Genocide Series at NECC
 
 
Adolf Hitler to his Army commanders, August 22, 1939
"Thus for the time being I have sent to the East only my 'Death's Head Units' with the orders to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish race or language. Only in such a way will we win the vital space that we need. Who still talks nowadays about the Armenians?"

Can Democracy Prevent Genocide?

We live in an age unparalleled in the frequency and severity of genocidal events, human rights abuses, and mass cruelty. It is imperative that we develop a greater understanding of the factors that contribute to this violence.

As a college we recognize the importance of education in combating indifference and intolerance. It is our intention that this series on genocide will provide information and an opportunity for dialogue as we seek to understand the injustices and mistreatment of human beings throughout history and in our time.

In the spring 2008, the NECC Diversity Committee will sponsor a series on genocide in a support of the spring play, "The Diary of Anne Frank", produced by the Top Notch Players and directed by Jim Murphy.

Throughout the semester, guest speakers will address various issues relating to genocide. In addition, faculty and staff will be incorporating related topics into their curriculum. This web site provides information about these special events, genocide resources, and a list of activities that faculty and staff are including in their coursework.

Biography of Anne Frank:

Anne FrankBorn on June 12, 1929, Anne Frank was a German-Jewish teenager who was forced to go into hiding during the Holocaust. She and her family, along with four others, spent 25 months during World War II in an annex of rooms above her father’s office in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

After being betrayed to the Nazis, Anne, her family, and the others living with them were arrested and deported to Nazi concentration camps. In March of 1945, nine months after she was arrested, Anne Frank died of typhus at Bergen-Belsen. She was fifteen years old.

Her diary, saved during the war by one of the family’s helpers, Miep Gies, was first published in 1947. Today, her diary has been translated into 67 languages and is one of the most widely read books in the world.

<< Click here for more information on Anne Frank. >>


Speaker Series:

My Experience as a Genocide Orphan:
Presented by Sayon Soeun
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 from 12:00-1:00 in TC-103A

Sayon SoeunTaken away from my home and family at the approximate age of five, I have no recollection of my first name nor my last name. Being raised as a child soldier in the Khmer Rouge labor camps since before the genocide took place nationwide, I was taught only hatred. There was no such thing as love, whether it was for a parent, friend, or sibling. With betrayal, violent bloodshed, and death around me at all times, for nearly six years I was drowned in an inhumane environment that no child should ever face or imagine. This is the story of my experience as a Genocide Orphan.

Biography: Sayon Soeun was born in Takeo province, Cambodia in the early 1970's. He was taken away from his family around 1973 and was trained to be a child soldier until about 1979 when he fled with others into Thailand. For the next 3 or so years, Mr. Soeun lived on his own, doing whatever work was available that would get his stomach fed. He arrived in the United States in late 1983 and settled with an adopted family in Middletown, Connecticut.

Currently, Mr. Soeun resides in Lowell and is the Executive Director of Light of Cambodian Children, Inc. (LCC), and a member of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee (JJAC). Mr. Soeun is a board member of One Lowell, Lowell Heritage Partnership, and the Lowell Southeast Asian Water Festival. In addition, he serves on the Workforce Investment Board Youth Council, Lowell Pollard Library Board of Trustees, and the Lowell Healthy Summer Committee.

<< Click here to view a video
presentation of Sayon Soeun. >>

<< Click here for more information about Genocide in Cambodia. >>

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Can Democracy Prevent Genocide?
Presented by Richard Kamber
Wednesday, March 26, 2008, from 12:00-1:00 in TC-103B

Richard KamberFrom the Armenian Genocide in 1915-18 to the Holocaust in the early 1940s to the grinding genocide unfolding in Darfur today, we are approaching the end of a century that has been repeatedly scarred by what Samantha Powers dubbed “a problem from hell.”

For nearly a hundred years genocide—in the broad sense of intentional, state supported mass murder of unarmed civilians—has occurred across the globe in societies large and small, rich and poor, old and new. Surely then, we must wonder whether genocide can happen anywhere or whether there are conditions that render a society immune to the commission of genocide, This is more than a theoretical inquiry. If we knew under what conditions genocide would not occur, we could take steps to prevent it by fostering those conditions.

The political scientist R. J. Rummel has argued that the surest safeguards against genocide are the constraints on governmental power that are constitutive of democracy. Yet democratic states have supported the intentional mass murder of unarmed civilians. The United States did so repeatedly in dealing with American Indians and France committed similar acts in Africa.

Nevertheless, I believe that democracy provides humanity’s best hope for preventing genocide. My talk is an explanation and defense of this idea.

<< Click here to view a video
presentation of Richard Kamber. >>

<< Click here for more information on Richard Kamber. >>

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The Holocaust: Lessons for the 21st Century
Presented by Sonia Schreiber Weitz
Wednesday, April 2, 2008, from 12:00-1:00 in E-155

Sonia WeitzSonia Schreiber Weitz is a Holocaust survivor, a poet, an educator and a human rights activist. Born in Krakow, Poland, she survived the Krakow Ghetto and five Nazi camps, including Auschwitz and Bergen – Belsen. Sonia is the founder and Education Director of the Holocaust Center Boston North, Inc. Through her everyday actions, her written and spoken word, she continues to challenge, encourage and inspire her audiences. Sonia dreams of a world “were there are no more victims nor victimizers and, above all, no more bystanders” – which she so eloquently expresses in an interview with Katie Couric on the NBC Today Show.

Sonia is the recipient of Doctor of Humane letters Honoris Causa from Salem State College and has been recognized with numerous international awards.

Sonia is a Presidential Appointee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Council. She is the author of The Poetry of Sonia Schreiber Weitz and the memoir I Promised I Would Tell.

<< Click here to view a video
presentation of Sonia Weitz. >>

<< Click here for more information on Sonia Weitz. >>

<< Click here for more information about Genocide in the 20th Century. >>

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For more information about this series, contact Judith Kamber at (978) 556-3955 or at jkamber@necc.mass.edu.

If you need to request interpreting services, please do so by contacting Dena M. Riccio-Enis, Accommodations Scheduler of Interpreting Services at 978-556-3897 TTY/V or at interpret@necc.mass.edu.

The speaker series is sponsored by
The Diversity Committee and was designed to support
The Diary of Anne Frank, a Top Notch Players production.


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