Genocide under the Cover of War

About This Lesson

In the previous lesson, students learned about the rise of nationalism within the Ottoman Empire and how a combination of external and internal forces contributed to the violent persecution of Armenians by the Ottoman state in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In this lesson, students explore the horrific consequences of this ideology during World War I. Specifically, they will examine how this earlier period of violence and repression transformed into a systematic Turkish campaign of genocide against the Armenians under the cover of war. On Day 1 of this two-day lesson, students will be introduced to the historical context for the Armenian Genocide and will bear witness to the impact of the atrocities by listening and responding to survivor testimonies. Day 2 will focus on responses to the genocide from Turkish soldiers, rescuers, and diplomats from the governments of Germany and the United States. As students analyze these accounts, they will consider deeper themes related to a nation’s universe of obligation during times of crisis and war and will reflect on the role and responsibility of nations, groups, and individuals to intervene in cases of mass violence.

Lesson Plan

Day 1 Activities

Activity 1: Understand the Steps Leading to the Armenian Genocide

While the primary goal of this multi-day lesson is to provide students with the opportunity to bear witness to personal stories from survivors and consider deeper themes associated with the Armenian Genocide, it is first necessary to briefly give students a framework to understand what happened.

Because the film The Armenian Genocide contains a lot of historical information for students to digest, share the information below about the Armenian Genocide in a brief mini-lecture before continuing the film:

• Once an ultra-nationalist group from within the Young Turks took power in 1915, the country’s new leadership—Enver Pasha, Talaat Pasha, and Djemal Pasha—turned to a policy of mass deportation and murder of Armenians.
• During the winter of 1914–1915, Armenian men who had been drafted into the Ottoman army were stripped of their weapons and killed. Attacks on Armenian villages and Greeks continued throughout the winter and early spring.
• On April 24, 250 Armenian intellectuals and leaders were arrested, marking the beginning of the systematic deportation and mass murder known today as the Armenian Genocide. (The word genocide had not yet been invented.) The violence lasted for a period of three years during World War I and resulted in the deaths of some 1.5 million Armenians.
• While the mass murder of Armenians was ordered by the Turkish government, the genocide was carried out by ordinary people, many of them former prisoners organized into mobile killing units known as the Special Organization.

Next, show students another clip from the video The Armenian Genocide (14:19–24:32). Apply the Two-Column Note-Taking strategy. On the left side of a piece of paper, students should record information about the steps leading to the genocide of the Armenians. On the right side, students should record their reactions to this information: a question, a comment, a feeling, or a connection to something they know about or have experienced. You may want to watch the video clip twice so that students have enough time to process the material.

Activity 2: Hear Survivors’ Accounts of the Armenian Genocide

Note: To access the video testimony used in this activity, you will need to register for a free IWitness account. See the timestamps in the activity instructions below for the specific clips from the testimony you should have students watch.

Tell students that they will now watch three clips of video testimony from survivors of the Armenian Genocide.

Show a clip of Mihran Andonian’s Oral Testimony (1:13–3:56) from the USC Shoah Foundation. In the clip, Andonian recalls a forced march through Cilicia that claimed the lives of most members of his extended family.

After students have watched the clip, give them a few minutes to write a response to his testimony in their journals using the S-I-T: Surprising, Interesting, Troubling teaching strategy. Then show a clip of Haigas Bonapart’s Oral Testimony (7:39–8:37) from the USC Shoah Foundation, in which Bonapart describes how he learned that the Ottoman forced-march “deportations” were actually intended to kill Armenians.

After they watch the testimony, ask students to write a response in their journals using the S-I-T teaching strategy. Finally, show a clip of Rose Apelian’s Oral Testimony (16:22–17:56) from the USC Shoah Foundation. Apelian, an Armenian American whose family moved to the Ottoman Empire shortly before the Armenian Genocide, remembers witnessing the death of her father, who was killed because he refused to convert from Christianity.

After they watch the testimony, ask students to write a response in their journals using the S-I-T strategy. Once students have finished journaling responses to all three testimonies, hold a class discussion on the following questions:

• What aspect of the testimonies is most striking to you? What did it make you think about or feel?
• What is the value of hearing this kind of firsthand account? How does it change the way you understand the Armenian Genocide?

Activity 3: Provide Students with Emotional Processing Time

To provide some quiet reflection time for students, ask them to privately respond to the material in today’s lesson using the Color, Symbol, Image strategy.

Tell students to reflect on the major themes, ideas, or emotions in what they’ve just learned and select one big idea they’d like to focus on. Then ask them to record the following information privately in their notebooks:

• Choose a color that you think best represents that idea.
• Choose a symbol that you think best represents that idea.
• Choose an image that you think best represents that idea.

Day 2 Activities

Activity 1: Reflect on the Tension between Following Rules and Following Morals

Ask students to privately journal a response to the following prompt. Explain to them that they will not share their answers with the class:

• Think of a time when you had to choose between following authority and following your own morals. What choice did you make, and how did you come to that decision? 
• Is it possible to find a balance between responsibility to authority and to your own moral principles?

Activity 2: Consider How Individuals and Nations Responded to the Armenian Genocide

Tell students that while World War I provided cover for the Ottoman state to perpetrate atrocities against the Armenians, there were also many witnesses—including ordinary Turks, journalists, diplomats, and humanitarians—who responded in various ways. Their stories can teach us important lessons about how individuals and groups construct their universes of obligation during times of war and crisis. Break the class into groups of three to four students, and give each group one of the four readings found in the handout Responses to the Armenian Genocide. The readings in the handout are titled as follows:

• An Ambassador’s Dilemma
• The Limits of Diplomacy
• A Soldier’s Orders
• Daring to Rescue

Before beginning the activity, make sure that students read and understand the directions on their handout (some handouts have slightly different instructions). Once students have had enough time to investigate their sources and answer their discussion question(s), regroup as a class.

Activity 3: Students Share Findings with Peers

Tell students that in the next activity, they will be sharing their findings with their classmates and hearing about the choices and decision-making of other individuals and groups in response to the Armenian Genocide. Pass out the handout Responding to Genocide Jigsaw and read the directions aloud. Apply the Jigsaw strategy by asking students to leave their “expert” groups and find three new group members, each of whom had different readings, to form “teaching” groups. Instruct the “teaching” groups to take turns summarizing their readings and recording information from other group members to answer the following discussion questions (also on their handouts):

• What do these sources tell us about other nations’ knowledge of, and responses to, the Armenian Genocide?
• What do these sources tell us about how individuals responded?
• What do their responses reveal about the possibilities and limits of individuals acting without the support of their government?

Reconvene the class and discuss students’ answers to the discussion questions above.

Activity 4: Invite Further Reflection on Expanding One’s Universe of Obligation

To close the lesson, ask students to respond in their journals to one or more of the following questions. In their responses, students can choose to make connections to their own lives or the material discussed in class, or both:

• What factors do you think prevent people from seeing each other as human beings? How can we help people expand their universes of obligation?
• What responsibility do you think individuals and groups have to act when they see or hear others being attacked because of their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or other aspects of their identity?
• What are some ways we might take action?
• What factors might prevent us from taking action?
• What reasons for not taking action do you think are excusable? What reasons for not taking action are inexcusable?

Students can share their responses in a brief Think, Pair, Share discussion.