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  2. 029: Marco Gonzalez - Bringing Consciousness of Genocides in Broad Daylight so the Next Generation Can Become Positive and Optimistic Actors for Change

029: Marco Gonzalez - Bringing Consciousness of Genocides in Broad Daylight so the Next Generation Can Become Positive and Optimistic Actors for Change

Oct 27, 2018

Marco Gonzalez, is the director of Yahad-In Unum (“Together In One”), is a Paris-based non-profit organization dedicated to discovering genocidal practices wherever they are found around the world, providing documented proof of crimes against humanity, and a leading voice of protest on behalf of all past and present victims of mass murder. 
 
In accord with its original mission, Yahad – In Unum unveiled the lost history of World War II, the so-called “Holocaust by Bullets” in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
Yahad – In Unum pioneered a proprietary application of modern forensic research to uncover the killings of more than 2.5 million Jews and Roma and the location of more than 2,300 mass murder sites, while interviewing more than 5,700 witness testimonies on the war crimes of the Nazi Death Squads. They are in a race against time because realistically, no more than 3 years remain to capture the eyewitness accounts of living witnesses and locate the remaining mass killing sites before all living testimony is silenced forever.
 
Marco’s work with YIU also has a deep personal resonance.  Growing up in Guatemala, he was keenly aware of the abysmal human rights record in that region, especially the systematic mass killings perpetrated by the military dictatorships of an estimated 200,000 ethnic Mayans, mostly during the early 1980s. Marco's work with the organization is now allowing him to raise awareness of the Holocaust to the Guatemalan population and also the possible parallel to what his home country has experienced in the last 30 years.  
 
He helped found the first and only museum of the Holocaust in Central America. The Museum trains hundreds of educators each year in a state-supported curriculum that examines the “Holocaust by Bullets” with more than 50,000 students having visited the Museum so far.  In 2017, the Museum was nominated by The Leading
Cultural Destination (LCD) Awards for “Best New Museum of the Year – South/Central America”
 
In November of 2017, Marco was instrumental in launching Yahad-In Unum’s "Holocaust by Bullets"- Enhanced Teacher Training seminar to over 50 current and future educators in Denver Colorado. The program is designed to equip educators with the tools and resources to teach the recently discovered history of WWII. In 2018, the program was customized for museum professionals during a weeklong program for over 130 museum guides and staff members of the Auschwitz Museum in Poland.  Marco is currently looking to expand the program across the US. 
 
Listen as we Talk about:
 
  • The need to stay optimistic 
  • The importance and responsibility we have for acting for the sake of society
  • How meeting a single person propelled him into this line of work
  • Understanding ISIS
  • The role reconstructing memory plays in giving people purpose
  • How we still use the same models for genocide today as we did with the Holocaust
  • Stories of atrocities and crimes against humanity from Marco's on the ground research
  • Giving energy to people doing good work
  • How media can be most effective and purposeful
  • Why we must break the culture of silence about genocide
  • The equation for healing
  • The inspiration of Germany's leadership after the Holocaust
  • Why thinking genocides are secret stops people from being responsible
  • How genocides are happening in broad daylight
  • The role we all play for refugees around the world
  •  How to get involved and support refugee camps in Iraq
 
Resources Mentioned:
 
How to Contact Marco:
https://www.facebook.com/yahadinunum/
https://twitter.com/yahadinunum
Facebook.com/actionyazidis
Donate here: http://www.yahadinunum.org/donate-to-yahad-in-unum/
 
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