Roles of Genocide

The Four Roles

• We learned that in every genocide, it must follow 8 stages• It is also true that in every genocide, there must be four

main roles of participants in genocide: Perpetrator, Victim, Bystander, and Rescuer/Resister

Perpetrators

• Individuals who commit crimes during genocide, whether they play the role of a leader (in class we call these the “big bads”: Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot, etc.) or those who commit murder, rape theft, or a multitude of other small crimes during genocides.

Adolf Hitler Pol Pot

Victims

• Victims are identified as members of an ethnic, racial, religious or national group

• Perpetrators must have the intention of destroying the victim group in whole or in part

Tutsi Children Armenian Civilians

Bystanders

• Individuals who do nothing. They standby and watch events unfold around them but do not become engaged in the violence—neither do they take action to stop or speak out against violence

• The United States, while under the Clinton administration, was considered a bystander during the Rwandan genocide

• During the Rwandan genocide, the US did not intervene claiming that they did not know that it was going on

Rescuers/Resisters

• Those people who take extraordinary action to help those victimized in genocide. Many famous individuals are members of this group, including Paul Rusesabagina (Hotel Rwanda) and Oskar Schindler (Schindler’s List)

• The American Committee for Relief in the Near East is a relief organization established in 1915, just after the deportations in the Armenian genocide

Paul Rusesabagina and Don Cheadle, who portrays Rusesabagina in the movie Hotel Rwanda

A portrait of Oskar Schindler, a member of the Nazi party who also saved the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust

Which role am I?

I work at a company called Opekta, which distributes a pectin preparation used for fruit jams. While this place has been my jobsite for many years. It has also been used as a hiding place for many. My husband, my co-workers, and I were able to successfully hide some Jewish families for 2 years in the upper rooms of our company. Eventually, however, the SS officers found out about our operation and took away the Jewish families—the Van Pels, the Pfeffers, and the Franks

Which role am I?

“Cockroaches don’t deserve to live.” In the morning, whenever I hear the drums, I know it’s time to clean our land once again. So when it’s time, I look forward to grabbing my machete and exterminating our land of those insects.

Which role am I?

Our government has forced us to go into the desert without any supplies or food. People are dying off and nobody is here to bury them so there are bodies everywhere. The Turk government wants to get rid of my kind and has taken all of us from our homes and sent all of us—men, women, and children—to die in this desert wasteland

Which role am I?

I am a UN soldier, a “peacekeeper.” Our job is to ensure the political stability of this foreign nation. However, we have our orders and cannot get involved. In fact, there are too few of us to make any real difference so it is best to avoid any active involvement in the mass killings.

Question

• During the Holocaust, who were the participants within the four roles of genocide?

Perpetrator –

Victim –

Bystander –

Rescuer –

Independent Reading

• In your genocide independent reading, who are the participants within the four roles of genocide?