Making of the Modern World Genocides

Schedule 1. Introduction 2. Origins and Concepts 3. Examples 4. Problems 5. Ethnic cleansing 6. Conclusion

Hersch Lauterpacht, 1897-1960 Raphael Lemkin, 1900-1959

Genocide Geno- cide Genos – Greek, birth, race, family, tribe Occidere – Latin, to fall, die

Schedule 1. Introduction 2. Origins and Concepts 3. Examples 4. Problems 5. Ethnic cleansing 6. Conclusion

Holocaust: the quintessential genocide Auschwitz II – Birkenau 1945

UN definition of genocide Article II In the present convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. United Nations Convention on Genocide, approved by the General Assembly on December 3, 1948

Article III Punishable are: Genocide Conspiracy to commit genocide Direct and public incitement to commit genocide Attempt to commit genocide Complicity in genocide

Political groups Raphael Lemkin wanted to have economic, political, social, and cultural groups included. Were included in first drafts. Soviet Union and others did not agree. Such groups were then removed from the convention convention, but persecuting/killing of those groups stay ‘crimes against humanity’.

Schedule 1. Introduction 2. Origins and Concepts 3. Examples 4. Problems 5. Ethnic cleansing 6. Conclusion

Examples for 20th Century genocide or massacres 1915-1916 Armenians in the Ottoman Empire – 1,500,000 deaths 1932-1934 Ukrainian and Kazakh famines in Soviet Union, 3.3 – 7.5 Million deaths (Ukraine), 1.5 – 2.3 Million deaths (Kazakhstan) 1938- 1945: Holocaust – 6,000,000 deaths 1941-1945: Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia – 500,000 - 1,000,000 deaths 1937-1945 Chinese after Japan invaded mainland China – 20,000,000 - 30,000,000 deaths; 200,000 - 250,000 in Nanking massacre alone 1994: Rwanda – 800,000 deaths

The Armenian Genocide

http://www.holodomor.org/ The Ukrainian Famine (Holodomor), 1932-1934 13

Was the Ukrainian famine 1932-1934 a genocide? Result of forced collectivization and disruption of agriculture (1928-1932) Bad weather and bad harvest in Ukraine Breaking of resistance of peasantry against collectivization OR Directed foremost against Ukrainian nation, was accompanied by arrests of Ukrainian Bolsheviks and intellectuals Hunger also in other regions: Starvation in Kazakhstan, 1.5 Million or more dead, 1.3 Million of them Kazakhs (= 38% of all Kazakhs in Soviet Union) Undisputed: crime against humanity and overall responsibility for mass death (5 millions or more) of Ukrainian peasants with Stalin and regime Man-made famine: grain requisitioned when people were already starving, continuation of grain export, famine regions blocked off, refusal to accept foreign aid Denial The term democide was introduced by the academic R.J. Rummel. It is "the murder of any person or people by a government, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder”

Rate of population decline in Ukraine and South Russia, 1929-1932

Schedule 1. Introduction 2. Origins and Concepts 3. Examples 4. Problems 5. Ethnic cleansing 6. Conclusion

Why is it so difficult to stop genocides? The principles of state sovereignty and non-interference stand against the international responsibility to protect citizens of genocidal states. The UN represents states, not peoples. Each of the five permanent members of the Security Council can use its veto to prevent UN sanctioned military intervention. According to genocide watch, since founding of United Nations: Over 55 genocides and politicides Over 70 million dead

What is necessary to prevent genocides? Early warning Rapid response Courts for accountability Gregory Stanton, Research Professor in Genocide Studies and Prevention, George Mason University, Virginia and founder and president of Genocide Watch

The Ten Stages of Genocide Dr. Gregory Stanton Genocide Watch © 2013 Gregory Stanton

Source: Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, https://www. hmd. org

Schedule 1. Introduction 2. Origins and Concepts 3. Examples 4. Problems 5. Ethnic cleansing 6. Conclusion

Ethnic Cleansing From the Serbo-Croatian: etničko čišćenje Ethnic cleansing is “the expulsion of an ‘undesirable’ population from a given territory due to religious or ethnic discrimination, political, strategic or ideological considerations, or a combination of these” Andrew Bell-Fialkoff

Bosnia- Herzegovina

Examples of ethnic cleansing “National operations“ in the Soviet Union 1936-1939: resettlement of so called “Diaspora nations” in Soviet Union 1936-1940 German policy in parts of Eastern Europe 1939-1945 (expulsion of Poles from Western Poland, resettlement of “Volksdeutsche” (ethnic Germans living outside the borders of the German Empire) in those territories Wolhynian massacres (mass killing of Poles by Ukrainian nationalist partisans) in Western Ukraine – expulsion of Poles 1943/44 Population exchange between Poland and the Soviet Union 1945-1947 Expulsion of Germans from Poland and Czechoslovakia 1944-1946 Resettlement of Crimean Tatars, Chechens, Ingushetians after 1945 in Soviet Union 1992- 1995: Bosnia-Herzegovina: “Ethnic cleansing” by Serbian nationalists of territory inhabited by Bosnian Muslims - 200,000 deaths

Conclusion Ethnic cleansing is a widespread phenomenon in 20th c. history and can be implemented by a state or by a nationalist movement The differences between ethnic cleansing and genocide are fluid There is a tension between the concepts ‘crimes against humanity’ and ‘genocide’. Genocides and crimes against humanity can only be prevented or the perpetrators be prosecuted if they are crimes punishable in international law. While genocides are not uncommon in history, the Holocaust is unique in this respect because of the goal of universal annihilation and the modern methods used.