Library Resources: HIS102: Genocide Research: Find Primary Sources

In history research, primary sources are first hand accounts of historical events. Primary sources may be found in a variety of resources such as books & ebooks, library databases, public websites & online archives, newspapers & magazines, etc.

Books that include Primary Sources from Multiple Genocides (selected)

Modern Genocide: The Definitive Resource and Document Collection by Paul R. Bartrop (Editor); Steven Leonard Jacobs (Editor); Joseph Robert White
Call Number: REF - HV6322.7 .M63 2015
ISBN: 9781610693639
Publication Date: 2014-12-17
Available Online via Gale eBooks - NOTE: you may have to use the drop down selector to access information about genocides in various volumes (listed alphabetically). This four-volume work provides students with a close examination of 10 modern genocides (Armenia, Bosnia, Cambodia, Darfur, East Timor, Guatemala, Herero (Namibia), the WWII Holocaust in Europe, Kurdish, and Rwandan) enhanced by primary source documents and introductions that provide additional historical and contemporary context for learning about and understanding these tragic events. Addresses not only the sobering reality of these different modern genocides but the pervasive, long-term consequences and impact on the communities affected by them.

Book cover from Genocide & Perseuction series. Genocide & Persecution series - Each of the 17 books in this series focuses on a different genocide and includes a chapter containing primary sources / personal narratives as well as an appendix listing other primary sources often available online. Additionally, articles about the genocide by different authors are presented. Also available in print. Series includes titles on genocides in the following locations & peoples: Afghanistan, Argentina, Burma, Cambodia, Chile, Darfur, East Pakistan, El Salvador & Guatemala, Kosovo, the Kurds, Liberia, People's Republic of China, Rwanda, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tibet, and Uganda.

Encountering Genocide book cover. Encountering Genocide: Personal Accounts from Victims, Perpetrators, and Witnesses

Primary source first-person accounts of modern genocides to enable readers to more fully examine genocidal experiences and better understand the horror of such events. Includes accounts from the following genocides: Herero (Namibian), Armenian, Cambodian, Guatemalan, East Timor, Kurdistan, Rwandan, Bosnian, Darfur, and WWII Holocaust in Europe.

Centuries of Genocide: Essays and Eyewitness Accounts by Samuel Totten (Editor)
ISBN: 9781135245511
Publication Date: 2012-09-10
Not necessarily and extended primary source, this text make rich use of short excerpts from eyewitness accounts as it addresses examples of genocides perpetrated in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. To help the reader learn about the similarities and differences among the various cases, each case is structured around specific leading questions. In every chapter authors address: Who committed the genocide? How was the genocide committed? Why was the genocide committed? Who were the victims? What were the outstanding historical forces? What was the long-range impact? What were the responses? How do scholars interpret this genocide? How does learning about this genocide contribute to the field of study? Eyewitness accounts give voice to the victims. New chapters on genocide of Native Americans in the nineteenth century, genocide in Australia, and genocide in the Nuba Mountains and authors on Herero genocide and Rwanda genocide. Several chapters from past editions that were omitted are now available on a companion website (Indonesia, Burundi, indigenous peoples).
Century of Genocide by Samuel Totten (Editor); Israel Charny (Editor); William Parsons (Editor); William S. Parsons; Israel W. Charny
Call Number: ONLINE via Internet Archive
ISBN: 0415944309
Publication Date: 2004-08-22
Through powerful first-person accounts, scholarly analyses and historical data, Century of Genocide takes on the task of explaining how and why genocides have been perpetrated throughout the course of the twentieth century. Includes: Armenia, Ukraine, Jewish Holocaust, Gypsy / Romani, Disabled Persons in Nazi Germany, East Timor, Bangladesh, Burundi, Cambodia, Iraqi Kurdistan, Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo, and others.
Defining Documents in World History: Genocide and the Holocaust by Salem Press
Call Number: REF - HV6322.7 .G46 2021
ISBN: 9781637000137
Publication Date: 2021-10-30
Available Online via Salem History - Note: Print edition is easier to read and navigate. Ancient and modern documents are examined in-depth throughout these two volumes. Documents related to the following genocides (and others) are included: Anfal Campaign against the Kurds, Armenian, Yazidis, Ukrainian, Rwandan, Cambodian, Bosnian, Guatemalan, Darfur, European Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis against Jewish, Polish, and others. Includes Holocaust testimonies, War Cables, Conventions, Excerpts from Archives, Trial transcripts, Political speeches, etc.
Listening on the Edge by Mark Cave (Editor); Stephen M. Sloan (Editor)
ISBN: 9780199859306
Publication Date: 2014-05-01
The book presents excerpts from oral histories done after twelve world crises (including survivors in Bosnian refugee camps, refugee Hazaras of Afghanistan, and Tutsi rescapés in Rwanda) followed by critical analyses by the interviewers. Additional analytical chapters set the interviews in the contexts of pyschoanalysis and oral history methodology.

