In The Genocide Contagion, Israel W. Charny asks uncomfortable questions about what allows people to participate in genocide – either directly, through killing or other violent acts, or indirectly, by sitting passively while witnessing genocidal acts. Charny draws on both historical and current examples such as the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide, and presses readers around the world to consider how they might contribute to genocide. Given the number of people who die from genocide or suffer indirect consequences such as forced migration, Charny argues that we must all work to resist and to learn about ourselves before critical moments arise.

Israel W. Charny is an Israeli psychologist and genocide scholar. He is executive director of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem and retired professor of psychology and family therapy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the recipient of the Armenian President’s Gold Medal “in recognition of his decades-long academic work and activities contributing to international recognition of the Armenian Genocide and his researches of denials of genocides.” Three of his previous books have been awarded “Outstanding Academic Book of the Year” by the American Library Association.