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Full-Text Articles in Holocaust and Genocide Studies

Objects Of Atrocity: Material Culture And The Challenges Of Difficult Histories, Robert M. Ehrenreich, Jane E. Klinger, Gabriel H. Pizzorno, Caroline Sturdy Colls Jun 2026

Objects Of Atrocity: Material Culture And The Challenges Of Difficult Histories, Robert M. Ehrenreich, Jane E. Klinger, Gabriel H. Pizzorno, Caroline Sturdy Colls

Purdue University Press Books

The vast majority of people throughout history have left few written traces. That is especially the case for those who were brutally forced from their homes, stripped of their possessions, and swiftly imprisoned, enslaved, or murdered. Objects of Atrocity: Material Culture and the Challenges of Difficult Histories addresses how we return humanity to these people in order to avoid their erasure from history. Academics and practitioners from a variety of disciplines and cross-disciplinary approaches grapple with the challenges and possibilities relating to the collection, conservation, storage, and display of objects in the aftermath of mass atrocities. This collection confronts a …


Combating Genocide Denial Through Rwanda’S Foreign Policy, Jonathan R. Beloff Apr 2025

Combating Genocide Denial Through Rwanda’S Foreign Policy, Jonathan R. Beloff

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Rwanda’s foreign policy is still greatly influenced by the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, commonly referred to as the Rwanda Genocide. Despite the genocidal massacres ending over thirty years ago, the Rwandan government still perceives its continued threat. Despite tangible threats to the state, such as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) decline, the concern of the genocide’s lasting ideology and denial still concerns Rwandan policymakers responsible for the nation’s foreign policy and remembrance. This research relies on in-depth fieldwork with various Rwandan government agencies responsible for crafting state security, foreign policy, and anti-genocide policies. It examines …


The Imperial Origins Of Genocide: Colonial Discourses And The Genocides In Timor-Leste And Rwanda, Zoe S. Appio Jan 2025

The Imperial Origins Of Genocide: Colonial Discourses And The Genocides In Timor-Leste And Rwanda, Zoe S. Appio

Honors Theses

This project aims to compare the ideological and structural colonial legacies that created the tensions for genocide to occur in Timor-Leste and Rwanda. It also aims to understand how these colonial legacies inhibited the international community's response and exacerbated the genocides. The genocide in Timor-Leste occurred from 1975 to 2002 and was perpetrated by the Indonesian government against the native Timorese population. The genocide in Rwanda occurred from April to July of 1994 and was perpetrated by the Hutu majority against the Tutsi minority. Throughout this thesis, I argue that colonial legacies like nationalism, racial hierarchies, and the maintenance of …


If Only Justice Could Heal Or Make Whole: Hard Lessons From Rwanda’S Legal Responses To Genocide And Mass Atrocity, Gerald Gahima Dec 2024

If Only Justice Could Heal Or Make Whole: Hard Lessons From Rwanda’S Legal Responses To Genocide And Mass Atrocity, Gerald Gahima

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

My reflections on the limits of legal responses in Rwanda stem from both academic and lived experience. I served as Rwanda’s Deputy Minister of Justice (1996–1999), Prosecutor General (1999–2003), and Deputy Chief Justice (2003–2004) during the period after the genocide. In those roles, I had access to a large volume of information drawn from policy- making roles, case files of members of my staff, as well as my own fieldwork relating to the suffering of victims of the genocide. While I obviously believe that justice for those crimes is not in vain, my work with survivors left me with an …


Institutional Legacies And The Decision To Commit Genocide, Stacey M. Mitchell Jun 2023

Institutional Legacies And The Decision To Commit Genocide, Stacey M. Mitchell

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Despite their striking similarities, which include population demographics, size, and a legacy of inter-group conflict, the collapse of democratization in Rwanda and Burundi in the early 1990s led to genocide in Rwanda and a different type of violence in Burundi. This study suggests that to better comprehend why risk factors lead to genocide in some cases and not others, focus must be placed on how these factors are perceived by those in power of the state experiencing them. This study introduces a model that uses Comparative Historical Analysis (CHA), process tracing, and the inclusion of a decision model built on …


Survivor Accounts Of Sexual Violence In The Holocaust And Rwandan Genocide: A Comparative History, Marisa Silva Jun 2023

Survivor Accounts Of Sexual Violence In The Holocaust And Rwandan Genocide: A Comparative History, Marisa Silva

