How was Pol Pot like Adolf Hitler?

Lenny Ornstein
Baldwin Senior High School

HANDOUT
READING
HOMEWORK and READING

Objective: students will learn about the Khmer Rouge and the "Killing Fields" in Cambodia.

1. Do Now - "Southeast Asia and the Pacific Rim" Reading and discussion of questions.

2.Motivational Question: How is killing someone by poison gas or firing squad different from beating them to death in the head with a rifle?
lead into discussion of the violence and anger of the Cambodian genocide

3. Lesson Content

A. Cambodia is a country in Southeast Asia
Ask class: What other country have we recently studied in Southeast Asia? (See lesson Ho Chi Minh DBQ above)

Ask: Who was the Nationalis and Communist leader of that country's independence movement?

B. 1975 Communists takeover Cambodia
C. Khmer Rouge name of Cambodian communist group
D. Pol Pot leader of Khmer Rouge

Ask: How are the Khmer Rouge similar to Mao Zedong and VI Lenin in their beliefs?

E. Khmer Rouge kill over million of their own people. 1 /3 of the Cambodian population.
F. Killing Fields term used to describe Cambodian Genocide

Ask:
What is this mass killing an example of?
What is a genocide? How is this similar to the Holocaust?
What actions of the Japanese during WWII is this similar to?

G. 1979 Vietnam invades Cambodia and remove Khmer Rouge from power.
H. Currently in Cambodia:
attempting a democracy
trouble with land mines
major tourist destination to see Angkor Wat temples

4. Summary:
What term is used to describe Cambodian Genocide?
How are Khmer Rouge similar to the Nazis?
Who were the Khmer Rouge?
Who was the leader of the Khmer Rouge
How is Hitler similar to Pol Pot?
About How many people were killed in the Cambodian Genocide?
What are other examples of Genocide/Human Rights violations?

5. Lesson Activity:
Reading primary sources of the Killing Fields from Modem History Source Book

6. Homework: reading and questions from First They Killed My Father