Montage
The
St. Louis Community College–Meramec
FEB 11, 2010 Vol. 45 Issue 10
The Forgotten
Genocide
Class project becomes full-length film
PHOTO COURTESY OF FILM THE “FORGOTTEN GENOCIDE”
(LEFT)Starving children in a large room
of a house in one of the death camps
for displaced Germans. (BELOW) Men
chained and rounded up to never be
seen again. These pictures are part of
the many images and articles used in
the “Forgotten Genocide” film.
4
The order of
the court
Two opposing
views on the recent
Supreme Court ruling
9
From Afghanistan
to Meramec
A day in the life of a
student and Afghan
war veteran
11
Eric Aikin
- Staff Writer-
When STLCC-Meramec student Ann Morrison
was assigned a service learning project for her
Honors Composition II class last semester, the goal
of the project was to change the world. Instead of
cleaning a park or holding a canned food drive,
Morrison decided to expose the genocide of
approximately 14 million ethnic Germans.
Morrison, with the help of several students and
staff members at Meramec, has been spearheading
the production of “The Forgotten Genocide,” a fulllength documentary covering the persecution of
Germans throughout Eastern Europe after World
War II.
After the Holocaust, German descendents living
in Eastern European countries were persecuted by
the Communist Party, the soldiers of Josip Broz Tito
and the partisan forces of Edvard Beneš. However,
the targeted Germans had actually migrated from
Germany hundreds of years before the Holocaust.
“When
people
heard
German,
they
automatically assumed [Nazi soldiers],” Morrison
said. “That wasn’t the case, so these people who
had never stepped foot in Germany were paying
for this stuff that happened in Germany.”
As the first American-made full-length
documentary covering the subject, Morrison said
her main goal for “The Forgotten Genocide” is to tell
the story of the atrocities committed, which remains
relatively unknown among most Americans today.
“If you were to go and ask somebody, ‘Hey,
what do you think of when you think of World
War II and genocide,’ [almost all] people would
say genocide perpetrated upon the Jewish people
by the Nazis,” said Scott Dorough, professor of
communications and editor for the film. “But not
a lot of people think about this [genocide] and talk
about this in that same regard.”
Morrison taped the story of Karl Voss, Ph.D.,
history professor at Meramec, for her film, whose
relatives were directly affected by the offenses
covered in “The Forgotten Genocide.”
Voss’ stepfather and his stepfather’s mother
were both persecuted by Soviet and Polish soldiers
as they tried to flee from their East Prussian home
in 1945. Both were of German descent. They were
captured at one point, and Voss’ stepfather had to
witness his own mother being raped multiple times
by military officers. He was 5 years old at the time.
Despite what his relatives and millions of
Germans like them have endured, Voss said that
many survivors are still afraid to tell their stories due
to a fear of backlash from the Polish government.
Forgotten genocide
continued on page 2
Men’s basketball
beat number 1 in
the region
Magic beats Penn
Valley 64-60
Montage Reader Poll
How do you plan to
spend Valentine’s day?
A
C
B
A. A romantic night out with my
significant other.
B. A quiet night in with my cat the perfect date!
C. Valentines Day is just another commercial holiday to make
you spend money.
Feb. 25 Poll Question
Does blackboard
work for you?
REVEALING A HIDDEN PAST
See page 6 & 7
To vote, visit:
www.meramecmontage.com