Honors Projects

This research seeks to analyze and understand the approach and treatment of victims of sexual assaults stories and accounts using case studies of the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide. Research was conducted by collecting and reading first-hand accounts of survivors and their experiences of sexual assault, then analyzing the historical response following the events. The two case studies are synthesized and compared in this project to understand which attributes of political and social policy effected the reception of stories of victims and witnesses of rape and assault. Both genocides are affected by unique struggles in collecting witness accounts, as well …


A United Failure: The Failure Of The United Nations, United States, And Global Community In Preventing And Responding To The 1994 Rwandan Genocide, Josh Ratsch Dec 2022

A United Failure: The Failure Of The United Nations, United States, And Global Community In Preventing And Responding To The 1994 Rwandan Genocide, Josh Ratsch

Honors College Theses

The Rwandan Genocide represents a glaring failure of the global community to provide humanitarian protection to targets of ethnic violence and slaughter. The complete indifference displayed by the United Nations provided extremist Hutu leaders with an environment for killing without a threat of foreign intervention. Calls by the leader of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), Roméo Dallaire to reinforce the mission both before and during the slaughter fell upon deaf ears as UN leaders attempted to justify their inaction. Accounts from Rwandan representatives, who at the start of the genocide held a position on the UN Security …


Book Review: The Postcolonial African Genocide Novel: Quests For Meaningfulness, Sabah Carrim Jul 2022

Book Review: The Postcolonial African Genocide Novel: Quests For Meaningfulness, Sabah Carrim

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.


The Impact Of Religious Beliefs, Practices, And Social Networks On Rwandan Rescue Efforts During Genocide, Nicole Fox, Hollie Nyseth Brehm, John Gasana Gasasira May 2021

The Impact Of Religious Beliefs, Practices, And Social Networks On Rwandan Rescue Efforts During Genocide, Nicole Fox, Hollie Nyseth Brehm, John Gasana Gasasira

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

In April 1994, in one of the most Christian nations in Africa, genocidal violence erupted culminating in the deaths of upwards of one million people. While thousands participated in mass killings, others choose not to, and rescued persecuted individuals instead. Relying on 45 in-depth interviews with individuals who rescued others in Rwanda, we demonstrate that religion is tied to rescue efforts in at least three ways: 1) through the creation of cognitive safety nets that enabled high-risk actions; 2) through religious practices that isolated individuals from the social networks of those committing the violence; and 3) through religious social networks …


Failure To Protect?: Applying The Drri-2 Scales To Rwanda And Srebrenica, Elizabeth Mason Dec 2020

Failure To Protect?: Applying The Drri-2 Scales To Rwanda And Srebrenica, Elizabeth Mason

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article critically reanalyses the action, or lack of action, taken by UN peacekeepers in Rwanda and Srebrenica in the 1990's. The lack of action of UN peacekeepers in Rwanda and Bosnia has long been criticised as a conscious decision made by peacekeepers to not act in defence of those being targeted but instead to act as bystanders of genocide when they had the ability to prevent acts of genocide taking place. This article re-examines the actions of the UN command under Romeo Dallaire in Rwanda and Thom Karremans in Srebrenica, Bosnia in terms of the stress-related factors which influenced …


Rwanda’S Inyangamugayo: Perspectives From Practitioners In The Gacaca Transitional Justice Mechanism, Jean-Damascène Gasanabo, Donatien Nikuze, Hollie Nyseth Brehm, Hannah Parks Sep 2020

Rwanda’S Inyangamugayo: Perspectives From Practitioners In The Gacaca Transitional Justice Mechanism, Jean-Damascène Gasanabo, Donatien Nikuze, Hollie Nyseth Brehm, Hannah Parks

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

The Gacaca courts have been the subject of much academic work. Yet, few studies have examined the elected individuals who presided over Gacaca court trials, reflecting a broader paucity of research on local practitioners of transitional justice. Accordingly, this study asks two questions: (1) How did the Gacaca court judges, known as Inyangamugayo, perceive their duties to fight impunity and facilitate reconciliation? And (2) What challenges did the Inyangamugayo face as they sought to implement these duties? To address these questions, we interviewed 135 former Inyangamugayo. Our interviews shed light on the Inyangamugayo’s understandings of punishment and …


When Priests Forgot About God: An Analysis Of The Catholic Church's Role In Genocide, Mary M. Fertitta Jan 2020

When Priests Forgot About God: An Analysis Of The Catholic Church's Role In Genocide, Mary M. Fertitta

