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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. What disease did Balakian's grandmother almost die from when the family was in Aleppo?

2. In what year was Morgenthau appointed ambassador to Turkey?

3. In what year did Balakian's grandmother give a commemorative speech about the genocide?

4. What city managed to protect itself from Turkish invaders in the 17th century, thereby stopping the expansion of Ottoman power throughout Western Europe?

5. What job was Balakian working at when he began reading as much as he could about the Armenian genocide, in "Before the Nazis"?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does numbness help people who have endured great horrors?

2. How did American Ambassador Morgenthau attempt to help the Armenians?

3. How did the atmosphere of Syria differ from that of Lebanon when Balakian visited in 2005?

4. What did Dovey mean when she said that Turkish culture was theft?

5. What was significant about the murder of 250 Armenian intellectuals on the eve of the genocide and what was significant about Bishop Balakian's survival?

6. Why did Balakian question his failure to ask questions as a child when he saw the names of the dead listed on his grandmother's compensation documents?

7. How has the Turkish government used its influence to prevent honest discussion of the Armenian genocide over the years?

8. Why was Balakian surprised the Syrian government suppressed published works about the Armenian genocide?

9. Why did Balakian eventually come to see his family's silence about the genocide as a gift?

10. What was the deeper significance of the way in which Dovey's father was killed?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Prior to beginning the genocide of the Armenians, the Turkish government conducted a campaign of propaganda against the Armenian people and other Christians. How does the dehumanization of other people make it easier to kill them? How did the long-term treatment of Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire pave the way for the eventual extermination of a race? Would it have been possible for the Turks to have carried out the genocide if conditions had been different over the years?

Essay Topic 2

At least some of Balakian's relatives would appear to have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of their sufferings. Nafina, in particular, seemed to suffer as evidenced by her breakdown when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. How did her suppression of her memories affect her over the long term? Had she been more open about the genocide, would she have been spared the breakdown in 1941? Why did she continue to suppress the memories after recovering from the breakdown? Can this suppression ever be healthy or does it inevitably lead to PTSD? Would the survivors of the Armenian genocide have had a different post-war experience if the genocide had occurred after PTSD became a well-known malady?

Essay Topic 3

Research the role of Ambassador Morgenthau in bringing the facts of the Armenian genocide to light. How did he attempt to help the Armenians? How did he attempt to negotiate with the Turkish leaders and convince them to stop what they were doing? Did the United States provide sufficient support to Morgenthau? Was their disbelief in America, and did the U.S. government do enough to try to intervene? Did the relative novelty of a massive effort to destroy an entire people hinder the world's response to the massacres? Did the ongoing world war hinder the world's response?

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