Holocaust and Genocide in Rwanda - Essay Example

Holocaust and Genocide in Rwanda al Affiliation The misanthropic ideology of ethnic cleansing and genocide of certain ethnic groups became the official policy implemented by the governments of Nazi Germany and the Hutu-led government in Rwanda. As a result of such inhumane policy millions of Jews were killed by Nazis in concentration camps in the first half of the 1940s during the World War II and approximately a million of Tutsi were murdered by Hutu during in the second half of the 1990s during the infamous Rwandan genocide. In this short essay I will look closely at some the reasons behind the mass murder of Jews in Nazi Germany and Nazi-occupied territories during Holocaust, illustrate how Anti-Semitic views or theories of ethnic cleansing can be embodied into a definite scheme of a nightmarish genocide and identify certain similarities between Holocaust and genocidal mass murder in Rwanda in 1994. Key words: Holocaust, Nazi Germany, Rwandan genocide, Hutu, Tutsi Holocaust and Genocide in Rwanda The twentieth century saw some of the most terrible pages of human history and Holocaust, along with Rwandan genocide, was of them. Within quite a short period of time millions of Jews were killed by Nazis and new findings added by researchers of Holocaust every year help the world community realize how enormous the scale of this unprecedented ethnic cleansing was. The bare though about a possibility for such a crime to be repeated in future make every man of sound judgment shudder. It is vitally important for human civilization to be able to learn from the lessons of history. Unfortunately, the Rwandan genocide, which took place some 50 years later after Holocaust, demonstrates how dangerous it is to turn the back of a society on history and neglect terrible tragedies of the past that racial or ethnic intolerance once led to. Around six millions of Jewish people were killed by the Nazi regime during Holocaust in 1940s. The policy of the Anti-Semitic discrimination Germany, which resulted in one of the bloodiest tragedies of human history, namely the genocide of Jews or Holocaust, started being implemented long before the Holocaust began. The Holocaust was not only the result of the triumph of the Nazism but originated from the long-term traditions of Anti-Semitism in Germany. The totalitarianism of the Nazi regime with its intensive propaganda of Anti-Semitic ideology, which engrained German society in 1930s, exploited and exaggerated various myths about Jews that circulated in Germany from time immemorial. There is a complex of reasons that made Holocaust possible during the World War II. Unfortunately, there is a steady tendency for historical revisionism of the Holocaust in the world, which started unfolding shortly after the WWII was over. The whitewashing of the period of Nazi rule in Germany, as well as the denial of accusations of Holocaust, which the ideology of Nazism was responsible for, is a part of such dangerous tendency. This tendency could be one of the reasons why the ideas of ethnic cleansing win minds again and again, like it happened in Bosnia, Kosovo or Rwanda in 1990s. Let us look more closely how Anti-Semitism reached bloodcurdling proportions in the Nazi Germany and became the most devastating tragedy of Jewish people in history of the humankind, when millions of Jews were killed in the wake of Holocaust. The ideas of Anti-Semitism circulated in Germany long before the Nazi regime came to power there in 1933, but ethnic intolerance turned into the genocide of Jews due to series of elaborate information campaigns aimed at spreading Anti-Semitic ideology in Nazi Germany. What makes Holocaust and Rwandan genocide quite similar is the way mass media worked to rouse hatred between ethnic groups. However, in both cases the ethnic intolerance could hardly turn into massive ethnic cleansing if the ideas of racial inferiority of certain ethnic groups were not cultivated with less intensiveness in both Germany and Rwanda before. Unfortunately, those who make attempts to deny the fact that Holocaust was a deliberate strategy of genocidal massive murder of the particular ethnic group, forget that this unprecedented ethnic cleansing would not be possible if the roots of Anti-Semitic ideology were not implanted in German society since the Middle Ages. Unfortunately, the whole spectrum of driving forces that led to Holocaust is not completely understood to date. Without understanding what exactly triggers ethnic cleansing in civilized societies it is naive to hope that such tragedies as Holocaust will never be repeated. In fact, the cases of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo, as well as genocidal massive murder in Rwanda, substantiate the aforementioned statement. Today the concentration camps or the so-called death camps built by the Nazi regime to execute massive slaughter of Jews feed the collective memory of the descendants of Holocaust victims. Such terrible places, as those where extermination camps functioned, help making accurate reconstruction of the events related to Holocaust possible in order to refute any false interpretations (Jacobs, 2014). The Holocaust stemmed from the persecution of Jewish