THE ACT OF INDIFFERENCE

We mark the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide this year.  Despite  warnings of imminent violence, the world failed to act and some 800,000 people were murdered within 100 days in 1994. As long as genocide remains a threat, we must continue to ask ourselves about the consequences of action - and of inaction. That is how we strive to fulfill the promise of Never Again!

You have the opportunity to say, "I will not be a by-stander." 

PERIOD 2: AMERICA AND THE HOLOCAUST

Complex social and political factors shaped America's response to the Holocaust, from Kristallnacht in 1938 through the liberation of the death camps in 1945. For a short time, the U.S. had an opportunity to open its doors, but instead erected a "paper wall," a bureaucratic maze that prevented all but a few Jewish refugees from entering the country. When do you think the government should have become involved in helping the Jews and what should it have done? What were the factors that prevented the government from helping Jewish refugees enter the country?

PERIOD 4: AMERICA AND THE HOLOCAUST

Complex social and political factors shaped America's response to the Holocaust, from Kristallnacht in 1938 through the liberation of the death camps in 1945. For a short time, the U.S. had an opportunity to open its doors, but instead erected a "paper wall," a bureaucratic maze that prevented all but a few Jewish refugees from entering the country. When do you think the government should have become involved in helping the Jews and what should it have done? What were the factors that prevented the government from helping Jewish refugees enter the country?