The Age of Genocide Exploring 20 th century genocides

Genocide geno – meaning race cide – meaning killing The word genocide was coined in the midst of the Holocaust.

The 1948 U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defined genocide as Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group

20 th Century Genocides With the definition of genocide in mind, list as many 20 th century genocides as you can.

Major genocides of the 20 th century The Herero Genocide, Namibia, Death toll: 60,000 (3/4 of the population) The Armenian Genocide, Ottoman Empire, Death toll: Up to 1.5 million The Ukrainian Famine, Death toll: 7 million The Nanking Massacre, Death toll: 300,000 (50% of the pop) The World War II Holocaust, Europe, Death toll: 6 million Jews, and millions of others, including Poles, Roma, homosexuals, and the physically and mentally handicapped, The Cambodian Genocide, Death toll: 2 million The East Timor Genocide, Death toll: 120,000 (20% of the population) The Mayan Genocide, Guatemala, Death toll: Tens of thousands Iraq, 1988 Death toll: ,000 The Bosnian Genocide, Death toll: 8,000 The Rwandan Genocide, 1994 Death toll: 800,000 The Darfur Genocide, Sudan, 2003-present Death toll: debated. 100,000? 300,000? 500,000?

Namibia, German colony German Lieutenant-General Lothar von Trotha said, 'I wipe out rebellious tribes with streams of blood and streams of money. Only following this cleansing can something new emerge'. On October 2, 1904, von Trotha issued his order to exterminate the Herero from the region. 'All the Herero must leave the land. If they refuse, then I will force them to do it with the big guns. Any Herero found within German borders, with or without a gun, will be shot. No prisoners will be taken.'. 65,000 Dead

The Armenian Genocide, 1915 In 1915, leaders of the Turkish government set in motion a plan to expel and massacre Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. Though reports vary, most sources agree that there were about 2 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire at the time of the massacre. The documentary, The Armenian Genocide aired on PBS in April, million of Turkey’s Armenians were dead By the early 1920s, when the massacres and deportations finally ended, some 1.5 million of Turkey’s Armenians were dead, with many more forcibly removed from the country.

The Armenian Controversy To this day, the Turks deny that the Genocide occurred. It is illegal to discuss this issue in Turkey.

The Ukrainian Famine Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, set in motion events designed to cause a famine in the Ukraine to destroy the people there seeking independence from his rule. As a result, an estimated 7,000,000 persons perished in this farming area, known as the breadbasket of Europe, with the people deprived of the food they had grown with their own hands.

Nanking Massacre, December, 1937, the Japanese Imperial Army marched into Nanking, China and murdered 300,000 out of 600,000 civilians and soldiers in the city. The six weeks of carnage would become known as the Rape of Nanking and represented the single worst atrocity during the World War II era in either the European or Pacific theaters of war. Two Japanese officers, Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda competing to see who could kill (with a sword) one hundred people first. The bold headline reads, "'Incredible Record' (in the Contest to) Cut Down 100 People—Mukai 106 – 105 Noda—Both 2nd Lieutenants Go Into Extra Innings" Contest to) Cut Down 100 People

The Holocaust, The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. "Holocaust" is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire“. The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior“, were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community.

Cambodia The population must, they believed, be made to work as laborers in one huge federation of collective farms. ALL inhabitants of towns and cities were forced to leave them for forced labor camps. People who refused to leave or were too slow - were killed All political and civil rights were abolished. Children were taken from their parents and placed in separate forced labor camps. The Khmer Rouge ruthlessly imposed an extremist program to reconstruct Cambodia into an agrarian, communist society.

Cambodia Lawyers, doctors, teachers, engineers, scientists and professional people in any field (including the army) were murdered. Religion was banned, monks killed and almost all temples destroyed. Music and radio sets were also banned. It was possible for people to be shot simply for knowing a foreign language, wearing glasses, laughing, or crying. twenty-one percent Approximately twenty-one percent of Cambodia's population were killed. (approx. 2.4 Million)

The Indonesian invasion of East Timor in December 1975 set the stage for the long, bloody, and disastrous occupation of the territory that ended only after an international peacekeeping force was introduced in Over 73,000 people died due to hunger and illness as a result of population being forced to live in “resettlement camps” The East Timor Genocide

Guatemala The Mayan Genocide, In the early 1980s, rural Mayan communities were seen as allies of rebel forces. This led to the racially motivated extermination of defenseless Mayan communities, including children, women and the elderly The Guatemalan army destroyed 626 villages, killed or “disappeared” more than 200,000 people and displaced an additional 1.5 million, while more than 150,000 were driven to seek refuge in Mexico.

Iraq, 1988 The Anfal Campaign against the Kurds was a systematic and deliberate murder of at least 50,000 and possibly as many as 100,000 Kurds. It was the culmination of a long term strategy to solve what the government saw as its “Kurdish problem”. Halabja (March ’88) was one chapter of this campaign in which chemical weapons were used against this Kurdish Village.

Bosnia, Following World War I, Bosnia was united with other Slav territories to form Yugoslavia, essentially ruled and run by Serbs from the Serbian capital, Belgrade. Yugoslavia disintegrated in June 1991 In 1992 in the newly formed country of Bosnia-Herzegovina, conflict between ethnic groups, resulted in genocide committed by the Christian Serbs against the Muslims in Bosnia. “ETHNIC CLEANSING” of Muslims 100,000 Deaths

Rwanda 1994 As part of an ongoing government power struggle, ethnic Hutus murdered 800,000 Tutsis in a 3-month period.

Darfur 2003-present Is it genocide? What should the international community do? In 2003 rebel groups in this area took up arms against the Sudanese government, complaining about attacks by nomads. The government of Sudan responded by unleashing Arab militias known as Janjaweed, or “devils on horseback”. In the ongoing genocide, African farmers and others in Darfur are being systematically displaced and murdered at the hands of the Janjaweed. The genocide in Darfur has claimed 400,000 lives and displaced over 2,500,000 people. More than one hundred people continue to die each day; five thousand die every month. The Sudanese government disputes these estimates and denies any connection with the Janjaweed.

Bibliography “A Problem From Hell” America and the Age of Genocide, Samantha Power, Human Rights Watch PBS, Ambush in Mogadishu, Peace Pledge Union Information National Geographic United Human Rights Council U.S. Department of State International Institute for Genocide and International Studies God Sleeps in Rwanda film, Yale Genocide Studies U.S. Holocaust Museum