people in Nazi Germany that began with adoption of a series of discriminative laws in the middle of 1930s, shortly after the Nazi regime came to power. However, the rising tide of violence against Jews in Germany started in the time of Weimar republic, long before Nazis took over the country. The first discriminative laws against Jews, such as Nuremberg Laws, were implemented in 1935 (Yahil, 1991). When the WWII began and Nazis managed to occupy almost the whole European continent, the policy of segregation of Jewish people was implemented on the occupied territories. A great number of ghettos for Jews were established all around Europe. However, the network of extermination camps in preparation for genocide of Jews and mass slaughter of some of the other ethnic groups were built in Nazi Germany before the WWII was started. Unlike the Rwandan genocide of Tutsi ethnic in 1994 that was caused by the civil war in Rwanda, Holocaust was prepared systematically and organized before the chaos of war inflamed. The first death camp was built in Nazi Germany in 1933, eight years before the genocide of Jews that killed six million people started. All of the death camps built by Nazis before the WWII were used to execute mass murder of Jews during Holocaust from 1941 to 1945. These camps served as a blueprint for a number of concentration camps alike, which were later built on the Nazi-occupied territories during the WWII. For example, the death camp in Treblinka was built in Poland during the WWII shortly after Nazis occupied the country. Approximately one million of Jews were executed by Nazis in Treblinka gas chambers in the period between summer of 1942 and fall of 1943 (Jacobs, 2014). Unfortunately, those who were supposed to condemn the genocide and take measures to stop it remained either silent, like church leaders (including Pope Pius XII), or failed to take effective counter measures to stop the massive murder of Jews, like anti-Hitler coalition allies. Fifty years later a radical and effective reaction of the world community leaders was needed in order to save lives of thousands of people during Rwandan genocide but the countermeasures that could stop mass murder of Tutsi were not insufficient. All in all Anti-Semitism and ethnic intolerance at large are dangerous phenomena that must be nipped in the bud. Every conscious human being should be familiar with the origins and driving forces Anti-Semitism, otherwise people will never avoid the recurrence of ethnic genocides in future. The roots of such phenomenon as Anti-Semitism are of religious character and go back the ancient times. In time of Roman Empire Jews often sparked suspicion in uneducated people. One of the reasons for that was strict monotheism that Jewish people followed. They did not approve luxurious festive ceremonies, which accompanied traditions of popular adoration of emperors, not to mention the traditions themselves. The mounting hostility against Jewish people in some regions of the Roman Empire often turned into sporadic Anti-Semitic riots and bashing. Nevertheless, it was much later when such rampant hostility against Jews became a commonplace in the Western Europe with the establishing of Christianity as a dominant religion all across the continent. Occasional waves of Anti-Semitic bashing became a widespread trend in Germany in the Middle Ages. Jewish traditions were perceived as something extremely alien to German culture from time immemorial. Many myths about Jews were created in the Middle Ages, when people in Germany and other regions of Europe believed that indecorous acts or ritual murder were a prevalent practice in Jewish community during religious ceremonies. Uneducated people spoke evil of Jews and thus contributed greatly to the creation of an abominable image of Jewish culture in Germany. A great number of uneducated people in Western Europe took without a pinch of salt rumors, according to which Jews were engaged in sexual seduction of minors, had demonic abilities that gave them an opportunity to cause earthquakes, epidemics or storms, or poisoned water in wells (Slavkin, 2012). Ethnic intolerance based on Anti-Semitism was planted in Western Europe even before the continent was divided into nation-states. When Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, he managed to intensify and encourage Anti-Semitic public mood in German society that eventually resulted in the adoption of discriminative legislation with regard to Jewish community in Nazi Germany and led to Holocaust during the WWII. Even before Nazis came to power, Anti-Semitic and xenophobic views were widespread in Germany during the time of the so-called Weimar Republic in 1920s and intensified drastically in 1930s, when a series of Anti-Semitic laws, which formalized a discriminative policy, were adopted (Slavkin, 2012). The Nazi ideology of racial superiority of German nation was penetrated with Anti-Semitic views, which Adolf Hitler promulgated in his book titled as Mein Kampf. Anti-Semitic ideas were incorporated in both school curriculum and curriculum of universities in Nazi Germany (Slavkin, 2012). Thus, the ideology of Anti-Semitism was implanted into the collective mind of German nation from school-days and poisoned all