Two Similar but Different Genocides: The Holocaust and Cambodian Genocide

The definition of genocide is killing a large group of people of a certain origin. The Holocaust was in Germany and started in 1933. Adolf Hitler and the Nazis were in charge of the Holocaust. The Cambodian Genocide took place in Cambodia. Cambodia is in Southeast Asia (“Cambodian”). Pol Pot was the leader of Khmer Rouge and the group was in charge of the Cambodian Genocide (“Cambodian”). The Cambodian Genocide started in 1975 and ended in 1978 because Khmer Rouge was ended by Vietnam (“Cambodian”). The Holocaust and the Cambodian Genocide are similar in the administrations’ treatment of their victims and in the fact that their victims were desperate for a leader, but different in U.S. involvement and government motivation.

Most people in the world never seem to realize the mass number of raping or killings that are going on around them. Meanwhile, during the holocaust, no one understood how much it was happening around them then either, except for the people it was happening to. Most people are aware of the savagery that occurred during the holocaust in Germany, but few have ever even heard of Nanjing, much less the rape of Nanjing. Both genocides share very close similarities, and they both also share their differences.

The Cambodian genocide occurred in the late twentieth century in Cambodia; the Holocaust took place in the beginning of the twentieth century in Germany and Eastern Europe. In the Cambodian Genocide and the Holocaust, individuals experienced a lack of allies because people were more concerned about self-preservation than they were about the other party. Bystanders, such as the United States and characters in Night, did not help because they valued their own safety over the safety of others. Allies were only motivated to help if they were sure it would disadvantage them.

The Cambodian Genocide has the historical context of the Vietnam War and the country’s own civil war. During the Vietnam War, leading up to the conflicts that would contribute to the genocide, Cambodia was used as a U.S. battleground for the Vietnam War. Cambodia would become a battle ground for American troops fighting in Vietnam for four years; the war would kill up

Throughout history, genocides can be seen as completely different from one another. With country dealing with their own population of people and purpose of killings, connections can be failed to seen between the growing number. Although, what is failed to be associated is the eight stages that each genocide must, and has gone through to carry out a plan of destruction. Meaning, each genocide may not closely follow the steps, but are similar to one another. An example that follow steps can be clearly seen between the Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979 and the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Through: symbolization, organization, preparation, and extermination, we are able to see the similarities between Cambodia and Rwanda in the eight steps

In the late 70’s, nearly 2 million Cambodians died of overwork, starvation, torture, and execution in what became known as the Cambodian genocide. A group known as the Khmer Rouge took control of the country in April 1975. Over the course of

The Cambodian Genocide happened between 1975 and 1979 in Cambodia where the Khmer Rouge, a guerrilla group, over threw the government and started a regime to bring Cambodia back to year zero . The Khmer Rouge called this the Democratic Republic of Kampuchea . Their aim was to purify society from the influence of the west, and to create a communist country . The Khmer Rouge started this by destroying what was left of the old society and executing the wealthy, educated and military people. They banned all outside languages and religion. An estimated figure of 1.7 million Cambodians where killed during this period by the Khmer Rouge .

It was an attempt from the white man to steal the native’s land and to simply exterminate all Native Americans. The stats are not clear but historians estimate that a total of around 70 million natives were killed throughout the native American Genocide. Although the number is great, the life span of the genocide was much longer than others. The Native American Genocide lasted an average human's lifetime. It lasted for about 100 years. The white man took their land, killed their food source, and forced them to work in labor camps. Before these illegal immigrants began to take over their land, the natives had multiple tribes covering the entire country; even spilling into Canada. After the genocide was over, the Native’s land was reduced to small reservations in only a few states in America. It is very sad because today one of the big discussions in today’s politics is the topic of illegal immigration. When really the people of America today are the true Illegal Immigrants. They came to America hundreds of years ago and instantly claimed that this land was theirs. Without any discussion of consent from the Natives. They forced they Natives out of their homes, Raped their women, killed their babies, starved their men, and killed their food source. The United States today tries to keep the Native American genocide underneath the radar. They do this because they don’t want to give people of America more

A genocide is a horrible kind of war. It is a mass killing and torturing of innocent people who do not deserve any of it. There are many stages of genocides, which may or may not go in the same order. The Holocaust, being the largest genocide and a horrible point in history, is similar and different to the Bosnian/Croatian genocide. Although many aspects lead up to these genocides and other similar wars, there are possible measures that could have been taken to prevent all of this. No human should have to endure the pain of a genocide, especially as horrible as the Holocaust, or Croatian/Bosnian war. The Holocaust and the Bosnian genocide both consisted of many stages that led to a variety of horrible events, both similar and different, which could have been prevented if certain actions were taken into consideration.

