Essay on Comparing Rwanda - Holocaust - 756 Words

Genocide is a powerful word. International law requires intervention if something is deemed genocide. There is no doubt that the Holocaust is the most famous and most studied case of genocide, although there have been numerous throughout history. One of the more recent is the Rwandan genocide, in which 800,000 people were killed (United Human Rights). The two have several similarities and differences in their origins, exterminations and aftermath. The origin of the Holocaust can be attributed to Adolph Hitler coming to power and imposing his ideals on everyone. In his book, Mein Kampf, Hitler expresses hatred for Jews and his plans to rid Germany of them. Once he came to power, Germans started to boycott stores owned by Jews, restrict†¦show more content†¦Jews were taken there by train, and upon arrival they were forced to give up their possessions. They were then herded in to gas chambers, or showers as the Nazis called them to avoid panic, where poisonous gas was released until everyone had died. The killing was not as organized in Rwanda. Hutu militia spread throughout the country, executing Tutsi families with machetes, guns and clubs. The radio controlled by Hutus broadcasted the exact locations of Tutsis in hiding, and further encouraged the killing. In some villages, Hutu militia would force other Hutus to kill Tutsis in their neighborhood, or be killed themselves. Tutsis were also forced to kill their families. After World War II had ended, between 9 million to 11 million people had been victims of the Holocaust (Encyclopedia Britannica Online, 8). About 9 million had moved to other countries at the end of the war, and about 6 million returned when it was over (Encyclopedia Britannica Online, 8). Most found that they had no homes left in their native countries; they were destroyed or occupied by other people. Allied forces liberated concentration and death camps, and arrested the remaining Nazi personnel and held them for trial. The Nà ¼rnberg trials were among the most famous, in which 18 Nazi officers were found guilty of war crimes (Encyclopedia Britannica Online, Nà ¼rnberg Trials). 800,000 people were victims in Rwanda (UnitedShow MoreRelatedEssay on The Bystander Effect in Genocides737 Words   |  3 Pagesthe case. Since the Holocaust we have seen several examples of how the general public sometimes refuses to acknowledge the occurrence of events and how the government often has little political will to stop mass murders until it is too late. One example of this that occurred not too long ago is the Rwandan Genocide. In 1994, between half a million to a million Rwandan Tutsi as well as thousands of moderate Hutu, were exterminated in the clearest mass murder case since the Holocaust. The world stoodRead MoreHistory, Gender, Racial, And Cultural Heritage Of The American Nation State During The Holocaust1332 Words   |  6 Pagesself-identification through historically and socially constructed identities. From an honor-kinship community in Rwanda to the modern nation-state during the Holocaust, both display patterns of racialized identity, formed by analyzin g the meaning of reification through dehumanization and demonization. On April 6, 1994, Hutus began a mass slaughtering of the Tutsis in the African country of Rwanda. This mass slaughtering was labeled as genocide: the deliberate obliteration of an ethnic, racial, religiousRead MoreA Comprehensive Analysis of the Rwandan Genocide to the Holocaust1453 Words   |  6 PagesBeginning on April 6, 1994, Hutus began a mass slaughtering of the Tutsis in the African country of Rwanda. This mass slaughtering is labeled as genocide, the deliberate obliteration of an ethnic, racial, religious, or political group. The Rwandan genocide lasted 100 days while other countries stood idly by and watched the brutal killings continue. The hatred against the Tutsis began after the RPF invasion in October of 1990. Accusations from editorials and radio broadcasts claimed Tutsis wantedRead MoreSocial Identity Theory : Prepared By Josh Cramer Montes1084 Words   |  5 Pagesstereotyping and discrimination, which could evolve into violence and conflict, on the other (BBC , 2011 - ?). His interest in this analysis was fueled by his experiences as a Polish Jew who was one of the few people he knew in his community to survive the Holocaust during World War II (BBC, 2011). The origin of this theory is based on a set of experiments developed by Tajfel in the early 1970s called the Minimal Group Studies, which set out to identify the minimal conditions that would lead members of oneRead MoreSimplifying the Kosovo Conflict through Media Correspondents Essay example6476 Words   |  26 PagesAnalogies were drawn between the Kosovar refugees and Hitler’s Jewish victims in World War II. Through these analogies, the press was not only able to solidify NATO’s position by creating a clear enemy, but also mitigate guilt still remaining from the Holocaust. Newspapers especially used images of World War II through pictures and headlines in order to invoke horror on the public. Through atrocity stories and exaggerations, the newspaper coverage was able to demonize the Serbians and, therefore, neglectedRead MoreHuman Rights Take Priority Over States’ Rights Essay3593 Words   |  15 Pagesthousand Tutsis were killed in just one hundred days , and the world watched some of the most graphic footage seen since the Holocaust. People could not pull away from their television sets, unable to believe it was happening. â€Å"Never again,† they had pledged, and yet, here it was in 1994. As the Hutus enacted a massive genocide, attempting to eliminate the Tutsi minority from Rwanda, the world did nothing. The United Nations stalled while the United States refused to have another failure as in SomaliaRead More The United States and the International Criminal Court (ICC)3556 Words   |  15 Pagesestablish such a court to prosecute and punish persons responsible for crimes such as genocide. Many thought†¦ that the horrors of the Second World War – the camps, the cruelty, the exterminations, the Holocaust – could never happen again. And yet they have. In Cambodia, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Rwanda. Our time – this decade even – has shown us that man’s capacity for evil knows no li mits. Genocide†¦ is now a word of our time, too, a heinous reality that calls for a historic response. Kofi AnnanRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pagesthe nuclear nations’ quest for viable, stable sources of uranium and sites for testing nuclear devices in locales as disparate as French Polynesia, Niger, Gabon, and the Belgian Congo. Having had the good fortune to escape the global nuclear holocaust that was once widely accepted as inevitable if not imminent, humanity came to recognize, albeit more gradually, a second threat to global survival in the last years of the century—accelerated climate change brought on by the release of ever-increasing