Genocide GIS

Genocide GIS Background

In the summer of 2007 the initial phase of this project was funded by a Northern Arizona University Hooper Undergraduate Research award and the McKenzie Endowment for Democracy grant, which provided for a one year limited start up that allowed us to begin envisioning GRP and develop a small scale prototype. During this initial year of research and development the GRP GIS was tentatively planned out and various options and possibilities, such as technology platforms, were explored.

Project Goals:

This Geographic Information System (GIS) of genocide activities showing images and statistical data will provide a geographical means of interpreting genocide occurrences. By providing detailed information to enable people to understand the geographic dimensions of genocide occurrences throughout time, the GIS will allow educators, scholars, and others a dynamic way to study and assess historical information related to genocide.

Education

Education

Educators and students will be able to conduct their own analysis for classroom use. Many states now mandate teaching of the Holocaust because it is believed that the Holocaust is an important historical event and because it is believed that the lessons of the Holocaust provide important lessons for the modern era about intolerance and prejudice. GRP GIS provides a resource for those needs by providing historical data that is directly relevant to the study of the Genocide. Teachers and students will have access to primary data that can be directly used in the classroom for lessons, projects, and papers. Additionally, GRP GIS will include complementary materials that can be used to supplement the images and text of the cartoons and which will include PowerPoint slideshows and downloadable lesson plans on the Holocaust, Genocide, propaganda, and similar topics and issues.

Timeline of Genocide

Timeline of Genocide

Another feature of the GIS function will be a time sequence feature that will allow users to see not only geographic elements of genocide, but temporal ones as well. In other words, interested users can see how the elements of genocide change over time. A user interested in the Holocaust, for example, can see icons for all the various concentration camps and Death Camps that were built by the Nazi government. Each icon will have information specific for that camp, including the years of operation. A user can manually or automatically move a sliding bar across a time scale and watch the camps and sub camps appear on the map in the order that they were built. This will help users to visualize the growth of the concentration camp system created by the Nazis and understand their ubiquity and centrality to the Nazi regime. Similarly, someone interested in understanding the genocide in Bosnia, for example, can play this feature and see the progression of ethnic cleansing geographically. The Bosnian Serb policy of ethnic cleansing did not erupt everywhere at once, but instead moved forward inexorably as paramilitary groups went from town to town raping, killing, and destroying as they went. Many of those fleeing the advance of the violence took refuge in the mining city of Srebrenica which became an island of Muslim refugees in a sea of Serb controlled territory. Geographically isolated from Bosnian Muslim territory, the refugees in Srebrenica were terribly vulnerable and when their U.N. protectors pulled out in response to attacks and threats, the Bosnian Serbs moved in and perpetrated the largest massacre in European history since World War II. The time line feature will allow one to better visualize and understand the sequence of events leading up to this infamous massacre.

Victimization of Individuals and Groups

Victimization of Individuals and Groups

The fact that one key difficulty in teaching about the Genocide has been making it relevant for individuals living in the 21st century who come from a range of backgrounds and experiences. As the Holocaust continues to recede from recent history, it becomes increasingly important to illustrate the ways in which this event can speak to larger truths about persecution. It is important to note that the methods used to enable the victimization of individuals and groups in one era or in one context are typically the same methods utilized in others. In other words, GRP GIS is not only relevant for those individuals interested in studying and learning about anti-Semitism and other forms of Genocide, but also for those interested in applying these lessons to the contemporary world. To study the ways in which the Jews were demonized and dehumanized, portrayed as a danger and a threat, defined as being fundamentally different and deserving of victimization is to study the ways in which these same processes continue to be used today against all sorts of groups, not just Jews.