Search for Primary Sources in Books and eBooks

When searching for primary sources in books and ebooks researchers at GCC may find it useful to use the OneSearch box on the library homepage and then select the 'Find Books' tab. The following 'subject terms' are a list of selected terms that may be useful for finding primary sources in books and ebooks.

[Limit to eBooks before you search by choosing the 'eBook' radio button or after your search by using the 'Online Items' limiter at the top of the left sidebar on the results page.]

Click on the link to see the results of the search with the term 'holocaust' added. To search different topics, exchange the word 'holocaust' with a word that relates to the topic being researched. Also, the searches below are for books and eBooks at GCC. Your search may be broadened to include ALL Maricopa Community College libraries or limited to include just online / ebooks.

Other keywords that may be useful for finding primary sources include:

documents (and holocaust) [note: this is a keyword search, results will be less focused than a subject search]
sourcebook (and holocaust) [note: this is a keyword search, results will be less focused than a subject search]
eyewitness (and holocaust)
voices (and holocaust)
a documentary history

Of course, these searches do not produce an exhaustive list of books that contain primary source material on your topic. Many other books and encyclopedia on your topic may contain primary sources as well. Also, researchers need to conduct multiple searches using various terms for their topic. For instance, searching on 'nazi persecution' returns different results than searching on 'holocaust'. Also, using these terms in a 'keyword' search rather than a 'subject search' will yield more results thought they may be less focused.

Finally, it may be useful to search more broadly than your specific topic. For instance, searching on 'genocide' rather than 'holocaust' may return results that include the holocaust among other genocides.

Search for Primary Source in Databases

Salem History This link opens in a new window
Database provides access to several resource containing history information. TO FIND PRIMARY SOURCES, look for the following resources in results lists -- 'Defining Documents' and 'Milestone Documents'. These book series contain primary sources and related explanation.
Gale World History in Context This link opens in a new window
The 'In Context' databases provide a 'primary sources' tabbed limiter on the search results screen. World History In Context reaches back to the ancient world — and forward to today's headlines — to deliver a chronicle of the great cultures and societies that have formed the history of the human race.

Primary sources may also be found in articles published in contemporaneous periodicals (magazines and newspapers published during the same time period as the event being researched). Look for eyewitness accounts, extended interviews, photographs, drawings, etc.

Historical Publications Databases webpage - GCC Library provides access to at least six databases containing hundreds of historic periodicals.

Gale U.S. History in Context This link opens in a new window
The 'In Context' databases provide a 'primary sources' tabbed limiter on the search results screen. U.S. History In Context is an engaging online experience for those seeking contextual information on hundreds of the most significant people, events and topics in U.S. History, including international events that relate to the United States.
Global Issues in Context This link opens in a new window
The 'In Context' databases provide a 'primary source' tabbed limiter on the results page. Global Issues In Context supports global awareness and provides a global perspective while tying together a wealth of authoritative content, empowering learners to critically analyze and understand the most important issues of the modern world.

Books that include Primary Sources - Specific Genocides (selected)

The following books and ebooks contain primary sources within them. Be careful to choose the primary source portion of the text if using these resources to fulfill the primary source requirements for this class.

