A seasoned Holocaust expert shared her knowledge to a UT class last Thursday, expanding on her experiences from traveling around the world.
Professor Janice Law invited Dr. Ellen Kennedy of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota to speak to her Holocaust class.
Having already lectured in East Europe, China, Jamaica and at different schools in the country, Dr. Kennedy does not only have an intense knowledge about such holocausts as the ones in Germany, Rwanda, Darfur and Bosnia, but has also travelled a lot and has seen the cruel truth.
Approximately 800,000 people killed in a period of 100 days– that’s what happened in Rwanda in 1994 and it happened without any intervention.
Ironically, the UN gathered in 1948 just after the worst war in human history and decided that such genocides should never happen again.
Genocide, defined as a ‘deliberate attempt to destroy a group by mutilating and finally murdering its member,’ has happened after the promise in 1948.
It is important, that citizens themselves contribute to an active change instead of just hoping that someone else would do so.
Doing so is easier then one might expect with the help of the Genocide Intervention Network.
The Organization sets up a scorecard for congress members and is rating them based on their action taken towards the current conflict in Darfur.
Since the people and their representatives elect the senate members, it is upon the voter to tell his representative what he cares about.
It is thereby possible to contact a congress member and inform him/ her about the grade received on darfurscores.org.
The website depicts further steps that can be undertaken and surely is a great guide for becoming active without being lost or alone.
Maybe one day, it is really possible to say ‘Never again.’
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