The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research

The Catholic Church in Rwanda for more than a century was a witness to the atrocities of genocide. One million Rwandans died in 100 days while many Catholic priests and nuns stood by offering no assistance. Others participated in the slaughter. The majority of those killed were killed in churches or on church grounds. Since Belgium's acquisition of Rwanda, there have been ties between the Catholic Church and the government of Rwanda. The Catholic Church blamed Belgium for the ethnic class designations and for disturbing the native culture. The Church and priests, however, remained silent and maintained their silence to …


Book Review: Death, Image, Memory: The Genocide In Rwanda And Its Aftermath In Photography And Documentary Film, Scott Ahearn Jun 2019

Book Review: Death, Image, Memory: The Genocide In Rwanda And Its Aftermath In Photography And Documentary Film, Scott Ahearn

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

As Rwanda marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the genocide this spring, Piotr Cieplak’s book, Death, Image, Memory: The Genocide in Rwanda and its Aftermath in Photography and Documentation, is timely as an exploration of the documentary imagery developed since 1994 and its “uncomfortable coexistence with the genocide and its aftermath.” His book looks at still and video images from Westerners and Rwandans alike, and examines the ways in which these images succeed or fall short in bringing identity and remembrance to the victims of the genocide.


Le Cinéma Face À L’Oblitération Génocidaire. Silences Éloquents Et Hors-Champ Intérieur Chez Philippe Van Leeuw Et Kivu Ruhorahoza, Alexandre Dauge-Roth, Ayse Irem Ikizler Dec 2015

Le Cinéma Face À L’Oblitération Génocidaire. Silences Éloquents Et Hors-Champ Intérieur Chez Philippe Van Leeuw Et Kivu Ruhorahoza, Alexandre Dauge-Roth, Ayse Irem Ikizler

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Philippe Van Leeuw and Kivu Ruhorahoza’s cinema proposes an esthetic and ethical gaze that distances itself from the historic realism that defines the majority of the films on the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. By conferring an unprecedented eloquence to different types of silence and by maintaining viewers in a concerted state of ignorance, both filmmakers question societies’ will to know within the legacy of genocide and their willingness to culturally acknowledge the traumatic resonance of its aftermath.


Du Témoin Et De L’Humain Chez Gilbert Gatore : Le Passé Devant Soi, Jean-Pierre Karegeye Dec 2015

Du Témoin Et De L’Humain Chez Gilbert Gatore : Le Passé Devant Soi, Jean-Pierre Karegeye

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This article revisits Gatore’s novel, The past ahead, in analyzing the idea of witnessing. Some critics estimate that the novel does not make a clear distinction between the perpetrator and the victim. While recognizing the danger, the article extends the debate on the notion of the human beyond the categories of “perpetrator” and “victim”. Without excusing acts of the former, the author of this article affirms that the perpetrator and the victim belong to the same humanity. While they remain extreme and inexcusable, crime against humanity and genocides are not a contingent acts, which opens a meditation on the fragility …


Matière Grise De Kivu Ruhorahoza : Un Nouveau Discours Filmique Pour Le Rwanda?, Charles J. Sugnet Dec 2014

Matière Grise De Kivu Ruhorahoza : Un Nouveau Discours Filmique Pour Le Rwanda?, Charles J. Sugnet

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Films like Hotel Rwanda, Sometimes in April, and Shooting Dogs have codified certain ways of representing the 1994 Rwandan genocide, with realist aesthetics, epic sweep, and aspirations to historical authenticity. A young Rwandan director, Kivu Ruhorahoza, has won two major prizes at the Tribeca Festival for his 2011 feature Grey Matter, a breakthrough film that is different from its predecessors in almost every respect. Ruhorahoza’s film is intimate, cosmopolitan, metaphorical, and avant-garde; it requires some effort to understand, yet it is extremely moving. On the 20th Anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, it offers new ways of understanding the consequences …


Eliminating Fear Through Recreating Community In Rwanda: The Role Of The Gacaca Courts, Christine M. Venter Jan 2007

Eliminating Fear Through Recreating Community In Rwanda: The Role Of The Gacaca Courts, Christine M. Venter

Journal Articles

This article describes the institution of the Gacaca Courts in Rwanda, which were set up to try people charged with participating in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The author examines the options available to the Rwandan government in seeding to prosecute people charged with crimes related to the genocide, and concludes that, while flawed, the gacaca courts were the best option available. The article explores how the courts were developed based on the participatory and restorative ideals of African indigenous legal systems, and how these courts provide an opportunity for some form of "truth telling" in post-genocide Rwanda.