The Armenian Genocide : the essential reference guide by Alan Whitehorn (Editor)
Call Number: DS195.5 .A7393 2015 & Online
ISBN: 9781610696876
Publication Date: 2015-05-26
With its analytical introductory essays, more than 140 individual entries, a historical timeline, and primary documents, this book provides an essential reference volume on the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian Genocide has often been considered a template for subsequent genocides and is one of the first genocides of the 20th century. As such, it holds crucial historical significance, and it is critically important that today's students understand this case study of inhumanity. This book provides a much-needed, long-overdue reference volume on the Armenian Genocide. It begins with seven introductory analytical essays that provide a broad overview of the Armenian Genocide and then presents individual entries, a historical timeline, and a selection of documents. This essential reference work covers all aspects of the Armenian Genocide, including the causes, phases, and consequences. It explores political and historical perspectives as well as the cultural aspects. The carefully selected collection of perspective essays will inspire critical thinking and provide readers with insight into some of the most controversial and significant issues of the Armenian Genocide. Similarly, the primary source documents are prefaced by thoughtful introductions that will provide the necessary context to help students understand the significance of the material. Provides an unprecedented encyclopedia-like reference book with more than 140 entries Includes contributions from a number of the leading authors on the Armenian Genocide Presents essential reference material that includes entries on all the key events, people, and organizations as well as a detailed chronology and key images and maps Supplies accessible information ideal for high school students and undergraduate college students as well as instructors at these education levels
Surviving the Forgotten Genocide : an Armenian Memoir by John Minassian, etc.
Call Number: ONLINE
ISBN: 9781538133705
Publication Date: 2020-03-27
A rare and poignant testimony of a survivor of the Armenian genocide. The twentieth century was an era of genocide, which started with the Turkish destruction of more than one million Armenian men, women, and children--a modern process of total, violent erasure that began in 1895 and exploded under the cover of the First World War. John Minassian lived through this as a teenager, witnessing the murder of his own kin, concealing his identity as an orphan and laborer in Syria, and eventually immigrating to the United States to start his life anew. A rare testimony of a survivor of the Armenian genocide, one of just a handful of accounts in English, Minassian's memoir is breathtaking in its vivid portraits of Armenian life and culture and poignant in its sensitive recollections of the many people who harmed and helped him. As well as a searing testimony, his memoir documents the wartime policies and behavior of Ottoman officials and their collaborators; the roles played by the British, French, and Indian armies, as well as American missionaries; and the ultimate collapse of the empire. The author's journey, and his powerful story of perseverance, despair, and survival will resonate with readers today.
Voices from Srebrenica (Bosnia) by Ann Petrila; Hasan Hasanović
Call Number: ONLINE
ISBN: 9781476683348
Publication Date: 2021-01-08
In the hills of eastern Bosnia sits the small town of Srebrenica--once known for silver mines and health spas, now infamous for the genocide that occurred there during the Bosnian War. In July 1995, when the town fell to Serbian forces, 12,000 Muslim men and boys fled through the woods, seeking safe territory. Hunted for six days, more than 8000 were captured, killed at execution sites and later buried in mass graves. With harrowing personal narratives by survivors, this book provides eyewitness accounts of the Bosnian genocide, revealing stories of individual trauma, loss and resilience.
