Genocide Past and Current

Rwanda was taken over by the Belgians causing the Hutus and Tutsis to not get along which caused genocide. “Facing a revolution instigated by the Hutu, the Belgians let the Hutus, who constituted the majority of Rwanda 's population, be in charge of the new government. This upset the Tutsi. The animosity between the two groups continued for decades.” Both clans were upset and started Genocide in Rwanda. The causes of their mass casualties resolved in a never ending dispute between the two clans.

In 1990, Civil War broke out in Rwanda which heightened the animosity between the Tutsi and the Hutu tribes. The war began when Rwandan exiles composed a group called the Rwandan Patriotic Front. The group then launched an attack against Rwanda from their home base located in Uganda. The Rwandan Patriotic Front, better known as the RPF, blamed the government for not addressing the Tutsi refugee problem. All Tutsis in the country were characterized as accomplices of the of the RPF and all Hutu members of the parties were deemed as traitors.

Genocide. What is it defined as? According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, genocide is defined as any crime committed with intent to destroy, in whole or part, a national, ethnical, or religious group. The Holocaust, during WWII, is one of the largest acts of genocide in human history resulting in an unfathomable amount of deaths of the Jewish race(Holocaust Encyclopedia). According to the Holocaust Museum Houston, over 5,800,000 Jews were killed in the Holocaust. Communists, trade unionists, socialists, and gypsies are just some of the many groups also affected by this horrific event(Holocaust Museum Houston). Many unanswered questions still remain today about the Holocaust. Perhaps

Genocides are the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation. They are completely inhumane acts that kill mass amounts of people in brutal ways for no absolute reason. There have been several genocides that have occured in human history. The most well-known and arguably the most brutal genocide was that of Jews from Natzi Germany. The holocaust was used as a slaughterhouse for Jewish people and those who were not apart of Hitler’s “master race”.

Over the past few years, several deadly genocides have occurred. However, one of the most infamous genocides to occur was the Holocaust. The Holocaust was the “massive destruction of European Jewry during World War II, when millions were systematically persecuted and exterminated solely because of their social, cultural, ethnic, or religious characteristics” (Barel, Van Ijzendoorn, Sagi-Schwartz, Bakermans-Kranenburg). Contrary to popular belief, Jews were not the only group targeted in the Holocaust, as five million more lives were taken in groups other than the Jews. Three other groups targeted during his deadly event were the homosexuals, the mentally and physically disabled, and the ethnic minorities, whose death toll equaled 2,285,000, a combined total that clearly showed how determined the Nazis were in destroying their targeted victims in the Holocaust..

Imagine walking through a rusted metal fence, a lingering smell in the air that never really went away. You look to your left and see Nazi soldiers beating a man in a worn out striped suit. You look to your right and see a bulldozer moving piles of pale bodies from one building to another. This was nothing out of the ordinary during the troubling times of World War II, and with this, there came genocide. This horrifying act was shown through the Holocaust and concentration camps; one of the most notorious being Auschwitz. Genocide is the intent to terminate an entire race or religion. For example, Hitler had a plan of genocide towards the Jews. Not only were the people who were born from Jewish descent were tortured, but the people who also

One very profound characteristic of the events that occur within genocide is how one group becomes the dominating leader over the group whom they are targeting. Most of the time, the group that is targeted is the group that inhabits the lowest people within that countries’ society. This explicit event occurs in both with the Aborigines in Australia and the Herero/Nama in South-West Africa. Both places endured a genocide that targeted the group of people within each society that the world believed would not survive unless someone intervened on the Aborigines and Herero/Nama 's’ behalf. However as time would tell, those whom believed they were improving these societies…eventually saw that they instead ruined the lives of those whom lived during these events.