The Holocaust was a mass murder of millions of individuals’ primary to and during World War II. “Only 54 percent of the people surveyed by the Anti- Defamation League (ADL) in a massive, global poll has ever heard of the Holocaust” (Wiener-Bronner). The Holocaust was from 1933-1945 and was run by German leader named Adolf Hitler. Hitler was a man who wanted to create his own race of people. Therefore to create this race, he wiped out anyone who did not have the specific descriptions that he wanted. For people to fit into his race, they had to have blue eyes and blond hair. This excluded the Jews and from then on Hitler slowly dehumanized them. In the concentration camp the first thing they had to pass was the selection test. The selection test was what the SS man (German soldiers) used to determine who was fit for work. Usually children, mothers, and elders were the first to die because they were not mentally fit for the work they were going to be given. People who passed the selection process either died of starvation, disease, fatigue, or assassination. It took twelve years before anyone intervened and by then it was too late for millions of people. Even though over twelve million people died during the Holocaust, genocides have still happened in Rwanda, Darfur and Cambodia.

20th century was a very turbulent time. During that time, a lot of famous genocides happened. It is very important and educational for us to learn some of these genocides and take this history as a mirror. In this article I will compare and contract Nazi Holocaust with Stalin’s Forced Famine from several aspects.

Despite having a prominent amount of similarities, these genocides are also very unique. As gruesome as it is to think about, one of the main differences is the reason for extermination. In other words, why the people who were killed were killed. The Holocaust had somewhat of a regimented list or criteria that had to be met before they killed anyone. Most of the people killed were practicing Jews who Hitler believed to be holding the German culture back from progressing as a society. However it is less common knowledge that Hitler and the Nazis also persecuted gypsies, homosexuals, and anyone who didn’t fit his description of the perfect race. The perfect race to Hitler was deemed the Aryan race (blonde hair, blue eyes, and pale skin) and the purpose of the holocaust was to kill the Jews and anyone else who might prevent the Aryan race from prospering (“Holocaust”). In the Cambodian genocide, people were killed for a multitude of reasons. One being that they opposed Pot’s new communist approach to running the government. Another being that they

There are many similarities between the holocaust and my genocide as you can see here

On the other hand, in the Cambodian genocide the targets weren’t assassinated on site by the soldiers. They had a similar death of those in the Jewish Holocaust. They were sent into the Killing Fields where a great quantity of Cambodians were brutally assassinated and buried at a rough estimation of 1.7 to 2.5 million. The Khmer Rouge regime arrested and eventually executed almost everyone suspected of connections with the former government or with foreign governments, as well as professionals and intellectuals. You would be arrested for having any type of connection with anyone outside the country. The Khmer Rouge’s polices were guided by its belief that the citizens of Cambodia had been tainted and corrupted by exposure to outside ideas, especially those from the capitalist West. The Khmer Rouge persecuted those who were educated, such as doctors and lawyers, and those who were or had been in the military or police force all which would later be assassinated. [ii] Its goal was to create a society in which no one competed against another and all people worked for the common good. This was accomplished through placing people in collective living arrangements, or communes. A commune was where various families were put together and had to work

The Communist Party of Kampuchea, also known as the Khmer Rouge, took control of Cambodia on April 17, 1975, which lasted until January 1979. For their three-year, eight-month, and twenty-one day rule of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge committed some of the most heinous crimes in current history. The main leader who orchestrated these crimes was a man named Pol Pot. In 1962, Pol Pot had become the coordinator of the Cambodian Communist Party. The Prince of Cambodia, Norodom Sihanouk, did not approve of the Party and forced Pol Pot to flee to exile in the jungle. There, Pol formed a fortified resistance movement, which became known as the Khmer Rouge, and pursued a guerrilla war against Sihanouk’s government. As Pol Pot began to accumulate power,