Children of Cambodia's Killing Fields : Memoirs by Survivors by Dith Pran; Kim DePaul (Editor)
Call Number: Online via ProQuest (subscribed).
ISBN: 9780300078732
Publication Date: 1999-04-10
This extraordinary book contains eyewitness accounts of life in Cambodia during Pol Pot's genocidal Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979, accounts written by survivors who were children at the time. The book has been put together by Dith Pran, whose own experiences in Cambodia were so graphically portrayed in the film The Killing Fields. The testimonies related here bear poignant witness to the slaughter the Khmer Rouge inflicted on the Cambodian people. The contributors?most of them now in the United States and pictured in photographs that accompany their stories?report on life in Democratic Kampuchea as seen through children's eyes. They speak of their bewilderment and pain as Khmer Rouge cadres tore their families apart, subjected them to harsh brainwashing, drove them from their homes to work in forced-labor camps, and executed captives in front of them. Their stories tell of suffering and the loss of innocence, the struggle to survive against all odds, and the ultimate triumph of the human spirit.
The Great Famine in China, 1958-1962 by Xun Zhou (Editor)
Call Number: ONLINE
ISBN: 9780300175189
Publication Date: 2012-07-10
Beginning soon after the implementation of the policies of the Great Leap Forward of 1958-1961, when the drive to collectivize and industrialize undermined the livelihoods of the vast majority of peasant workers, China?s Great Famine was the worst famine in human history. In addition to claiming more than 45 million lives, it also led to the destruction of agriculture, industry, trade, and every aspect of human life, leaving large parts of the Chinese countryside scarred forever by human-created environmental disasters. Drawing on previously closed archives that have since been made inaccessible again, Zhou Xun offers readers, for the first time in English, access to the most vital archival documentation of the famine. For some time to come this documentary history may be the only publication available that contains the most crucial primary documents concerning the fate of the Chinese peasantry between 1957 and 1962. It covers everything from collectivization and survival strategies, including cannibalism, to selective killing and mass murder.]]>
Forgotten Voices of Mao's Great Famine, 1958-1962 by Xun Zhou
Call Number: ONLINE via ProQuest (subscribed)
ISBN: 9780300184044
Publication Date: 2013-11-26
A powerful account of China's Great Famine as told through the voices of those who survived it In 1958, China's revered leader Mao Zedong instituted a program designed to transform his giant nation into a Communist utopia. Called the Great Leap Forward, Mao's grand scheme--like so many other utopian dreams of the 20th century--proved a monumental disaster, resulting in the mass destruction of China's agriculture, industry, and trade while leaving large portions of the countryside forever scarred by man-made environmental disasters. The resulting three-year famine claimed the lives of more than 45 million people in China. In this remarkable oral history of modern China's greatest tragedy, survivors of the cataclysm share their memories of the devastation and loss. The range of voices is wide: city dwellers and peasants, scholars and factory workers, parents who lost children and children who were orphaned in the catastrophe all speak out. Powerful and deeply moving, this unique remembrance of an unnecessary and unhindered catastrophe illuminates a dark recent history that remains officially unacknowledged to this day by the Chinese government and opens a window on a society still feeling the impact of the terrible Great Famine.
An Oral and Documentary History of the Darfur Genocide by Samuel Totten
Call Number: DT157.672 .O73 2011 (Main / North)
ISBN: 9780313352379
Publication Date: 2010-12-01

