Speak Up, Speak Out from Holocaust Memorial Day Trust

ARCHIVE for HMD2010: The Legacy of Hope

The case studies and related education resources for HMD2010, The Legacy of Hope, have been archived. The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust is currently focusing on the theme for this year, Speak Up, Speak Out.

HMD 2010 An Historical Enquiry for History Students (Secondary)

This enquiry is based on the Denise Affonço case study. You will find additional ways to explore and unpack this topic in the primary/secondary Citizenship lesson.

Share Denise’s story with students before challenging them to investigate one of these questions.

Enquiry Questions

It takes many years for a country to recover from genocide: How far is this true?

Or

Why might it be difficult to discover who is guilty of a crime of genocide?
The additional question cards overleaf can be used to stimulate group discussion. Ask students to talk together and/or conduct their own research and compose brief answers to one or two of these questions. Then use the answers to help the class draw conclusions on the chosen main question.

Denise Affonço gave evidence at war crimes trials after the fall of the Khmer Rouge. In Cambodia, a new trial is taking place. Kaing Guek Eav (aka Duch), the head of the notorious torture prison Tuol Sleng (or S21) which operated during the Khmer Rouge regime, is accused of the murder of thousands of people.

Duch is being tried by a joint UN-Cambodian tribunal, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), which was established to prosecute the senior members of the regime. ‘Duch on Trial’ is a weekly TV programme broadcast in Cambodia which provides a summary of that week’s developments in the on-going trial. You could share selected moments of the trial with students to help them consider the questions. Ask them to note how the defence and prosecution lawyers use the same evidence but present the defendant in a different light. The defence team claim that Duch obeyed orders to protect his family whilst the prosecution say he was a major decision maker. You should view and select sections yourself rather than give students full access to the film. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office link is below.

http://ukincambodia.fco.gov.uk/en/working-with-cambodia/duch-on-trial

When the Khmer Rouge were in control in Cambodia children were treated in the same way as adults. You will find the story of this stolen childhood in our Citizenship lesson and at the link below. http://www.everychild.org.uk/childstory-cambodia.html

A similar enquiry, on the Holocaust, could be built around the Ben Helfgott, Hugo Gryn and the Mosaic of Victims case studies and the theme paper for 2010 The Legacy of Hope.

In this case the key question should be

What evidence of hope can we find in Holocaust narratives?

With additional question cards overleaf.