Ideas...page 3 of 6

As most students will already have some understanding of the Holocaust, it is very useful to make references to the development of a totalitarian regime, such as the Nazi Party and the rise of Nazism in Germany. You can also introduce case studies of other genocides, such as the Hereros, Cambodia, Armenia, Bosnia or the ongoing genocidal crisis in Darfur, Sudan.

It would be useful to create an immediate link for studentsby studying how children were divided in their classrooms and identified according to their ethnic backgrounds, and how prejudice, discrimination and persecution were endorsed by people in authority.

Do also discuss the issue of identity with students.  In both the Holocaust and in Rwanda, people living side by side were divided by their ethnicity. Divisions were often fuelled by the ideology of hate and supremacy.

Use testimonies to demonstrate this, eg a Holocaust survivor, particularly

 a) Lisa Vincent from Holocaust Survivors Tell Their Story, published by Aegis Trust, 2003

And accounts from We Survived: Genocide in Rwanda (2006) both published by the Aegis Trust.

a) Freddy Mutanguha (pp. 114-119)

b) Beatha Uwazaninka (pp. 224-254)

Read the story of Beatha Uwazaninka aloud to your class. Trace what happened and how she felt.

Ask students what they think they can do about the situation of Rwanda 12 years on.  What can they do about Darfur, an ongoing genocide?  What might they be able to do for survivors of the Holocaust, their stories and for the future generation?

previous | next