GERMANY

The Congo Free State and the New Imperialism: a brief history with documents by Kevin Grant
Call Number: ONLINE & DT655 .G73 2017
ISBN: 9781457650895
Publication Date: 2016-09-02
Providing an overview of the Congolese peoples and who they lived, Congo Free State and the New Imperialism helps you understand how the Congo Free State played a role in shaping history.
Deaf People in Hitler's Europe by Donna F. Ryan (Editor); John S. Schuchman (Editor); Donna Ryan
Call Number: ONLINE and GCC Main: GV2746 .D43 2002
ISBN: 9781563681264
Publication Date: 2002-12-06
Inspired by the conference "Deaf People in Hitler's Europe, 1933-1945," hosted jointly by Gallaudet University and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1998, this extraordinary collection, organized into three parts, integrates key presentations and important postconference research. Henry Friedlander begins "Part I: Racial Hygiene" by analyzing the assault on deaf people and people with disabilities as an integral element in the Nazi attempt to implement their theories of racial hygiene. Robert Proctor documents the role of medical professionals in deciding who should be sterilized or forbidden to marry, and whom the Nazi authorities would murder. In an essay written especially for this volume, Patricia Heberer details how Nazi manipulation of eugenics theory and practice facilitated the justification for the murder of those considered socially undesirable. "Part II: The German Experience" commences with Jochen Muhs's interviews of deaf Berliners who lived under Nazi rule, both those who suffered abuse and those who, as members of the Nazi Party, persecuted others, especially deaf Jews. John S. Schuchman describes the remarkable 1932 film Misjudged People, which so successfully portrayed the German deaf community as a vibrant contributor to society that the Nazis banned its showing when they came to power. Horst Biesold's contribution confirms the complicity of teachers who denounced their own students, labeling them hereditarily deaf and thus exposing them to compulsory sterilization. The section also includes the reprint of a chilling 1934 article entitled "The Place of the School for the Deaf in the New Reich," in which author Kurt Lietz rued the expense of educating deaf students, who could not become soldiers or bear "healthy children." In "Part III: The Jewish Deaf Experience," John S. Schuchman discusses the plight of deaf Jews in Hungary. His historical analysis is complemented by a chapter containing excerpts from the testimony of six deaf Jewish survivors who describe their personal ordeals. Peter Black's reflections on the need for more research conclude this vital study of a little-known chapter of the Holocaust.
Facing the Lion : : memoirs of a young girl in Nazi Europe by Simone Arnold Liebster
Call Number: GCC Main - D804.5 .J44 L54 2011
ISBN: 9781937188009
Publication Date: 2011-06-01
Simone Arnold is an ordinary French schoolgirl, spirited and stubborn. Then the Nazis march in, demanding complete conformity. Friends become enemies. Teachers spout Nazi propaganda. School officials recruit for the Hitler Youth. Simone's family refuses to heil Hitler as Germany's savior. They are Jehovah's Witnesses, and they reject Nazi racism and violence. The Nazi Lion makes them pay the price.
The Girl Who Escaped ISIS by Farida Khalaf; Andrea C. Hoffmann
Call Number: ONLINE & HV6433.I722 I8558 2017
ISBN: 9781501152337
Publication Date: 2017-07-04
A young Yazidi woman was living a normal, sheltered life in northern Iraq during the summer of 2014 when her entire world was upended: her village was attacked by ISIS. All of the men in her town were killed and the women were taken into slavery. This is Farida Khalaf's story. In unprecedented detail, Farida describes her world as it was--at nineteen, she was living at home with her brothers and parents, finishing her schooling and looking forward to becoming a math teacher--and the hell it became. Held in a slave market in Syria and sold into the homes of several ISIS soldiers, she stubbornly attempts resistance at every turn. Farida is ultimately brought to an ISIS training camp in the middle of the desert, where she plots an against-all-odds escape for herself and five other girls. A riveting firsthand account of life in captivity and a courageous flight to freedom, this astonishing memoir is also Farida's way of bearing witness, and of ensuring that ISIS does not succeed in crushing her spirit.
The Holodomor Reader by Bohdan Klid (Editor); Alexander J. Motyl (Editor)
Call Number: MAIN: DK508.8377 .H63 2012
ISBN: 9781894865296
Publication Date: 2021-11-12
