| This page includes book
overviews and short technical papers on topics of interest to educators
who teach about the Holocaust and other genocide and ethnocide-related
issues. Several of the authors are receiving partial funding through a
grant from the National
Endowment for the Humanities. In the future we hope to add
more. Educators or students interested in publishing to our journal
should contact Ray Wolpow at
Ray.Wolpow@wwu.edu.
Note from the webmaster:We
are currently beta testing a new version of the overview page. Click
here to be some of the first to try it out. It does have some bugs, and
you can help us in improving it.
Link:
Overview 2.0 Page.
If you have comments or experienced any
bugs please email the webmaster,
AJ Barse
Thank you. |
Click
on a title to read the full version.
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Rusesabagina, P.
(2006). An Ordinary Man. New York: Penguin
Group Inc. (with references to the 2005 Terry George film; Hotel Rwanda)
Written by Nicole Trecker
During the late spring and early summer
of 1994, hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina saved the lives of 1,268 Rwandans.
In the midst of a genocide that killed approximately 800,000 Rwandans in 100
days, Rusesabagina did what he claims any “ordinary man” would do: he
transformed the luxurious Belgian-owned hotel he managed, the Mille Collines,
into a refuge for all Tutsi or moderate Hutu refugees who sought safety. As
chaos ensued outside the hotel walls, Rusesabagina courageously utilized a
combination of diplomacy and persuasion, and when these didn’t work -- guile
and deceit, to protect his guests.
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Bain, A., Marlowe, J., and Shapiro, A. (Directors and
Producers). (2006). Darfur diaries: message from home. [DVD]. New
York: Cinema Libre Distribution.
-and-
Marlowe, J. with Bain, A. and Shapiro, A. (2006).
Darfur diaries: stories of survival. New York: Nation Books.
Written by Nicole Trecker
Disappointed by
mainstream media’s insufficient coverage of the escalating humanitarian
crisis in Darfur, three filmmakers set out in October 2004 to film a
documentary in which Darfurians could share their thoughts, fears, and hopes
about the current genocide. They interviewed refugees in the camps of
eastern Chad and traveled through northwestern Darfur to film one destroyed
village after another. Teachers, students, parents, SLA soldiers, and other
members of the community shared their stories. The filmmakers’ intent was
not to tell the world what is happening in Darfur, but to provide an
opportunity for Darfurians to do so using their own words. Upon their return
to the U.S., the three spent the next year and a half sifting through their
notes and film footage, creating this 260-page book and 57-minute
documentary.
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Tec, N.
(1986). When light pierced the darkness: Christian rescue of Jews in
Nazi-occupied Poland. New York: Oxford University Press.
Written by James Lehman.
Many people know
the name Anne Frank, and many remember her story. Fewer people know or
remember anything about the Christian rescuers that protected and hid
her. In this text, Nechama Tec provides a framework for understanding the
motivations of Christian rescuers in Poland during the Holocaust. Mrs.
Tec was one of the few fortunate Jews who survived World War II in Poland
by passing as a Christian. She is currently a professor of sociology at
the University of Connecticut and is the winner of the 1990 Christopher
Award.
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Power,
Samantha. (2002). “A problem from hell”: America and the age of
genocide. New York: Basic Books. Written by James Lehman.
In her book A
Problem from Hell, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Samantha Power
provides us a disturbing examination of 20th century acts
of genocide as well as documentation of the unwillingness and
consequential lack of response by the United States to these atrocities.
This must read book on genocide and American foreign policy is a powerful
resource for teachers, with many quotes, pictures, references and also an
extensive bibliography. Ms. Power, currently the executive director
of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at John F. Kennedy School of
Government, adamantly criticizes the United States for its reluctance to
become involved in the prevention of genocide, documenting repeatedly how
American officials preferred to remain neutral rather than take the risk
of engagement.
