Genocide History

Defining Genocide

Begin by reading the definition of "genocide" at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) site and the more comprehensive description from the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the description from Genocide Watch, which includes a link to the 8 or 10 Stages of Genocide. 

Cultural Genocide is a term that some people use to describe situations in which the identity of the people is targeted. Facing History has a helpful reading on this term. In July 2020, Fox News reported in a story on Tibet that the Dalai Lama named the situation there as an example of cultural genocide. See also the Indian Boarding Schools page of this website.

Information on Specific Genocides for Learning, Teaching & Taking Action

We encourage you to visit the Colorado Dept of Ed Timeline, the USHMM's Genocide Timeline and Country Case Studies page, Yale University's Genocide Studies Program, the USC Shoah Foundation's Visual History Archive, and the University of Minnesota's Holocaust and Genocide Studies Resources page.

STAND also has a Genocide Education Toolkit that has a very helpful set of resources, and the Illinois Holocaust and Genocide Commission website has a set of resources as well.

Early Warnings - Conditions That May Lead to Genocide

The USHMM's Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide has an Early Warning Project to detect the conditions that may lead to genocide. The regions and cases listed below are a sampling of places on the watchlist for highest risk. Similarly, Genocide Watch has a three-tiered system of alerts and a list of regions that are at risk.

• Muslims in India - The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has an Early Warning Project to detect the conditions that may lead to genocide. They have noticed many such indicators in the Gujarat region of India. You can read more in this 2015 article from USHMM
• Ukraine 2022 - The unfolding situation in Ukraine raises many questions about what constitutes a crime during war, and whether evidence of civilian deaths can indicate genocide. We offer some sources below to help you study this continuing crisis and these issues of international law and humanitarian concern. Please also visit our Learn page for the legal definition of genocide and the legal means to address it.  ***WARNING: Images in these reports may be very disturbing; proceed with caution.***

  • On March 15, 2022, the United States Senate passed a unanimous resolution calling Vladimir Putin a war criminal

  • On April 4, 2022, the PBS Newshour ran two reports: 1) "Russian withdrawal from Bucha exposes atrocities against Ukrainian civilians" and 2) "What international crimes are Russians committing in Ukraine?"

    • It may be helpful for you to also review the definition of the "Crime of Aggression" and the other crimes punishable by the International Criminal Court.

  • On April 4, 2022, The New York Times reported that "Satellite images show bodies lay in Bucha for weeks, despite Russian claims" and that residents of a town east of Kyiv recount "detention, beating, mock execution" occurred under Russian occupation.

    • It may be helpful to read how the NYTimes verifies "images of war taken in Ukraine"

  • On April 6, Eugene Finkel (a scholar of the Holocaust and a descendant of Holocaust survivors) wrote an opinion piece in The Washington Post that "What is happening in Ukraine is genocide. Period."

  • On April 12, NPR reported that President Biden used the term genocide when talking about what is happening in Ukraine. Earlier in the day, NPR broadcast an interview with Professor Leila Sadat: "it may be hard, but not impossible, to prove genocide in Ukraine"

  • On April 13 AP published EXPLAINER: Why using term ‘genocide’ matters in Ukraine war article to clarify whether the term genocide can be applied to current events in Ukraine.

  • War Crimes Watch Ukraine - a website created collaboratively by the Associated Press (AP) and PBS Frontline
  • Facing History And Ourselves has a feature on Teaching About the Ukrainian Refugee Crisis
  • The Washington Post published an article "For Holocaust survivors from Ukraine, Russian invasion stirs painful memories"