The Holodomor Reader is a wide-ranging collection of key texts and source materials, many of which have never before appeared in English, on the genocidal famine (Holodomor) of 1932-33 in Soviet Ukraine. The subject is introduced in an extensive interpretive essay, and the material is presented in six sections: scholarship; legal assessments, findings, and resolutions; eyewitness accounts and memoirs; survivor testimonies, memoirs, diaries, and letters; Soviet, Ukrainian, British, German, Italian, and Polish documents; and works of literature. Each section is prefaced with introductory remarks. The Reader is an indispensable guide for all those interested in the Holodomor, genocide, or Stalinism.
King Leopold's Congo and the Scramble for Africa: a short history with documents by Michael A. Rutz
Call Number: ONLINE & DT652 .R88 2018
ISBN: 9781624666568
Publication Date: 2018-03-01
"King Leopold of Belgium's exploits up the Congo River in the 1880s were central to the European partitioning of the African continent. The Congo Free State, Leopold's private colony, was a unique political construct that opened the door to the savage exploitation of the Congo's natural and human resources by international corporations. The resulting 'red rubber' scandal--which laid bare a fundamental contradiction between the European propagation of free labor and 'civilization' and colonial governments' acceptance of violence and coercion for productivity's sake--haunted all imperial powers in Africa. Featuring a clever introduction and judicious collection of documents, Michael Rutz's book neatly captures the drama of one king's quest to build an empire in Central Africa--a quest that began in the name of anti-slavery and free trade and ended in the brutal exploitation of human lives. This volume is an excellent starting point for anyone interested in the history of colonial rule in Africa ." --Jelmer Vos, University of Glasgow
The Last Girl: my story of captivity, and my fight against the Islamic State by Nadia Murad; Amal Clooney
Call Number: ONLINE & DS79.766.M865 A3 2017
ISBN: 9781524760434
Publication Date: 2017-11-07
WINNER OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE * In this "courageous" (The Washington Post) memoir of survival, a former captive of the Islamic State tells her harrowing and ultimately inspiring story. Nadia Murad was born and raised in Kocho, a small village of farmers and shepherds in northern Iraq. A member of the Yazidi community, she and her brothers and sisters lived a quiet life. Nadia had dreams of becoming a history teacher or opening her own beauty salon. On August 15th, 2014, when Nadia was just twenty-one years old, this life ended. Islamic State militants massacred the people of her village, executing men who refused to convert to Islam and women too old to become sex slaves. Six of Nadia's brothers were killed, and her mother soon after, their bodies swept into mass graves. Nadia was taken to Mosul and forced, along with thousands of other Yazidi girls, into the ISIS slave trade. Nadia would be held captive by several militants and repeatedly raped and beaten. Finally, she managed a narrow escape through the streets of Mosul, finding shelter in the home of a Sunni Muslim family whose eldest son risked his life to smuggle her to safety. Today, Nadia's story--as a witness to the Islamic State's brutality, a survivor of rape, a refugee, a Yazidi--has forced the world to pay attention to an ongoing genocide. It is a call to action, a testament to the human will to survive, and a love letter to a lost country, a fragile community, and a family torn apart by war.
The Nazi Germany Sourcebook by Roderick Stackelberg (Editor); Sally A. Winkle (Editor)
Call Number: ONLINE and DD256.5 .N359 2002
ISBN: 9781134596935
Publication Date: 2013-04-15
The Nazi Germany Sourcebook is an exciting new collection of documents on the origins, rise, course and consequences of National Socialism, the Third Reich, the Second World War, and the Holocaust. Packed full of both official and private papers from the perspectives of perpetrators and victims, these sources offer a revealing insight into why Nazism came into being, its extraordinary popularity in the 1930s, how it affected the lives of people, and what it means to us today. This carefully edited series of 148 documents, drawn from 1850 to 2000, covers the pre-history and aftermath of Nazism: * the ideological roots of Nazism, and the First World War * the Weimar Republic * the consolidation of Nazi power * Hitler's motives, aims and preparation for war * the Second World War * the Holocaust * the Cold War and recent historical debates. The Nazi Germany Sourcebook focuses on key areas of study, helping students to understand and critically evaluate this extraordinary historical episode:
The Other Victims : first-person stories of non-Jews persecuted by the Nazis by Ina R. Friedman
Call Number: Main & North: D811.A2 F74 1990
ISBN: 9780395745151
Publication Date: 1995-09-25
A series of personal stories from some of the non-Jews, including gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, political and religious activists, the physically challenged, and other "undesirables," who were persecuted but escaped the fate of the five million Gentiles murdered by the Nazis.
