Tuvia Bielski

Hello.

I believe that Tuvia Bielski's armed force was highly justifed during World War Two. It was justified because he was being hunted down by the German Army and by other Anti-Jewish groups in the area. When it is kill or be killed, and both sides believe they are doing the right thing, it is fairly justifiable to kill. Tuvia Bielski was being hunted for something that he could not change, his religion. His religion is his own right, and his rights were being infringed upon. If he were being hunted down for breaking a just law, it would not be justifiable to kill someone else.

Prewar Photo Project

This picture takes place in the Polish town of Przemysl. The city had a fairly large Jewish population; 40% of it was Jewish. By 1939, the total population of Przemysl was at 40,000. It was growing dynamically, but was stopped by the Invasion of Poland.

Przemsyl is located in the far southeast of Poland, and became under Nazi rule in 1941 when it was bombed by the Luftwaffe, the German Air Force. Later in 1941, a ghetto was opened in Przemysl. After the ghetto, the Jewish inhabitants were killed in the Bełżec extermination camp.

Life is pretty normal during the time of this picture, as told by the lack of yellow stars. Also, the three pictured here look casual and fairly relaxed.

When I looked through my own family photos, I not only noticed that I was a weird kid, I noticed that I was pretty happy in just about all of the pictures. In a lot of the pictures that I researched, the kids were either bored or happy, just like me. In some of them, the kids were sad. Most of those were taken after the war had started, though.

I chose to show this photo because it shows two males and one female, grouped together somewhat casually, not really worried about anything. My picture shows some younger people, myself included, but the expressions are somewhat similar, and I don't have very many pictures of me at current age. One major difference is in the setting, one is indoors and the other is outdoors on a city street.

National Sovereignty and Raphael Lemkin

1. The limits on national sovereignty should come when the government imposes restrictive laws on a single group of citizens. The international community should impose laws on oppressive countries when another country begins to separate one group of citizens from another.

2. In order to stop nations from turning against their own people, other countries can impose sanctions against the oppressive nation, and at the very most, go to war.

3. He could turn his outrage into progress by getting a major world power to define the Armenian massacres as a genocide. That would get Turkey real mad.

4. After the genocide, the Armenians didn't have very many options. Without an international court, all that they could really do is go from nation to nation and advocate for themselves to receive a balanced justice for themselves against the Turkish government.

The New York Times and the Armenian Genocide: Guided Reading Questions

1. "Newspaper of Record" means that The Times has a good track record of publishing reliable news. "All the News That's Fit to Print" means that The Times is a global newspaper and only prints the news of the International Community.

2. The publishing of the articles could have led to a stop of the genocide, or at the very least some pressure from America and other countries to put a stop to it.

3. Raphael Lempkin made the word "genocide" in 1944. It is important to have a word for these types of events in order to classify them.

4. When the genocide was occurring, the term had not been invented yet, so that's why they would shy away from it then. Now, they don't use "genocide" because the Turkish government still denies that it ever happened.

5. He would most likely turn to the leaders of the U.N. because they are the international community that works to prevent genocide, and they need to know what it is in order to do so.

iWitness Accounts of the Armenian Genocide

Edward Racoubian

This man's name is Edward Racoubian, and he is a survivor of the Armenian Genocide. He looks like your average old man, except for the scars left on the back of his hands. He got the scars while hiding from the genocide with some Arab nomads. They branded him as if he were their own. He had to hide all by himself, because all of his family had died. The only water he could ever find was in the mud, or in a river with hundreds of bodies floating by.

I have a feeling that Edward holds a lot of resentment towards the Turkish government and the Arab nomads for forcing him from his home and branding him.

I think that after the story is over, he stayed with the Arab nomads until he knew that the genocide was over. They may have beaten him and branded him, but they kept him alive.

Sam Kadorian

The man known as Sam Kadorian was about eight years old during the genocide, and was selected  to be killed for being at such an age. He was in the center of a pile of boys the same age. He was lucky to be in the center, because the gendarmes jabbed all of the boys with swords and bayonets. He only got hit once in the cheek, while all of the other boys were stabbed to death.

I think that Sam still despises the Turks greatly because of his picture. He still looks like he is in shock and horror of what happened so many years ago.

Once the genocide was over, I think that Kadorian went on to hide from the Turkish government, most likely fleeing the country. His picture shows him in such fear, that I don't believe that he would have stayed in the country.