During 1933 through 1945 the Holocaust occurred that took place in Germany. The Holocaust is one of the world's most well-known topic of genocide in modern history. During the Holocaust many people lives were perished because of brutal acts by Nazi’s and Germans. Once Hitler became chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933, many Jews were endangered to be killed. Until May 8, 1945, when the war in Europe ended. During the war many Jews were persecuted and would be killed. By 1933 there was a population of more than 9 million Jews in Europe and a large portion of they were killed in Germany or countries operated by Germany. The Nazis were also known as the National Socialist Party, they also complied with orders from Hitler. These

Genocide is one of the most tragic events that can happen around the world. Identifying the stages is the most crucial part of stopping these horrible acts. The Bosnian Genocide and the Holocaust could have been prevented or stopped if the 8 stages were properly identified .

It is made known that before 1944, the term “genocide” did not exist. A Polish-Jewish lawyer named Raphael Lemkin wanted to describe the acts of the Nazi policies, in regards to the mass murders of the European Jews. Using the Greek word “geno-“, meaning race or tribe, as well as the Latin word “-cide” for killing, he formed the word “genocide” (History.com Staff). According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the term holocaust means, “Any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately

Genocide is one of the most frightening terms one could hear, sending shivers down your spine just to hear the word. Genocide is the intent of extermination of a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. One of the best known Genocide’s to the world is known as the Holocaust. Germans exterminated over 6 million Jews in just a couple of years. Families were torn apart, and some of the worst things you could ever do to a human being were done in these times. After the Holocaust everyone said Never Again, but it has happened over and over. If we follow the steps to preventing genocides, we can stop history from repeating itself and keep the people of the world safe.

After the overthrow of the Tutsis by the Hutus there was the formation of RPF in 1959. This led to an increase of tension between the ethnicities to the point where both sides could not handle it. A war had broke out in 1990 when the RPF invaded Rwanda. The fighting had lasted until 1993 when a peace agreement was formed. Even with the peace agreement the war had created further hatred from both sides to the other which would be shown in 1994 at the start of the Genocide.

Steven Pinker implied that, “As long as your ideology identifies the main source of the world's ills as a definable group, it opens the world up to the mass murder of people” (1). Steven Pinker revealed an interesting side to the controversial topic of mass murders and the causes of them. He revealed that as long as people in this world believe that they are better than other due to their race, religion, and everything else that defines a group of people as different from another group of people. People are and have been wrongfully treated differently due to the incompetence of some to realize that everyone is equal. They often believe that they were superior to others because of their physical attributes and beliefs that they had. The Holocaust is a major example of the ignorance of some in history. This ignorance often resulted in the murders and mistreatment of many. Elie Wiesel was one of the six million plus people who were wrongfully mistreated during the Holocaust. Many believe that this sort of event could not occur in the current time period because people have become more civilized and tolerable to the differences of others, but sadly the world is not ready to contain a social utopia. The mass murder, and violence that is occurring in Darfur is one of the many things that shows that the world is far from achieving this social utopia. Throughout history, many occurrences of genocide have occurred due to the diversity of people and even though society has evolved

The most deadly example of genocide, a type of ethnic conflict, in human history was the Holocaust, which took place in Nazi Germany and surrounding nations from 1941 to 1945 (O’Shaughnessy 2009) . The Holocaust was ordered by Hitler to exterminate the Jewish people living in and around Germany, leading to the death of at least 6 million Jews as well as many other undesirables and potential political rivals (Kallis 2005). Hitler wished to target the Jews because he saw them as an easy scapegoat for why the German economy was failing and because he believed in a conspiracy theory concerning the rise of communism led by the Jews that threatened to overpower Europe and destroy Germany (Herf 2006). In order for Hitler 's plans to succeed, he had to manipulate the German people to a point where they would at least turn a blind eye to the disappearances of Jews even if they did not outright support the genocide. Hitler achieved this goal by crafting a narrative in which the Jews were the behind the scenes causing the war and the economic sufferings of Germany, which he then spread through his massive propaganda machine of Nazi Party owned newspapers and printing presses (O’Shaughnessy 2009).

Everyone should care when the topic of genocide comes up. Genocides might not happen to you but if you research the damage they do to people you should care and immediately feel empathy for those that are effected by them. Genocides are a very serious topic that scar people affected by them for