Seventeen year-old Nicolet High School senior Ben Herman is familiar with the Holocaust; but he decided to take a new elective course being offered at his school, called “Genocide and Justice: The Twentieth Century and Crimes Against Humanity,” because “I don’t know much about other genocides.”
It might not seem that many other students would share that interest, but 19 juniors and seniors signed up for the seminar this semester.
Diane Kaiser, who devised the course curriculum and teaches it, said she felt such a class was necessary because despite “the cry ‘Never Again’ after World War II, [genocides] have been happening again and again.”
“Students need to have empathy for the suffering that goes on in the world. They need to know that there is something they can do as human beings.”
A teacher of history at Nicolet since 1982, Kaiser said she was “closer to the end of my career than the beginning. I have been thinking for a long time about something meaningful for myself and the students, and I thought there was a void here.”
She devised the curriculum with assistance from Jane Joyce, a member of Nicolet’s social studies department.
Kaiser has a more personal interest than many other history teachers in offering such a course because “a good portion of my mother’s family were murdered in Europe [during World War II],” she said.
“For me, [the course] is a matter of yizkor, a matter of memory,” she said. “It is a ‘thank you’ for the life that my parents have given me, and to remember those family members who died.”
The curriculum is as intensive as many university level courses. For the first week, students focus on crimes against humanity, and why such crimes should be studied. The students also examine the terminology of genocide, do readings, case studies, Internet research and a “positive affirmation” assignment.
“Because we deal with such negative aspects of human nature, we have to ask what is good about human nature,” Kaiser explained. “[The students] have to come with something … art, poetry or a song … something that reaffirms positive human nature.”
The second week focuses on the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. Later weeks examine the Armenian genocide; the war in Yugoslavia; the mass killings in Chile under Gen. Augusto Pinochet; and massacres in Guatemala, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Indonesia and Pol Pot’s Cambodia. White supremacist groups are also examined.
In addition to educational films and assignments, individuals who have had experiences related to genocide will make presentations to the class.
The first of these was Dr. Jeffrey Kaiser, Diane’s husband, whose family was affected by the Holocaust. He spoke to the class last Friday about his efforts to learn the fate of his relatives in Europe during World War II.
Using a projector connected to a laptop computer with Internet access, Dr. Kaiser gave the class an interactive lesson on how to use the Internet to research a family tree, and explained how his research helped him to become personally connected to the Holocaust.
Nicolet school board member Marilyn Franklin said “Genocide and Justice” is important because the school aims to provide its students with courses beyond basic educational requirements.
“Nicolet … provides relevant and timely subjects for the students. I am sure we would all agree that we want our students to be aware of the world they are living in and to be able to evaluate the present by studying what happened in the past. Hopefully they will become better informed [individuals] and involved in society. I think it is an interesting class and I’d like to take it myself.”
Diane Kaiser said the course will continue to be offered in the coming years as long as students express an interest in taking it.
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