History of Genocide

This short video clip gives a little bit of background on the terms genocide, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing. it starts out with historical background in areas that have witnessed these atrocities throughout the world. The first representation is in the country of Turkey, then continental Europe with the Holocaust, then Cambodia during 1975, then Bosnia from 1992-1995, then Iraq in the late 1980's to the early 1990's to Rwanda in April of 1994. I think that this video does a good job of illustrating a timeline of genocide and helps by including maps of these locations.

The next part of this video then looks at the 21st century, particularly at Darfur. Although not mentioned in this video you could link this to both the genocide taking place in both Somalia and North Korea as we speak. This video will hopefully help students to see that genocide is still present today and will serve as a starting point into our semester long study.

Make A Difference-Make Their Voices Heard!

This video clip was created to show people the atrocities and genocide inflicted upon innocent people in Darfur and make a point about the fact that genocide is still happening in our world today. This video clip uses the song "One," by U-2 and Mary Blige. It is a very powerful message that really persuades people to act. What will you do to make their voices heard?

Women Making a Difference in Rwanda

In this video clip it looks at women's roles in Rwanda shortly following the genocide. One of the most powerful video clips is right in the beginning when there is a close up on women delicately washing the skulls, bones, and teeth of Tootsies killed in this genocide. Politician Speciose has made it her mission to rebuild these fallen villages and give orphaned children a safe haven. She shows women clearly making a difference for the betterment of society. I think that this is important to show because although Rwanda may be struggling, active women are taking a stand to make their country a better place for all to live. Very powerful and shows the true act of feminism making a difference. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwRyRMLXTVA

Class and Genocide

The following music video clip is performed by Green Day. It is a remake of John Lennon's song a "Working Class Hero." I thought that Green Day did a good job of using this song with embedded clips of Sudanese people to explain how the class struggle is causing many of their brothers and sisters to die. I think it does a good job trying to persuade people to take a stand and do something about it.

Media Literacy , the Holocaust, and 21st century genocide

I have been an English teacher at the middle school level for eight years. I am currently an Eighth grade teacher that is required to teach the Holocaust as part of the curriculum. In the past we have read The Diary of Anne Frank (which is required) as well as other
supporting material to give students some background knowledge previous to starting their ten page research paper. Some of the topics include researching influential people such as Adolf Hitler, Henrich Himmler, Holocaust survivors, as well as specific concentration camps and corporations who supported the Nazi regime. Students really love this unit because it is a part of our history that they usually know little about and can compare it to places like the Sudan and Iraq where genocide is still present today.

My hopes are to create a unit that still captures the interests of my students, but that not only requires them to demonstrate mastery in research skills and writing, but also to employ some kind of media literacy as well. While looking on YouTube, I was able to find several video clips that dealt primarily with this subject and could be easily used by students as they are researching their topics and/or creating their presentations. The following video-clips highlight a media that might be useful to students due to their rawness/graphic depictions in the pictures, musical choices, historical content, camera angles, and that more importantly appeal to our emotions.

In reading some of the bloggers responses to the video-clips that I will be highlighting below, I was really blown away with their raw honesty. There was definitely a lot of people that were horrified that the Holocaust took place, but several others state that it never existed and also shared their prejudices and racism very openly. This in itself would make for a very interesting dialogue with students.

IBM computer history

This particular video clip is important to show students because it highlights some big corporations and their involvement in producing things that benefited and supported the Nazi regime. There are specific references made about General Motors, Ford, and Coca-Cola. However, the corporation that is mainly highlighted is IBM's involvement in creating software that allowed the Nazis to track Jews and Poles through census reporting.

This video would be great to show to students and allow them to have a guided discussion about whether they are are for or against what these corporations are doing and why, and looking at how the elements of greed, morality, and ethics either shape or not shape our decisions. Follow-up questions could be: How does this or could the content presented in this video-clip compare to the War in Iraq? Do you see any similarities between the video-clip and the war we are currently fighting?

Heinrich Himmler reveals the truth about the holocaust

This video-clip is never before seen footage of a "secret" tape recorded by the second most powerful man during the Nazi regime; Henrich Himmler. He speaks very openly and candidly about the weapon factories, extermination of the Jews, and the importance of doing so to protect Germany. If I was to have students analyze this clip, I would first have them look at the way in which the recording and the written script are portrayed. We here Himmler's voice and see two languages scrolling on the screen; one in German and the other in English. I would ask them why do you think the video director chose this medium to present this footage. I would also have them analyze whether or not they felt it was effective. I personally thought that this technique was very effective because it made it feel very real. Some follow-up questions that students could discuss are again this theme of morality, what does it take to actually follow through with this demand, as well as whether or not they think that the SS soldiers were brainwashed into believing that they were doing this for the common good of the people or out of fear.