Education is key to preventing genocide

When members of the Jewish and Armenian communities gathered on Sept. 23 to view “The Promise,” a movie about the Armenian Genocide, they formed a binding relationship.

The movie focuses on families and communities that endured the brutal murder of 1.5 million people from 1915 to 1917 at the hands of the Ottoman Turkish government. This from a population of 2 million people living in the Ottoman Empire before World War I.

Sponsored by The Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center and The Genocide Education Project, R.I. branch, the movie was shown at the Alliance’s Dwares Jewish Community Center.

“The Promise” tells the story of a young Armenian man in the Ottoman Empire who aspires to become a doctor. He endures countless life-threatening incidents while witnessing the tragic, brutal and unnecessary deaths of family and friends, and the almost certain demise of a culture.

The more than 120 people attending the program to honor the 100th anniversary of Armenia’s independence shared a common, unfortunate bond. The Armenian Genocide became the benchmark of Nazi Germany’s targeting of Jews and vulnerable people in Europe, which resulted in the Holocaust. Hitler’s government observed that world response to the Armenian atrocity was of little consequence. Thus, he believed his fascist government could move forward with its mission to extinguish a whole group of people.

The killings and displacement of ancestors, family and friends in the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust were for no reasons other than hate, bigotry and personal gain. It was therefore not surprising to witness the emotional, unsettling reaction of the audience at the movie’s conclusion. There was a shared pain and understanding for what both communities suffered.

The SBHEC and The Genocide Education Committee work with the R.I. Department of Education, schools and libraries on programs about genocide that bring people together to learn more about these atrocities. I, for one, knew almost nothing about the Armenian Genocide when I began advocating for the Holocaust and other genocides to be part of public-school curricula. The importance of study on this issue is further amplified by countries, such as ours, that still have not formally recognized the Armenian atrocity over 100 years later.

Venues like the Dwares Jewish Community Center, classrooms and libraries are ideal spaces for communities to learn more about genocides past and present. Through education, we become aware of what happened on Cambodian and African soil, as well as what is going on in the Middle East and Myanmar (Burma) today.

Through community discussions about the Holocaust and other genocides we can more fully appreciate the need to eradicate hate, bigotry and bullying in schools – in our state, country and worldwide.

The mantra of “Never Again” is linked to Holocaust commemoration: Never Again shall mankind experience such barbarism. No more genocide, anywhere.

While the words have deep meaning, only through study and education and programs like “The Promise” screening can we really ever broadcast the seeds to make Never Again come true.

MARTY COOPER is the chairman of the Rhode Island Holocaust and Genocide Education Committee, which promotes the study of the Holocaust and genocides in schools and the general community.