Connecting the Dots from the Holocaust to Contemporary Genocides:

Connecting the Dots from the Holocaust to

Contemporary Genocides:

A Workshop for Educators Andrew Beiter, presenter

Caring about the Holocaust

The HolocaustResource Center

of Buffalo

2008-09 Museum Teacher Fellowship

Program

Last July in Rwanda

The Land of a Thousand Hills

The size of two Washoe Counties…

The images we received from Rwanda in 1994…

Back then here at home:

All of the materials today are also posted on my website at http://www.springvillegi.org/webpages/

abeiter/holocaust.cfm

• The following presentation starts on page six of your packet, with the notes having double copies…

Please note:

Into the Genocide

Rwanda, 1994

Background:In 1994, Rwanda had a population of seven million, comprised of the following three tribes:

•Hutu: 85 percent

•Tutsi: 14 percent

•Twa: 1 percent

The Basics:• In one hundred days in the Spring of

1994, an extremist, Hutu-led government slaughtered over million Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

• It is considered a genocide, or the mass murder directed at eradicating, or wiping out a group of people based upon their race, ethnicity, or religion.

The Causes of the Genocide:1) The Legacy of

Imperialism: To divide and

conquer the population, the Belgians started a system of racial identity cards, classifying Rwandans based upon tribe.

Tutsi Identity Card

The Belgians in Rwanda,

1914-1962

The Berlin Conference, 1884

Scientific Racism of the late 1800’s

The Causes of the Genocide:

2) Backlash and Scapegoating:

• In 1962, the Belgians withdrew and gave power to the Hutus.

• This unleashed a wave of anti-Tutsi backlash and pogroms, or mass killings. Rwandan Flag, 1962

•This also created a Tutsi exile community in Africa, eager to get back to their homeland.

•This group was called the Rwandan Patriotic Front, or RPF, and led by their general Paul Kagame.

Paul Kagame in the early 1990’s

•Scared of losing their influence, the Hutu Power movement was formed.

•They put pressure on the President of Rwanda Juvénal Habyarimana to not share power with the RPF, and to withdraw from the UN peace agreement known as the Arusha Accords.

President Habyarimana

The Causes of the Genocide:3)

Propaganda:The Hutu Power movement was relentless in its use of radio and print messages that labeled Tutsis cockroaches, and a threat to their version of a better Rwanda.

“Beware of the cockroaches…”

The Hutu Ten Commandments, 1990

1. Every Hutu must know that the Tutsi woman, wherever she may be, is working for the Tutsi ethnic cause. In consequence, any Hutu is a traitor who:

- Acquires a Tutsi wife;- Acquires a Tutsi concubine;- Acquires a Tutsi secretary or protégée.

2.Every Hutu must know that our Hutu daughters are more worthy and more conscientious as women, as wives and as mothers. Aren’t they lovely, excellent secretaries, and more honest!

The Causes of the Genocide:4) Social Factors: Poverty,

Overpopulation, and illiteracy all made citizens more likely to believe what the propaganda was saying.

A typical Rwanda house in the country…

• These factors gave birth to the Hutu death squads of unemployed Rwandan young men known as the Interahamwe, or “Those who attack together.”

The Causes of the Genocide:5) A Bogus National

Emergency:

The plane crash of President Habyarimana, June 6th, 1994

•The Hutu Power Movement shot down the plane of the President and blamed it on the Tutsis.

•Within several hours, roadblocks were set up and the killings began…

6) The Power of Conformity among the population:

•As in most genocides, peer pressure gave momentum to the killings.

Video Images…

Responses and Legacy:

Please see the Handout on Responses and Legacy in your packet, created by USHMM

Fellow, Leigh-Anne Hendrick….

The International Response:

Head of UN Peacekeeping, Sounded the Alarm…

The Effect of Somalia on Clinton, 1993

Senator Paul Simon on Rwanda:“If every member of the House and Senate would have received 100 letters from people back home…I think the result would have been different…”

The Effects:

•Huge loss of population and potential.

•Massive amounts of HIV.

•Spillover of War in the Congo…five million dead since 1995…

President Bush with Paul Rusesabagina

Do Assessing and Defining

Responsibility Worksheet:

created by the USHMM education staff…

Rwanda Today:

Promise and

Hope

Carl Wilkens

with Children

in Rwanda last July

The “Never Again” Club of Gakoni High School

With Monica and Gloria, Student Leaders of the “Never Again” Club

Rwandan Soldiers doing service projects in the countryside…

Cell phone towers and

satellite dishes

Wireless Internet Connections

Teacher Colleges

under Construction

Rwandan Teacher Faustin Niyonsenga with his students just two weeks ago…

Show video on Rwanda here…