 20th and 21st centuries.
3. Students will identify genocides that have taken place before and after the Holocaust to the present day.

Assessments:

Students will be able to identify a minimum of five of the stages of genocide.

Have students choose a 20th or 21st-century genocide and identify the stages.

Students will be able to explain and describe the importance of the International Criminal Court in the 21st Century.

Curriculum Guide - United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights handout page 806-809.

Ten Stages of Genocide handout: https://www.genocidewatch.com/_files/ugd/137a5c_254b438641b243819ef84f0a5caa72e3.pdf

Worse Than War - YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsMe7QvqpaU Stop at 16:24

To Kill A People: Genocide in the Twentieth Century. John Cox, 2016

Curriculum guide - The 20th Century: 100 years of genocide page 836.

Genocide in the 21st Century PowerPoint will be provided

Student genocide project format will be provided

Governments around the world support universal human rights to varying degrees. 

6.2.12.CivicsHR.4.a: Analyze the motivations, causes, and consequences of the genocides of Armenians, Ukrainians, and Jews in the Holocaust and assess the responses by individuals, groups, and governments and analyze large-scale atrocities including 20th-century massacres in China. 

6.2.12.CivicsPI.4.b: Assess government responses to incidents of ethnic cleansing and genocide

Historical events and developments were shaped by the unique circumstances of time and place as well as broader historical contexts. 

6.2.12.HistoryCC.4.g: Use a variety of resources from different perspectives to analyze the role of racial bias, nationalism, and propaganda in mobilizing civilian populations in support of “total war.” 

6.2.12.HistoryCC.4.h: Compare and contrast World Wars I and II in terms of technological innovations (i.e., industrial production, scientific research, war tactics) and social impact (i.e., national mobilization, loss of life, and destruction of property).

Complex interacting factors influence people’s perspective 

6.2.12.HistoryUP.4.b: Report on the influence of war, economic depression, and genocide on the arts, cultural values, and social ideas. 

6.2.12.HistoryUP.4.c: Compare and contrast the actions of individuals as perpetrators, bystanders, and rescuers during events of persecution or genocide, and describe the long-term consequences of genocide for all involved.