Night Will Fall/Cries from Syria
– Comparison/Contrast Essay/Research Paper Assignment –
Length: Three-four pages of text, in addition to the following:
Format: MLA-style writing, references, in-text citation and correctly formatted reference page. Paper MUST be double spaced, have properly indented
paragraphs, be peer-reviewed, spell and grammar checked, etc. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE IN-TEXT CITATION, YOU WILL EARN AN INSTANT “F.”
Due Dates:
Rough draft due February 14- Please have this ready to share in class for peer review and for submission to Turnitin.com as well.
Final, perfected draft due February 24
“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana
Though the Holocaust and the documentary Night Will Fall are disturbing reminders of an atrocity committed against millions of people, as time goes by, it
gets easier for many to deny it happened at all, or forget the most important lesson of all: It’s happening again.
The United Nations uses the following definition to classify acts of genocide: “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a
national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to
prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
For this assignment, you will be viewing both documentaries in class and will participate in a discussion about the film; you will then be writing a
comparison/contrast essay about genocide.
Read the attached briefing and think about it and what you saw in the films. As you can see in the first documentary, the Nazis attempted and very nearly
succeeded in efforts to commit an act of genocide against the Jewish people, as well as Gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally retarded and anyone else they
believed were ‘undesirables’, or an estimated total of roughly 11,000,000 people killed. This is happening on a smaller scale now in numerous places,
including Syria, which has been embroiled in a bitter, bloody civil war for many years, and is on the verge of becoming a full-blown genocide in Myanmar.
Genocides have happened many times in the recent past (Rwanda – approximately 1,000,000 deaths; Cambodia – 3,000,000; Armenia – 1,500,000; Russia
-7,500,000; Bosnia Herzegovina – 38,000, etc.) There is, even now in the 21st century, still rampant antisemitism and a rise of violence and hatred against
others of many faiths and ethnicities. Consider also the actions of ISIL, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups active today as well as current
policies to restrict immigration by the current United States political administration and how such policies could conceivably foster hate.
Students will respond to the following prompt in their essay:
Compare and contrast the past attempted genocide of European Jews and others whom the Nazis declared ‘undesirables’ with the atrocities taking place
today in Syria and Myanmar.
Be sure to answer the following questions completely and in essay form, using examples and support from multiple, reputable, academic and scholarly
sources (NOT WIKIPEDIA!):
What similarities and differences do you find between the attitudes and actions of the victims, as well as leaders, local citizens and military members who
perpetuated past and present genocides?
What, if anything, do you believe can be done to curb such behavior in the future? (This is a research paper, not a personal journal. Find experts who share
your opinions and both refer to them and be sure to cite any utilized quotes, information and ideas using MLA-style references – also use in-text citations.)
Suggestions:
Be prepared to do some intelligent research into the past and present and both form a thesis and give solid examples which revolve around your comparing
the events of history and what you believe is necessary to stop it from happening again. This is going to take some serious thinking and discussion, but, it is
possible. This will most probably be the most difficult assignment in this class, but I believe you have the power to make it happen.
The Eight Stages of Genocide
By Gregory H. Stanton, President, Genocide Watch
Classification Symbolization Dehumanization Organization Polarization Preparation Extermination Denial
Genocide is a process that develops in eight stages that are predictable but not inexorable. At each stage, preventive measures can stop it. The process is
not linear. Logically, later stages must be preceded by earlier stages. But all stages continue to operate throughout the process.
1. CLASSIFICATION: All cultures have categories to distinguish people into “us and them” by ethnicity, race, religion, or nationality: German and Jew, Hutu and
Tutsi. Bipolar societies that lack mixed categories, such as Rwanda and Burundi, are the most likely to have genocide. The main preventive measure at this
early stage is to develop universalistic institutions that transcend ethnic or racial divisions, that actively promote tolerance and understanding, and that
promote classifications that transcend the divisions. The Catholic church could have played this role in Rwanda, had it not been riven by the same ethnic
cleavages as Rwandan society. Promotion of a common language in countries like Tanzania has also promoted transcendent national identity. This search
for common ground is vital to early prevention of genocide.
2. SYMBOLIZATION: We give names or other symbols to the classifications. We name people “Jews” or “Gypsies”, or distinguish them by colors or dress; and
apply the symbols to members of groups. Classification and symbolization are universally human and do not necessarily result in genocide unless they lead
to the next stage, dehumanization. When combined with hatred, symbols may be forced upon unwilling members of pariah groups: the yellow star for Jews
under Nazi rule, the blue scarf for people from the Eastern Zone in Khmer Rouge Cambodia. To combat symbolization, hate symbols can be legally forbidden
(swastikas) as can hate speech. Group marking like gang clothing or tribal scarring can be outlawed, as well. The problem is that legal limitations will fail if
unsupported by popular cultural enforcement. Though Hutu and Tutsi were forbidden words in Burundi until the 1980’s, code-words replaced them. If widely
supported, however, denial of symbolization can be powerful, as it was in Bulgaria, where the government refused to supply enough yellow badges and at
least eighty percent of Jews did not wear them, depriving the yellow star of its significance as a Nazi symbol for Jews.
3. DEHUMANIZATION: One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases.
Dehumanization overcomes the normal human revulsion against murder. At this stage, hate propaganda in print and on hate radios is used to vilify the victim
group. In combating this dehumanization, incitement to genocide should not be confused with protected speech. Genocidal societies lack constitutional