Holocaust Syllabus

Holocaust and Human Rights

Mr. Moch

Room 206

“To Forget the Dead

Would be Akin

To Killing Them Again”

                                                                                                ~Elie Wiesel

Course Description & Purpose:

The mission of this class is to expose students to the issues associated with Genocide. We will explore the creation, perpetration, and facilitation of genocide through multiple approaches including: history, sociology, psychology, political science, and economics. The Holocaust will be used as the baseline to then examine other atrocities of the 20th and 21st century. They include but are not limited to: Armenian Genocide, Soviet Union programs under Lenin and Stalin (Holodomore), The Invasion of Manchuria, Mao’s great leap forward, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, Rwanda, Bosnia and modern North Korea. 

Goals:

1. Become more knowledgeable about historical events prior to and within the 20th Century as they relate to genocide acts of atrocity and human rights violations.

2. Roles and responsibilities of the international community and attempts to address genocide.

3. Identify and analyze various forms of individual and collective resistance to oppression.

4. Identify if similarities exist among the historical examples of genocides and massacres to determine if common causes or influences can be acknowledged and anticipated.

5. Analyze the role of media and propaganda in modern genocide

Please note that this class deals with content that demonstrates severe inhumanity and suffering. I will not allow any joking, taunting, demeaning, belittling comments or actions.  If this occurs I will have you removed from this class. I will not allow these victims to be disgraced a second time. The material we will read, view, watch and study is often graphic and very difficult to digest. However it is incredibly important to study it so we can understand the past and work towards stopping genocide in the future.   

Grading

This class will incorporate various assessments. They include but are not limited to: Tests, Quizzes, Papers, Projects (both group and individual), book and article reviews and movie reviews. 

Breakdown of Grades

50% Tests/Papers

40% Homework and Quizzes

10% Participation