TESTIMONIES:THE CAMBODIAN GENOCIDE

ADAPTED FROM PBS LESSON PLAN: “PERSPECTIVES FROM THE PERPETRATORS OF GENOCIDE IN CAMBODIA” BY CARI LADD: HTTP://WWW.PBS.ORG/POV/ENEMIES/LESSON_PLAN.PHP#EXTENSIONS

PERPETRATOR BEHAVIOR

Clip 1: “I Want You to Know the Exact Place”

• http://www.pbs.org/pov/enemies/add_video2.php#.Un-69yj4W0t

Discussion Questions:

• Why do you think perpetrators such as the man in this clip choose to tell their stories?

• What do you think motivated these men to kill?

• Who should be held accountable for the killing fields?

PERPETRATOR BEHAVIOR

Clip 2: “We Had No Choice”

• http://www.pbs.org/pov/enemies/add_video3.php#.Un-7jSj4W0s

Discussion Questions:

• What similarities do you notice between the testimony of the men and woman in the video and what we read from perpetrators of the Holocaust?

• Describe the language the woman uses in her testimony. How is this similar to the language in the orders given to Reserve Police Battalion 101 in the Holocaust?

• What are your personal reactions to the clip? Do you agree? Did they have a choice?

PERPETRATOR BEHAVIOR

Clip 3: “The Individual I Cast Aside”

• http://www.pbs.org/pov/enemies/add_video4.php#.Un--TSj4W0s

Discussion Questions:

• This man was the second-in-command in the KR. What was the motivation behind the KR’s killings?

• Nuon Chea says in choosing between the individual and the nation, he chooses the nation. What does this mean? How is this similar to Hitler’s ideology? Which would you choose?

VICTIM TESTIMONIES

Read “The Reprieve”.

Discussion Questions

• What were the conditions at the forced labor camps? List some examples from the story.

• Who were the “new people” and who were the “old people”? What was the impact of this identification?

• Explain how identity and membership contributed to the Cambodian genocide.

“THE KILLING FIELDS”

Beginning tomorrow, we will watch a film called “The Killing Fields,” which tells the true story of a journalist caught in the labor camps of Cambodia.

While you watch, you will compare the Cambodian genocide with what you have learned so far about the stories of the Lost Boys of Sudan. Keep this background information in mind as you watch the film.

To watch the film, you MUST have turned in a signed permission slip by tomorrow.