The Artist and His Mother by Arshile Gorky
This image, which is on the cover of Facing History's publication Crimes Against Humanity and Civilization: The Genocide of the Armenians was painted by the artist Arshile Gorky. It is based on a photograph of Gorky and his mother, Sushan der Marderosian, taken in 1912. Although Gorky is generally identified as an American artist, he was born Vosdanig Adoian near the city of Van in what was then the Ottoman Empire. A few years after the photograph was taken, Gorky and his mother were victims of the Armenian Genocide. While he survived, Gorky remembers his mother dying in his arms. As an artist Gorky returned to the subject of the 1912 photograph many times throughout his career.
![Painting of artist Arshile Gorky and his mother.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-09/GenocideOfTheArmeniansArshileGorky.jpeg?h=83a548ea&itok=vPFn3ux0)
The Artist and His Mother by Arshile Gorky (en español)
This image, which is on the cover of Facing History's publication Crimes Against Humanity and Civilization: The Genocide of the Armenians was painted by the artist Arshile Gorky. It is based on a photograph of Gorky and his mother, Sushan der Marderosian, taken in 1912. Although Gorky is generally identified as an American artist, he was born Vosdanig Adoian near the city of Van in what was then the Ottoman Empire. A few years after the photograph was taken, Gorky and his mother were victims of the Armenian Genocide. While he survived, Gorky remembers his mother dying in his arms. As an artist Gorky returned to the subject of the 1912 photograph many times throughout his career. This resource is in Spanish.
![Painting of artist Arshile Gorky and his mother.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-09/GenocideOfTheArmeniansArshileGorky.jpeg?h=83a548ea&itok=vPFn3ux0)
Becoming American Study Guide
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This guide to accompany the film Becoming American helps students investigate identity and belonging through the stories of generations of Chinese immigrants in the United States and their paths to "becoming American."
![Cover of "Becoming American: The Chinese Experience."](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/BecomingAmerican_cvr.png?h=1db1c0b8&itok=WjablqqZ)
Teaching Enrique's Journey
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This guide provides activities and discussion questions for leading your students through a six-week reading of Enrique's Journey that explores themes of identity, belonging, and choices.
![Cropped Enriques Journey Cover](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Enriques_Journey_card.jpeg?h=24afd704&itok=mdxEup0d)
A Range of Choices: In Action
In this classroom video, students read primary sources and discuss the roles that individuals have played in those historical cases.
![](/sites/default/files/brightcove/videos/images/posters/image_807.jpg)
A Range of Choices: Terminology
In this classroom video, students are introduced to the terminology of the roles individuals play (bystander, upstander, collaborator, victim, and perpetrator).
![](/sites/default/files/brightcove/videos/images/posters/image_803.jpg)
Warsan Shire's Poetry About Home
British-Somali poet Warsan Shire gives voice to the experiences of refugees in a poem about "home."
![Syrian refugees cross from Syria to Turkey via the Orontes River, near the village of Hacipasa, Turkey, Dec. 8, 2012. This image was one in a series of 20 by AP photographers that won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Photography.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/2013_SyrianRefugeesontheOrontesRiver_FH248167.jpg?h=c9f93661&itok=Gx3XIq0Q)
The Holocaust - Bearing Witness
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Use these slides to introduce students to the enormity of the crimes committed during the Holocaust and look closely at stories of a few individuals who were targeted by Nazi brutality.
![Jewish women and children walk toward gas chambers.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-08/GasChambers_FH229475_teaser.jpeg?h=2cea9ccb&itok=kOPay9PM)
The Holocaust - The Range of Responses
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Use these slides to help students deepen their examination of human behaviour during the Holocaust by analysing and discussing the range of choices available to individuals, groups, and nations.
![Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, and Christoph Probst in June 1942.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Holocaust_2016_WhiteRoseResistanceGroup_FH229473.jpg?h=dfc3751c&itok=BjXT-amv)
Dispossession, Destruction, and the Reserves
Reserves existed in Africa, in the British American colonies, and in Canada, where the colonizers had to address the people they dispossessed— people who seemingly stood in the way of the political and economic plans of European settlers.
![Graphic from cover of "Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools."](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/SL_graphic5.png?h=bc3345c8&itok=_uc8CaVR)
Dépossession, destruction et réserves
Il y avait des réserves en Afrique, dans les colonies britanniques, et au Canada, où les colonisateurs plaçaient les gens qu'ils avaient dépossédés, des gens qui se trouvaient au travers des plans politiques et économiques des colons européens.
![Graphic from cover of "Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools."](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/SL_graphic5.png?h=bc3345c8&itok=_uc8CaVR)