“Remember the names of the genocides so that in your time you don’t have yours. »
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
This sadly prophetic verse by Gaston Miron, in The raped manis quoted at the beginning of a new educational guide made available to secondary school students and teachers to approach the study of genocides in the classroom.
While the notion of genocide is currently being debated with the conflict in Ukraine, this happy initiative, for which the daughter of Holocaust survivors Heidi Berger has been fighting for several years, comes at the right time.
The idea came to Heidi Berger’s head when she met high school students to tell the story of her parents. She was flabbergasted that some did not know who Hitler was. Many were hearing the word “genocide” for the first time. As for the teachers, while some succeeded very well in tackling this complex and delicate subject on their own, barely touched upon in the textbooks of the Contemporary World course, others were afraid to do so, for lack of time and resources.
It is to fill this void that Heidi Berger, at the suggestion of a teacher, set up in 2014 the Foundation for the Study of Genocide.
Its mission: to work hand in hand with the government to ensure that the history of the genocides and the stages leading up to it can be taught in all secondary schools.
Eight years later, she can say mission accomplished. The educational guide Studying Genocides finally launched this week. The first initiative of its kind in Canada, this tool is the result of long-term work by Sabrina Moisan, professor at the Université de Sherbrooke, and Sivane Hirsch, professor at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, with the collaboration of the Heidi Berger Foundation, numerous specialists, teachers and descendants of survivors.
Heidi Berger is of course delighted that this guide has finally seen the light of day and that it is generating enthusiastic reactions from teachers. “I think back to all those years of work, to all those politicians and journalists who said to me: ‘You won’t make it! It will not be possible! We will never agree to do it!” But what they don’t know is that when it comes to studying genocide, you can never say no to a child of Holocaust survivors. »
The pedagogical guide, intended above all for classes in secondary four and five, can be used in history lessons as well as in ethics, French or English lessons. It includes nine cases of genocide recognized by the United Nations or by the Canadian government. It speaks in particular of the Holocaust, the genocide of the First Peoples in Canada, the genocide of the Armenians, which we commemorated on Sunday, the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda and the genocide of the Bosnian Muslims.
For each of the genocides, we have provided testimonies from survivors which allow us to give a human face to the tragedy. By explaining the stages of the genocidal process, we also make sure to awaken in students the critical spirit necessary to understand the racism and hatred that can lead to it, underlines Heidi Berger.
“What is happening in the world at the moment shows that we have still not learned the lessons of the past about the consequences of hatred and intolerance. How to solve this problem ? For us, education plays a key role in preventing genocide. The study of genocides teaches us the red flags that can lead to mass murder through the six stages of the development of a genocide. »
Even if the subject is necessarily heavy, it is in no way a roadmap for despair. For each of the steps in the genocidal process – categorize, dehumanize, divide, organize, persecute and kill, deny – the guide cites examples of what can be done by both citizens and states to avoid repeating mistakes. the past.
The designers of the guide approach the subject with an interdisciplinary (history and ethics) and anti-racist approach, emphasizing the racist ideology at the origin of all genocide. The guide cites very concrete examples of fallacies that allow the expression of racist discourse. One thinks, for example, of the self-victimization at work when a dominant group declares itself the victim of this Other who takes advantage of “us”. Or to discourses of demonization of the Other, which suggest that a category of citizens (foreigners, for example) tries to destroy the culture and the values of the dominant society by imposing their way of life. All these speeches are not without consequences. History teaches us that they can have devastating effects. Hence the importance of knowing how to recognize and prevent them.
Going through the guide, I who am the granddaughter of survivors of the Armenian genocide and have never read a single line about it in my history books, I said to myself: finally!
This is essential knowledge that should be within the reach of every citizen.
Only downside, for now, the study of genocide remains optional. Teachers are free to talk about it or not in their lessons. Why is it not mandatory? In the office of the Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge, I am told that although teachers are strongly encouraged to deepen these notions, out of respect for their professional autonomy, they do not intend to impose it.
During this time, ignorance and denial do not hesitate to impose themselves. “Recently, a Canadian poll by Liberation751 showed that 33% of North American students question the existence of the Holocaust. Another problem is that many students are also influenced by fake news and online hatred that denies the genocide,” Heidi Berger points out.
We have also seen in recent times how terms like “Nazis” could be misused and emptied of their meaning to justify the unjustifiable in Ukraine or to criticize health measures.
This is a reminder of the urgency of studying these notions and learning to exercise critical thinking. Not just for students.