Silent Memories — Traumatic Lives Ukrainian Migrant Refugees in Western Australia by Lesa Melnyczuk
Call Number: ONLINE - Thru June 30
ISBN: 9781459666733
Publication Date: 2013
Though not strictly a primary source, the book draws extensively from interviews of surviors and includes exdended excerpts and is illustrated with more than 100 historical and personal photographs.
The Third Reich Sourcebook by B. N. Newman; Lilian M. Friedberg (Translator); Sander L. Gilman; Anson Rabinbach
Call Number: ONLINE
ISBN: 9780520208674
Publication Date: 2013-07-10
No documentation of National Socialism can be undertaken without the explicit recognition that the "German Renaissance" promised by the Nazis culminated in unprecedented horror--World War II and the genocide of European Jewry. With The Third Reich Sourcebook, editors Anson Rabinbach and Sander L. Gilman present a comprehensive collection of newly translated documents drawn from wide-ranging primary sources, documenting both the official and unofficial cultures of National Socialist Germany from its inception to its defeat and collapse in 1945. Framed with introductions and annotations by the editors, the documents presented here include official government and party pronouncements, texts produced within Nazi structures, such as the official Jewish Cultural League, as well as documents detailing the impact of the horrors of National Socialism on those who fell prey to the regime, especially Jews and the handicapped. With thirty chapters on ideology, politics, law, society, cultural policy, the fine arts, high and popular culture, science and medicine, sexuality, education, and other topics, The Third Reich Sourcebook is the ultimate collection of primary sources on Nazi Germany.
It is no Secret by Meehan, Donna
Call Number: DU123.3.M44 I7 2000, GCC
ISBN: 9780091839949
Publication Date: 2000
At the age of five, Donna was taken away from her natural family and sent to a foster family in Newcastle. Donna reflects back on her childhood memories of living in the bush with her brothers and her removal to the city, becoming an only child in a white family. Donna recalls her struggle with her identity - remembering traditions and customs of her old life in the outback and the adjustments she has had to make in a strange city. Donna (aged 40) retells her life story with stark simplicity and honesty. Australia.
Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia by T. L. Mitchell
Call Number: U161 .M69 2011 V.2, GCC
ISBN: 9781108030632
Publication Date: 2011-05-05
Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell (1792-1855) was an acclaimed surveyor and explorer of Australia. After attending the University of Edinburgh Mitchell joined the British Army in 1811. He took part in major battles of the Peninsular War and difficult military surveys in the Pyrenees. In 1827 he was appointed Deputy Surveyor of New South Wales, and he became Surveyor General in 1828. This fascinating two-volume work, first published in 1838, contains Mitchell's illustrated account of his three expeditions into the then unexplored interior of modern eastern Victoria and southern New South Wales between 1831 and 1836, for which he received a knighthood in 1839. Drawing on Mitchell's personal journals, Volume 2 describes in vivid detail the difficulties and dangers of exploring the Murray-Darling river systems, and provides valuable first-hand descriptions of the lives and society of the indigenous Australians his expedition encountered.
Australia by Harry Allen (Editor); Mark Dugay-Grist (Editor); Luise Hercus (Editor); Brook Andrew (Editor)
Call Number: DU123.4 .B53 2010, GCC
ISBN: 9780855757175
Publication Date: 2010-10-01
For the first time in English, this 1850s illustrated encyclopedia of Aboriginal life explores the potential of images to portray the lives of people engaged in everyday activities, dramatic conflicts, and rituals. Including photographs by German explorer and natural scientist William Blandowski as well as snapshots, sketches, and illustrations by other contributors, this unique account not only highlights Australia’s geography, ecology, and wildlife, but also contains the only 19th-century portrait of the Nyeri Nyeri people.
The Diary of Mary Berg by Mary Berg; Susan Lee Pentlin (Editor)
ISBN: 9781851685851
Publication Date: 2009-04-01
Mary Berg was fifteen when the German army poured into Poland in 1939. She survived four years of Nazi terror, and managed to keep a diary throughout. This astonishing, vivid portrayal of life inside the Warsaw Ghetto ranks with the most significant documents of the Second World War. Mary Berg candidly chronicles not only the daily deprivations and mass deportations, but also the resistance and resilience of the inhabitants, their secret societies, and the youth at the forefront of the fight against Nazi terror. Above all The Diary of Mary Berg is a uniquely personal story of a life-loving girl's encounter with unparalleled human suffering, and offers an extraordinary insight into one of the darkest chapters of human history.
