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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. The Allies have ____________ intelligence on Hitler's extermination of European Jews.

2. In the preface, Power identifies which Serbian leader as the ringleader of the Bosnian genocide?

3. Which U.S. government official does Lemkin try to approach regarding Hitler?

4. The United States has done ______________ in actual situations of crimes against humanity.

5. What city does the Khmer Rouge seize in 1975 after a five-year civil war and defeat of the incumbent, American-backed government?

Short Essay Questions

1. During his crusade to help European Jews, for what did Lemkin begin searching?

2. Why was Raphael Lemkin worthy of an entire chapter of this book? What is his significance to this survey of genocide?

3. What does Powers say motivates U.S. policymakers to keep the U.S. uninvolved in situations when genocide occurs?

4. In lobbying the UN General Assembly for a resolution on genocide, what kind of a law did Lemkin want the body to pass?

5. How do we know that the United States and British governments had a great deal of intelligence on Hitler's extermination of Jews that belied their feigned ignorance of the atrocities?

6. Why did the Khmer Rouge especially target people who wore glasses?

7. What kind of law did Raphael Lemkin propose?

8. What was the scope of the Nuremberg trials limited to as to what the tribunal was to punish?

9. In coining the term "genocide," what did Lemkin write concerning those who committed it?

10. Which specific instance of genocide has American society committed itself to remembering and preventing a repetition of, which makes their slowness to react when genocide occurs disturbing to say the least?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Powers' argument in the book is that the United States has had information about all of the twentieth-century genocides and has done little to prevent or stop them. Using the text for support, compare and contrast the United States' reaction to each of the genocides in the book and then analyze whether or not Powers' argument is valid.

Essay Topic 2

Demonstrate how the Cambodian genocide illustrates the manner in which internal politics in the United States affect U.S. actions. Support your arguments from the text.

Essay Topic 3

Using the text as backup, investigate why, during the postwar period, the Holocaust was rarely discussed in general American society and glossed over in, if not omitted entirely from, books and films of the period. In particular, focus on the role American Jews had in encouraging this approach toward the Nazi atrocities against their people and why they did so.

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