Portraits of Reconciliation
Perpetrators of the genocide in Rwanda that occurred over twenty years meet the victims of their crimes and ask for forgiveness. Here are the stories.
Obama References WWII in Speech
In a speech in Europe yesterday, President Obama pressured European politicians to act on Russia’s seizure of Crimea, calling forth images of the continent in disarray following WWII. Read more. What do you think of the use of history to inform decisions about present conflicts? Are the events in Crimea related to what happened in…
North Korea’s Atrocities
The New York Times argues that “while the United States, China and others have focused on the North’s Korea’s nuclear program, the suffering of its people should not be ignored.” Read more about the United Nations report of North Korea’s crimes against humanity and what the New York Times editorial board says should be the…
Artifacts at Yad Vashem
A series of artifacts collected by the Holocaust museum in Israel, Yad Vashem, documents people’s lives before, during and after the Holocaust. Many of these items also demonstrate how people participated in acts of resistance by merely using every day items to deny the Nazi regime total power over the human spirit. Find more links…
Politics Today: Freedom and Democracy in Ukraine
Two articles argue for intervention in a political conflict that demonstrates authoritarian rule continues to cause death and destruction in the West in the twenty first century. Silence Over Ukraine is No Longer an Option (Guardian UK) What the West Must Do for Ukraine (The New York Times) Photos from the recent conflict
The Anne Frank House, in 3-D
Get a in-depth perspective of where Anne Frank and her family avoided capture in this 3-D experience. You can look behind the bookcase and in the rooms where Anne and her family hid for two years. In 1944, the Frank family was captured and Anne died at 15 in a concentration type. The diary that…
What if Anne Frank Survived?
The Secret Annex, a new play premiering in Canada, imagines that Anne Frank survived the Holocaust. In this production, Frank is 25 and living in Brooklyn with her sister. Click here to view a portion of the production. Or read a review. What do you think of this re-imagining of history? Does it honor Anne…
How do German children learn about the Holocaust?
It is difficult to grasp the six million lives that were lost in the Holocaust. But German children also have to come to terms with the fact that those who committed these atrocities were members of their families and communities. One German woman writes of her experience grappling with learning about the Holocaust as a…
The Dangers of Certainty
“When we think we have certainty, when we aspire to the knowledge of the gods, then Auschwitz can happen and can repeat itself. Arguably, it has repeated itself in the genocidal certainties of past decades” writes Simon Critchley for the New York Times. Critchley is referring to a 1973 BBC documentary series called “The Ascent of…
The Passenger, an opera about the Holocaust, was written in 1967. It’s first U.S. will take place at the Houston Grand Opera and will move to New York City in June. Listen here to find more about the opera and the upcoming productions. Would you see a performance based on such a difficult story?
The Holocaust in a Global Context 
You must be logged in to post a comment.