Scott Dorough, Assistant Professor of Mass Communications at St. Louis Community College at Meramec is sharing with us some information on the upcoming film project on Ethnic Germans: Title: "The Forgotten Genocide" Synopsis: Memories of a painful secret held for over fifty years are now finally being brought to light. THE FORGOTTEN GENOCIDE: The Expulsion after WWII, is an in-depth, feature length documentary that examines the sufferings put upon Ethnic Germans living behind the Iron Curtain. Through interviews with survivors and examinations of relics of the era, the students of St. Louis Community College-Meramec aim to preserve the memory of this sad period in human history, and hopefully give peace to the almost 15 million souls lost. Abstract: History is vital to our understanding of who we are as a people, but it becomes confusing because of unanswered questions and untold stories. Millions of German people who never lived in Germany, never hated Jewish people and suffered as many ethnic groups have and yet no one ever knew about it. The good and bad in all needs to be brought to light, especially regarding the largest nationality in St. Louis. A large group of survivors from the ethnic German cleansing live among us and has been a major part in building the St. Louis we know today. We need to know this history to bring us to a better understanding of who we are. Project Story: Most of the people I have spoken do not know about the mass genocide that took place at the end of WWII. I am part of a group of students producing a documentary, entitled The Forgotten Genocide. It exposes this horrific ethnic cleansing at the hands of the Soviets. Though it would be a shock to find that someone did not know about the Holocaust-you would think such brutality on such a massive scale couldn't possibly go unknown to the general public-I have come to expect people's surprise when they learn of the equally tragic, widespread events that occurred on the same continent, at almost the same time. In this forgotten genocide, the victims were ethnic Germans. These were people living in various Eastern European countries, as their families had for generations, until the victorious Soviet government declared them enemies because of their descent. Thus began what would be one of the worst genocides of all time. I didn't know anything about these events until last spring, when Professor Pam Garvey assigned my Honors College Composition II class to come up with a service learning project.. These projects are part of a program that St. Louis Community College-Meramec participates in, in which teachers incorporate a community service experience into their curriculum. During a brainstorming session my fellow student, Ann Morrison, mentioned that she was a part of the St. Louis German Cultural Society, and suggested that we interview survivors of World War II concentration camps. I assumed that she meant the Holocaust, but my classmates and I quickly found out that, no, we would not be speaking with survivors of that infamous tragedy. Instead, we would be speaking with people who had survived conditions just as barbaric, suffering through events that, tragically, are little known. It was, of course, disturbing to learn of a brutal ethnic cleansing that tore apart families, destroyed entire villages, and ended thousands of innocent lives. But I was also disturbed that I had never heard any mention of it before. Our group also included students Lilian Aimeida, Alex Tran, and Michael Puckett, all of whom had similar reactions. We decided these were stories that needed to be told. Learning that this genocide took place at all was eye-opening. Still, it was nothing compared to hearing these unbelievably strong, determinedly positive people speak of their experiences. They told us about their lives before the genocide, the armies invading their homes and killing and kidnapping their family, their neighbors, themselves. They described the impossible conditions of their imprisonment-the cold, the starvation, the forced labor, the brutality, and the death. All unexplained, all unjustified. Though these stories are hard to hear, they should not remain unspoken, and nobody could tell them better than the ones who lived through it. Over the summer, Ann continued to work on the project, and while she was often met with surprise or confusion when she explained the nature of it, she also found people-in growing amounts-who knew about the tragedy that took place and wanted others to know as well. She met with people from all over the country, began communicating with people internationally, and the project grew into something bigger. Now the group working on this project consists of Ann Morrison, Emily Curry, Scott Dorough, Adam Groerich, and myself. In addition, there are many others who have contributed by volunteering their time, talents and effort. Together we are working to produce a full-length documentary to be shown at the Meramec campus on the evening of February 27th. It is entitled The Forgotten Genocide, and it is a historical account told through the stories of those who lived through an atrocity that never should have been lost to history, and should never be forgotten. With hundreds of Interviewees, Survivors and Interested parties from the US and Europe, including Herta Muller (Nobel Literature 2009) and Alfred deZayas (UN Human Rights Commission)