Whenever genocide has occurred, individuals have risked their own lives to save others. How can their courage inspire us to defy genocide?
The story of how Simone Weil Lipman was able to save thousands of Jewish children during the Holocaust is a starting point for an exploration of what it takes to defy genocide. The film focuses on Damas Gisimba, director of a small orphanage in Rwanda that was besieged by militias during the 1994 genocide. Learn how Gisimba, with the help of American aid worker Carl Wilkens, managed to protect, care for, and save some 400 people.
This film was made possible by the Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Family Foundation.
YOU CAN LEARN MORE:
Read a transcript of the 2003 event,
Defying Genocide, which brought Simone Weil Lipman together with Damas Gisimba for a public event held at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Listen to an interview with Carl Wilkens. Wilkens, the only American known to stay in Rwanda throughout the genocide and featured in the video, Defying Genocide, discusses the choice he made in 1994 to remain in Kigali, the challenges Rwandans faced in resisting participation in the massacres, and how his faith and trust in God allowed him to take action.
SOME SUGGESTED TIMELINES OF THE 1994 GENOCIDE IN RWANDA:
TOOLS FOR USING THIS FILM IN THE CLASSROOM:
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