Resource Library
Find compelling classroom resources, learn new teaching methods, meet standards, and make a difference in the lives of your students.
We are grateful to The Hammer Family Foundation for supporting the development of our on-demand learning and teaching resources.
![A group of high school students sit at desks in conversation.](/sites/default/files/styles/scale_480/public/2023-10/AdobeStock_254378868.jpg?itok=f6YAphey)
Introducing Our US History Curriculum Collection
Draw from this flexible curriculum collection as you plan any middle or high school US history course. Featuring units, C3-style inquiries, and case studies, the collection will help you explore themes of democracy and freedom with your students throughout the year.
United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Crime of Genocide
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, or the Genocide Convention, is an international treaty that criminalizes genocide and obligates state parties to pursue the enforcement of its prohibition.
![A photograph of several delegates who signed the UN Genocide Convention Credit: US Holocaust Memorial Museum, gift of United Nations](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-09/Lemkin_Ratification_Of_Genocide_Convention_FH131485.jpg?h=6db1c67f&itok=hEICVT3F)
Negotiating the Convention on the Punishment and Prevention of the Crime of Genocide
Lemkin proved himself a relentless activist. He worked tirelessly as a lobbyist, a strategist, and an agitator, in order to establish the Genocide Convention with the help of the United Nations on December 9, 1948.
![A photograph of several delegates who signed the UN Genocide Convention Credit: US Holocaust Memorial Museum, gift of United Nations](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-09/Lemkin_Ratification_Of_Genocide_Convention_FH131485.jpg?h=6db1c67f&itok=hEICVT3F)
International Law in the Age of Genocide
While Lemkin was able to convince diplomats at the United Nations to pass the Genocide Convention, his work was not complete upon his death. The job of lobbying governments across the world to ratify the convention was left to ordinary people.
![A photograph of several delegates who signed the UN Genocide Convention Credit: US Holocaust Memorial Museum, gift of United Nations](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-09/Lemkin_Ratification_Of_Genocide_Convention_FH131485.jpg?h=6db1c67f&itok=hEICVT3F)
France, Great Britain, and Russia Joint Declaration, 1915
In 1915, France, Great Britain, and Russia, issued a declaration condemning the ongoing Armenian genocide carried out in the Ottoman Empire and threatening to hold the perpetrators accountable.
![A photograph of several delegates who signed the UN Genocide Convention Credit: US Holocaust Memorial Museum, gift of United Nations](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-09/Lemkin_Ratification_Of_Genocide_Convention_FH131485.jpg?h=6db1c67f&itok=hEICVT3F)
Excerpt from Axis Rule in Occupied Europe by Raphael Lemkin
This reading contains an excerpt from Axis Rule in Occupied Europe by Raphael Lemkin, where he coins the term genocide.
![A photograph of several delegates who signed the UN Genocide Convention Credit: US Holocaust Memorial Museum, gift of United Nations](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-09/Lemkin_Ratification_Of_Genocide_Convention_FH131485.jpg?h=6db1c67f&itok=hEICVT3F)
“Sovereignty cannot be conceived as the right to kill millions”
Raphael Lemkin was outraged when he heard that the mass murder of the Armenians went unpunished. He was haunted by the case of Soghomon Tehlirian—an Armenian survivor of the genocide who killed Mehmed Talaat, minister of the interior of the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey).
![A photograph of several delegates who signed the UN Genocide Convention Credit: US Holocaust Memorial Museum, gift of United Nations](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-09/Lemkin_Ratification_Of_Genocide_Convention_FH131485.jpg?h=6db1c67f&itok=hEICVT3F)
Shaping Public Opinion (Abridged)
Read about the far-reaching efforts of Joseph Goebbels and the Ministry of Propaganda to generate enthusiasm for the Nazi party.
Dogma Makes Obedient Ghosts
Consider the connection between science and human values, and reflect on how the Nazis used their beliefs to justify making mass murder as efficient as possible.
![German soldiers are forced by the Allies after World War II to watch a film about the atrocities at German concentration camps.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Ch10_Image05_Medium_res.jpg?h=00d1719e&itok=fQRbS5ou)
Building Support on the Home Front
Explore the role of propaganda in World War I, and take a closer look at one of the most successful British propaganda campaigns featuring nurse Edith Cavell.
![A British propaganda poster depicting the execution of Edith Cavell in 1915. Cavell was a British nurse working in Belgium during the German invasion. The Germans accused her of espionage.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Ch3_Image06_Medium_res.jpg?h=c4842d71&itok=VMxrc5Pm)
Turning Us against Them
Austrian writer Stefan Zweig describes an encounter with hate propaganda at a French movie theatre months before the start of World War I.
![A British propaganda poster depicting the execution of Edith Cavell in 1915. Cavell was a British nurse working in Belgium during the German invasion. The Germans accused her of espionage.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Ch3_Image06_Medium_res.jpg?h=c4842d71&itok=VMxrc5Pm)
Humanity on Trial
This reading provides background on the the Ottoman massacres and the struggle of politicians in the United States to find an appropriate response.
![Armenians are marched to a nearby prison in Mezireh by Ottoman soldiers. Harput (Kharpert), Elazığ Province, Ottoman Empire, April, 1915](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-06/Armenians_marched_by_Turkish_soldiers%2C_1915_ProjectSAVE.jpg?h=72b4337c&itok=tMYYW3O9)