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Two Tippecanoe Valley High School juniors want others to know what they learned about in their Spanish class - The Argentina Holocaust, also known as "The Dirty War."
Lacey Utter and Jamie Weaver said their teacher, Chris Walker, taught the class about it for a week recently. "We thought it was so sad no one knows about it," said Weaver.
About 30,000 people in Argentina disappeared during that period, 1976-83, Weaver said. How many of those were killed is still undetermined.
According to a Web site Weaver and Utter recommended, www.yendor.com, "In a coup on March 24, 1976, a military junta seized power in Argentina and went on a campaign to wipe out left-wing terrorism with terror far worse than the one they were combating. Between 1976 and 1983 - under military rule - thousands of people, most of them dissidents and innocent civilians unconnected with terrorism, were arrested and then vanished without a trace.
"In 1983, after democracy was restored, a national commission was appointed to investigate the fate of the disappeared. Its report revealed the systematic abductions of men, women and children, the existence of about 340 well organized secret detention centers, and the methodic use of torture and murder."
Weaver said, "A lot of people were killed."
As part of the week-long study in the class, Utter said they had to write their own personal diaries of what it was like for one of the abducted. The class was divided into groups, with one group having to make a presentation on the effects of the "Dirty War" today, one group focused on the history, and Utter's and Weaver's group made a presentation on the tortures inflicted.
Some of the tortures, described in as nearly a "G-rated" fashion as they could, utter said the abducted would be taken out to the ocean and fed to the sharks. Others were taken up into a plane, injected with drugs and pushed out of the plane. "Those are called death flights," said Weaver. After women gave birth, their babies were killed in front of them. Others were electrocuted.
"It just really made us think," said Weaver. Utter said, "What prevents it from happening here?"
"This is reality," said Weaver. "People need to know about these kind of things."
To this day, Weaver said none of the torturers have been arrested for their crimes. Utter said mothers of the victims still protest against the seven years of torture. And online, people are posting accounts and looking for information.
"It's not just in Argentina," said Utter.
Weaver said many people don't know what the U.S. really does. Learning about the Argentina Holocaust, she said, makes her think about that. "Laws are getting ridiculous," she said.
"We just don't want another Holocaust. It's just people getting killed for nothing," said Utter.
Weaver said they are trying to let others know of "The Dirty War," even writing to Oprah Winfrey.
"Maybe someone else will care about it as much as we do," said Utter.