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Bok, Francis. (2003). Escape
From Slavery: The true story of my ten years in captivity - and my journey
to freedom in America. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Written by James Lehman
One could
believe that slavery and genocide are atrocities of the past; however, Mr.
Bok descriptions of his first hand experiences and struggles with slavery
and of the genocide in his native country of Sudan gives strong evidence
to the contrary. Bok details his childhood as a slave in Sudan and also
his journey in fighting slavery as an abolitionist in the United States.
Joram Kagan was born
in Lublin, Poland. He was deported to the Arkhangelsk region in 1940 before
evacuating to Iran in 1942. Kagan later went and served in the Givati
Brigade during Israel’s war of independence. He is currently retired and
living with his family in New York City. In this text Mr. Kagan offers
vital information for those interested in examining Poland’s Jewish
heritage. The paperback is not long (264 pages) and contains three
chapters. The first provides an introduction to the Polish Jewish culture
past and present. The second offers a chronology of the Jewish presence in
Poland and the third chapter consists of an in-depth glossary of Polish
Jewry.
Dr. Robert
Ericksen is a renowned scholar of the Holocaust and is currently a
professor at Pacific Lutheran University where he teaches several courses,
including one on the Holocaust. In this book Ericksen takes an in depth
look at three prominent 20th century Protestant German
theologians: Gerhard Kittel, Paul Althaus and Emanuel Hirsch. All
supported Hitler and the Nazi party during the rise of the Third Reich.
Ericksen questions how church and university scholars could support a
cruel, inhumane dictator, such as Hitler.
In
this book Balakian provides an in depth look at the Armenian Genocide,
often been referred to as the “forgotten genocide” of the 20th
century. This
book is divided into two parts. The first examines the foreign
policy of the United States regarding the Armenian genocide, the second
examines why, when, where, and what tragic events took place in Turkey
between 1894 to the present day.
The
“Stories from Rwanda” are of the horrible genocide that took place
in this small African country in 1994.
The genocide involved two African tribes, the Hutus and the
Tutsis. Beginning in April
of 1994 and ending only ninety days later, just under a million Tutsis
were slaughtered by the Hutu majority, making this event the largest
genocide since the Nazi extermination of the Jews during World War II.
The book is divided up into three sections: before the genocide,
during the genocide and finally, after the genocide. Many testimonials,
from the different groups/individuals/nations, are included.
This
article looks at the tens
of thousands of people with disabilities were murdered during the
Holocaust, killed in the so-called "euthanasia" program,
authorized by Hitler in the fall of 1939.
This book contains a
collection of four manuscripts that were found buried in the ground at
the death camp Birkenau near crematoriums II and III. The manuscripts
were written by members of the Sonderkommando - the worksquad of
prisoners who whose job it was to tend to the bodies of those who died
in the gas chambers. While none of the men survived the camp, the notes
they wrote in secret are an invaluable resource for those researching
the Holocaust.
This is a short informational
pamphlet about some of the more prominent hate groups in the Northwest.
This is an interesting book
that provides a new perspective on the spread of hatred and violence.
The authors tell the history of hate music and chronicle its development
and subsequent spread into some music scenes.
A fictional biography and
speculation on the life of Nazi resister & Christian theologian,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This book serves as an exploration into his
humanity and offers an important perspective on courage, heroic action
and resistance in the face of inhumanity.
This historical book provides
three perspectives about the atrocities that occurred in and around
Nanking during World War II. The author gives a gripping historical
account backed by eyewitness testimony and other primary source
documents to legitimize what she and others believe took place during
the Japanese invasion of Nanking.
Shared Sorrows is an oral
history of a Gypsy family's experiences during the Holocaust. Throughout
the book author Toby Sonneman weaves together a narrative of her
father’s experiences in Nazi Germany with those of the Gypsies she
interviews. The book provides a very personal account of the Gypsy
experience during the Holocaust.
Works
Previously Published in Other Journals by NWCHE Director Dr. Ray Wolpow
(Used with permission)
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