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

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.

Table of Contents:
Preface and Acknowledgments, Introduction, 1 THE HERERO GENOCIDE Peter Moor, Commentary, Questions, Lothar von Trotha, Commentary, Questions, Hendrik Fraser and Daniel Esma Dixon, Commentary, Questions, 2 THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE Sayied Ahmed Moukhtar Baas, Commentary, Questions, Frances Gage, Commentary, Questions, Sevly Krickorian, Commentary, Questions, Grigoris Balakian, Commentary, Questions, William S. Dodd, Commentary, Questions, Joseph Naayem, Commentary, Questions, "Papayiannis," Commentary, Questions, Efthimios N. Couzinos, Commentary, Questions, 3 THE HOLOCAUST Martha Dodd, Commentary, Questions, Valentin Senger, Commentary, Questions, Sidney Simon, Commentary, Questions, Fred Spiegel, Commentary, Questions, Shirley Berger Gottesman, Commentary, Questions, Jadzia Altman Greenbaum, Commentary, Questions, Ida Weisbaum Feinberg, Commentary, Questions, Rudolf Hoess, Commentary, Questions, Filip Müller, Commentary, Questions, 4 THE CAMBODIAN GENOCIDE Teeda Butt Mam, Commentary, Questions, Samnang Shawn Vann, Commentary, Questions, Leng Houth, Commentary, Questions, Sambo Thouch, Commentary, Questions, Jon Swain, Commentary, Questions, 5 THE GUATEMALAN GENOCIDE Ricardo Falla, Commentary, Questions, Beatriz Manz, Commentary, Questions, Jesús Tecú Osorio, Commentary, Questions, 6 THE EAST TIMOR GENOCIDE Constâncio Pinto, Commentary, Questions, "Lourenco," Commentary, Questions, Russell Anderson, Commentary, Questions, 7 THE KURDISTAN GENOCIDE Dana Halabjayi, Commentary, Questions, 8 THE RWANDAN GENOCIDE Els de Temmerman, Commentary, Questions, Marie-Louise Kagoyire, Commentary, Questions, Révérien Rurangwa, Commentary, Questions, "Witness JJ," Commentary, Questions, Hutu Killers, Commentary, Questions, Don MacNeil and Jean Damascene Ndayambaje, Commentary, Questions, Fergal Keane, Commentary, Questions, 9 THE BOSNIAN GENOCIDE "A Sarajevo Mother and Daughter," Commentary, Questions, Borislav Herak, Commentary, Questions, Nihada Hodzic, Commentary, Questions, Kemal Pervani, Commentary, Questions, "Amer," Commentary, Questions, Pierre Salignon, Commentary, Questions, 10 THE DARFUR GENOCIDE "Suleiman," Commentary, Questions, Bibliography, Index, About the Author,

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.