Encountering Genocide: Personal Accounts from Victims, Perpetrators, and Witnesses

by Paul R. Bartrop

Overview

Cutting-edge in its scope and approach, this unique volume offers first-person accounts of modern genocides to enable readers to more fully examine genocidal experiences and better understand the horror of such events.

From the atrocities of the Holocaust to the ongoing horrors in Darfur, genocide has been a gruesome and all-too-prominent fixture of modern history. There is no better way to examine and understand these events than through the accounts of those involved. This unique collection of primary sources features 50 documents, some of which have never before been made public. These firsthand accounts—diary entries, memoirs, oral testimony, original interviews, and more—illuminate 10 genocides of the 20th and 21st centuries as they were experienced by victims, perpetrators, and bystanders.

The book begins with the Herero Genocide (1904–1907) and ends with a consideration of the atrocities in Darfur. Each of the 50 documents features a brief introduction that provides basic and essential information such as who created it as well as when, where, and why. The work concludes with an analysis comprised of scholarly commentary, additional contextual information, and a list of questions that will serve as a springboard for student discussion of history and of the nature of survival in the face of evil.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781610693301
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/30/2014
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Paul R. Bartrop, PhD, is professor of history and director of the Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, FL.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction xv

1 The Herero Genocide 1

Peter Moor 3

Commentary 6

Questions 8

Lothar von Trotha 8

Commentary 10

Questions 12

Hendrik Fraser and Daniel Esma Dixon 12

Commentary 15

Questions 17

2 The Armenian Genocide 19

Sayied Ahmed Moukhtar Baas 21

Commentary 23

Questions 26

Frances Gage 26

Commentary 29

Questions 31

Sevly Krickorian 32

Commentary 35

Questions 37

Grigoris Balakian 38

Commentary 41

Questions 44

William S. Dodd 44

Commentary 47

Questions 49

Joseph Naayem 50

Commentary 53

Questions 55

"Papayiannis," 55

Commentary 59

Questions 60

Efthimios N. Couzinos 61

Commentary 63

Questions 65

3 The Holocaust 67

Martha Dodd 70

Commentary 73

Questions 75

Valentin Senger 76

Commentary 78

Questions 80

Sidney Simon 81

Commentary 84

Questions 86

Fred Spiegel 86

Commentary 89

Questions 91

Shirley Berger Gottesman 92

Commentary 95

Questions 97

Jadzia Altman Greenbaum 97

Commentary 100

Questions 102

Ida Weisbaum Feinberg 102

Commentary 105

Questions 107

Rudolf Hoess 107

Commentary 110

Questions 112

Filip Müller 112

Commentary 116

Questions 118

4 The Cambodian Genocide 119

Teeda Butt Mam 121

Commentary 124

Questions 126

Samnang Shawn Vann 126

Commentary 130

Questions 132

Leng Houth 132

Commentary 136

Questions 138

Sambo Thouch 138

Commentary 141

Questions 143

Jon Swain 143

Commentary 146

Questions 148

5 The Guatemalan Genocide 149

Ricardo Falla 151

Commentary 154

Questions 155

Beatriz Manz 156

Commentary 160

Questions 161

Jesús Tecú Osorio 162

Commentary 166

Questions 168

6 The East Timor Genocide 169

Constâncio Pinto 172

Commentary 175

Questions 176

"Lourenco," 177

Commentary 180

Questions 182

Russell Anderson 182

Commentary 185

Questions 187

7 The Kurdistan Genocide 189

Dana Halabjayi 191

Commentary 195

Questions 197

8 The Rwandan Genocide 199

Els de Temraerman 202

Commentary 205

Questions 207

Marie-Louise Kagoyire 207

Commentary 210

Questions 212

Révérien Rurangwa 212

Commentary 216

Questions 218

"Witness JJ," 218

Commentary 221

Questions 223

Hutu Killers 223

Commentary 227

Questions 229

Don MacNeil and Jean Damascene Ndayambaje 229

Commentary 233

Questions 235

Fergal Keane 235

Commentary 238

Questions 240

9 The Bosnian Genocide 241

"A Sarajevo Mother and Daughter," 244

Commentary 248

Questions 250

Borislav Herak 250

Commentary 255

Questions 257

Nihada Hodzie 257

Commentary 261

Questions 263

Kemal Pervanic 263

Commentary 266

Questions 268

"Amer," 269

Commentary 272

Questions 275

Pierre Salignon 275

Commentary 278

Questions 280

10 The Darfur Genocide 281

"Suleiman," 283

Commentary 286

Questions 289

Bibliography 291

Index 297

About the Author 305