CAN A MUSEUM PREVENT GENOCIDE?

1
CAN A MUSEUM PREVENT GENOCIDE?
EDUCATIONAL TRAINING FOR MILITARY PROFESSIONALS
AT THE UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
Jennifer A. Ciardelli FIHRM Conference October
2011 jciardelli_at_ushmm.org
2

•  
• genocide and mass atrocities
• meaning large-scale and deliberate attacks on
  civilians.

3
(No Transcript)
4
MISSION
A living memorial to the Holocaust, the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum inspires
citizens and leaders worldwide to confront
hatred, prevent genocide, and preserve human
dignity.
5
MISSION
A living memorial to the Holocaust, the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum inspires
citizens and leaders worldwide to confront
hatred, prevent genocide, and preserve human
dignity.
6
MISSION
A living memorial to the Holocaust, the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum inspires
citizens and leaders worldwide to confront
hatred, prevent genocide, and preserve human
dignity.
7
WHAT SPARKED MUSEUM OUTREACH LEADERS?
How did those police officers, that probably
took an oath very similar to the one I took
become part and parcel of something so
horrible? - Charles Ramsey, 1998 USHMM visit
German police officer with member of the S.S.
Germany, March 1933.
8
Leadership Programs
By The Numbers

• Started in 1998
• Over 80,000 professionals have participated
• Over 350 programs offered in 2010
• 8 Educators run programs (full part-time)
• 3 Historians co-prepare and co-facilitate

9
U.S. military personnel at Ohdruf camp, Germany,
April 1945.
10
MISSION
A living memorial to the Holocaust, the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum inspires
citizens and leaders worldwide to confront
hatred, prevent genocide, and preserve human
dignity.
11
OUTREACH TO MILITARY
By The Numbers

• Over 28,000 U.S. officers-in-training and U.S and
  international active duty officers have
  participated since 2006
• Over 80 programs offered in Fiscal Year 2011
  including four session elective course for the
  U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (now
  in its third run)
• 2 full-time educators run programs
• 1 research assistant
• Support from historians and Committee on
  Conscience

12
ASSUMPTIONS

• Genocide is a process.
• Genocide is preventable.
• Individuals may be in
• positions to act in ways
• that can halt genocide.

13
LITERACY DISEQUILIBRIUM RELEVANCE
14
LITERACY
The process of genocide

• Increased knowledge and understanding of how the
  Holocaust occurred
• General early warning indicators

15
LITERACY - content
Nuremberg Race Laws chart. Germany, issued
September 1935.
16
LITERACY - approach
17
DISEQUILIBRIUM
Genocide is preventable

• Complicating beliefs about what actions were and
  are possible for individuals to take when
  confronting hatred and genocide

18
DISEQUILIBRIUM - content
Members of a military unit swear allegiance to
Hitler. Germany, date uncertain.
19

• ,

DISEQUILIBRIUM -approach
VERBAL ORDER ISSUED Shoot the entire Jewish
populations in the areas where each company was
quartered.
2nd Company Commander Carries out order no
hesitation
1st Company Commander Refuses to carry out
order Good German Soldiers dont dirty their
hands with such things.
3rd Company Commander Requests written
verification receives it carries out order
20
RELEVANCE
Individuals may be in positions to act in ways
that can halt genocide.

• take action when
• and where possible

21
RELEVANCE
There are indicators to genocide, and I
can learn how to identify them. U.S. Army
officer
22
RELEVANCE
theres a capacity for evil in ushow do we as
moral actorsunderstand that capacity
andovercome and transcend thatyou come away
from that experience at the Holocaust Museum
seeing the capacity of evil in the military and
how dangerous that can be. - U.S. Marine
officer
23
RELEVANCE
The mechanisms of genocide become more
sophisticated over timeit is possible to prevent
them from progressing to the point where they
enable genocide and mass atrocity. -
U.S. Army Officer
24
CHALLENGES
Evolving Field Definitions Prevention Holocaust
as a case study Long-term Impacts
25
(No Transcript)