Reflections on Genocide Project

1- What is the most beneficial/most important thing you have learned throughout this project? Explain.

       The most important thing that I have learned throughout this genocide project is how easily people can look away when something awful is happening. Throughout learning about these genocides I saw how they went on for months and even years while others knowing what was happening did nothing to stop it. This goes for smaller scale things also. When there is a fight going on at school people are getting hurt. Most of the people standing by and watching it do nothing. They don’t try to break them apart for fear of hurting themself. They don’t tell a teacher usually because they just don’t care. Those bystanders aren’t the ones being hurt so why would they care? If there is just one person standing up they can make a small impact. But people need to stand up together to end the bad things that are happening. During genocides people would be scared to stand up. This is why genocides continue to happen. I hope what I’ve learned during this genocide unit will help myself and others stand up and speak out.

2- What connections have you made between the different genocides you have researched and learned more about through presentations. You are to focus on two different connections, taking evidence from your notes to explain and elaborate.

       The first connection I made was between the Cambodian Genocide and The Holocaust. This is because during both of these atrocities people were being murdered because of their physical appearances. During the Cambodian genocide they killed those who were “elite” meaning those who were capable of overruling them. But the way they determined this was from their features, even though many intelligent people didn’t have the glasses and soft hands that they looked for. When they found someone like this they would send them away and kill them. During the Holocaust they killed Jews who didn’t have blond hair and blue eyes. They shipped away those who didn’t fit their “superior” aryan race to concentration or killing camps. These and many other genocides targeted certain people based on things they can’t control.

Another connection I made was between the Holodomer/Ukraine Genocide and the Armenian genocide. This connection is based on how much time it takes for genocides to be recognized as genocides. This can be said about almost any genocide but these two genocides are strong examples of it. The Holodomor genocide ended in 1933, 87 years ago. All this time after the thousands of people in Ukraine starved and died and it is still not considered a genocide. The Armenian genocide ended 103 years ago and the country of Armenia is still denying it happened. People’s denial of genocides is one of the causes of them happening over and over again.