A Memoir of the Warsaw Uprising by Miron Bialoszewski; Madeline G. Levine (Translator)
ISBN: 9781590176658
Publication Date: 2015-10-27
On August 1, 1944, Miron Białoszewski, later to gain renown as one of Poland's most innovative poets, went out to run an errand for his mother and ran into history. With Soviet forces on the outskirts of Warsaw, the Polish capital revolted against five years of Nazi occupation, an uprising that began in a spirit of heroic optimism. Sixty-three days later it came to a tragic end. The Nazis suppressed the insurgents ruthlessly, reducing Warsaw to rubble while slaughtering some 200,000 people, mostly through mass executions. The Red Army simply looked on. Białoszewski's blow-by-blow account of the uprising brings it alive in all its desperate urgency. Here we are in the shoes of a young man slipping back and forth under German fire, dodging sniper bullets, collapsing with exhaustion, rescuing the wounded, burying the dead. An indispensable and unforgettable act of witness, A Memoir of the Warsaw Uprising is also a major work of literature. Białoszewski writes in short, stabbing, splintered, breathless sentences attuned to "the glaring identity of 'now.'" His pages are full of a white-knuckled poetry that resists the very destruction it records. Madeline G. Levine has extensively revised her 1977 translation, and passages that were unpublishable in Communist Poland have been restored.
Inside a Gestapo Prison by Irene Tomaszewski
ISBN: 9780814332948
Publication Date: 2006-11-30
On the eve of World War II, Krystyna Wituska, a carefree teenager attending finishing school in Switzerland, returned to Poland. During the occupation, when she was twenty years old, she drifted into the Polish Underground. By her own admission, she was attracted first by the adventure, but her youthful bravado soon turned into a mental and spiritual mastery over fear. Because Krystyna spoke fluent German, she was assigned to collect information on German troop movements at Warsaw's airport. In 1942, at age twenty-one, she was arrested by the Gestapo and transferred to prison in Berlin, where she was executed two years later. Eighty of the letters that Krystyna wrote in the last eighteen months of her life are translated and collected in this volume. The letters, together with an introduction providing historical background to Krystyna's arrest, constitute a little-known and authentic record of the treatment of ethnic Poles under German occupation, the experience of Polish prisoners in German custody, and a glimpse into the prisons of Berlin. Krystyna's letters also reflect her own courage, idealism, faith, and sense of humor. As a classroom text, this book relates nicely to contemporary discussions of racism, nationalism, patriotism, human rights, and stereotypes. This is a new edition of the book originally titled ""I Am First a Human Being: The Letters of Krystyna Wituska"" (Vehicule Press, 1997).

Websites

Check the 'Related Websites' page on this guide for websites that may include primary sources.

USC Shoah Foundation: Visual History Archive Online
Free registration may be required to search database.
USC Shoah Foundation's Visual History Archive allows users to search through and view more than 54,000 video testimonies of survivors and witnesses of genocide. In addition to testimonies from the Holocaust the database includes testimonies from the Armenian Genocide that coincided with World War I, the 1937 Nanjing Massacre in China, the Cambodian Genocide of 1975-1979, the Guatemalan Genocide of 1978-1983, the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, and the ongoing conflicts in the Central African Republic and South Sudan, and anti-Rohingya mass violence. It also includes testimonies about contemporary acts of violence against Jews.
Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Foundation
The Armenian Genocide Memorial was officially opened on November 29, 1967. The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute was opened in 1995 as one of the institutions of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia. In 2017 the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute became a separate Foundation.
Includes primary sources such as photos and descriptions by eyewitnesses.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
A living memorial to the Holocaust, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum inspires citizens and leaders worldwide to confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity. Includes films, diaries, artowrk, oral histories, etc. Be sure to use the Collection Search and add appropriate limiters for digital availability, English language, etc. https://collections.ushmm.org/search/