layers of German society by the end of 1930s. As a matter of fact, Anti-Semitic ideas were planted into fertile soil in Germany during the sway of Nazi regime and Holocaust was just another logic step forward within the framework of aggressive Anti-Semitic and xenophobic ideology imposed upon the German society in 1930s. Nazi Germany got past the point of strongly marked Anti-Semitic laws and plunged into genocidal mass murder of Jews, within a bit more than a decade. It was only twelve years between the construction of the first death camp in Germany in 1933 and the crushing defeat of Nazi Germany in the WWII that put an end to Holocaust, during which millions of Jews were killed in gas chambers of concentration camps like those in Auschwitz or Treblinka. The long held traditions of Anti-Semitism in Germany were amplified by intensive Nazi propaganda through mass media made Holocaust possible. The same was the case in Rwanda when it comes to the ideas of racial superiority of one ethnic group (Hutu) over a certain ethnic minority (Tutsi), except for the fact that Hutu-led propaganda used vastly better mass media tools, such as television, for instance. The combination of factors that once made Holocaust possible, such as long-term traditions of ethnic intolerance and massive propaganda, were among the main reasons for Rwandan genocide. Some researchers call it African Holocaust in order to stress that the mechanism, which led to the destruction of Jews in 1940s and genocide of Tutsi in 1994 are similar in many ways (Olaifa & Danjibo, 2013). On the other hand, unlike Holocaust, which was executed by the army and special security services of Schutzstaffeln without participation of non-combatants, the genocide in Rwanda was executed with active participation of civilians. The perpetrators of Rwandan genocide were composed of Rwandan armed forces (troops of Hutu origin only), the National Police, paramilitary forces backed by the Hutu-led government (such as Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi militias) and civilians of Hutu origin (Fuji, 2008). The genocide of the ethnic minority of Tutsi by the ethnic majority of Hutu in Rwanda was caused by the unresolved conflict between these two ethnic groups within the framework of the Civil war in Rwanda, which was ended with a ceasefire agreement between the belligerents. The chain of tragic events that led to Rwandan genocide was triggered by the murder of Juvenal Habyarimana, the President of Rwanda of Hutu origin, who was allegedly killed by Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which was composed of Tutsi (Olaifa & Danjibo, 2013). Although RPF and the President of Rwanda, Juvenal Habyarimana, had already signed the agreement that should have ended the Civil war in Rwanda, the sudden death of Habyarimana was immediately used by Hutu extremists, who perceived the aforementioned peace treaty as unacceptable step back for Hutu majority in the country. Only few hours after the President of Rwanda was killed the massive slaughter of Tutsi minority started in the capital of Rwanda, which soon spread all over the country. The Rwandan genocide of 1994 claimed the lives of around one million people during three months. Unlike Holocaust, the massive murder of Tutsi was, to certain extent, a spontaneous burst of violence caused by the tensions between two ethnic groups that were previously engaged in the Civil war within one country. There were no elaborate preparations for the genocide of Tutsi as it was the case of Holocaust, when Jews were contained in ghettos for a few years before being transported to specially built extermination camps, where they were murdered en masse. However, striking similarities between Holocaust and Rwandan genocide do exist. The perpetrators of genocide in both cases were divided into strident zealots, who were engaged into mass murder as slaughterers mainly because of their convictions; and those, who took part in the genocide as executioners out of fear to be punished if they dare to disobey the order. Raul Hilberg, a renowned researcher of Holocaust, made an attempt to create a psychological portrait of an average perpetrator of the destruction of Jews in 1940s and divided all perpetrators into the following categories: zealots, vulgarians and bearers of burdens (Hilberg, 1993). Thus, although the reasons for Holocaust and Rwandan genocide were different, as well as the methods of perpetrators genocidal mass murder in both cases, the perpetrators could be divided into similar categories based on their personal motivations that made German and non-German soldiers and volunteers kill Jews or Hutu civilians and members of specially trained militia, National Police or the regular armed forces soldiers murder people of Tutsi origin. Unfortunately, the countermeasures of the world community with regard to Rwandan genocide were quite passive and insufficient. The countries like the USA, Great Britain, France and Belgium, which could have stepped in and save the situation, were reluctant to take countermeasures and stop the violence in Rwanda. France was even blamed by the RPF in bolstering the Hutu-led government during the Rwandan genocide, while the rest of the key geopolitical players did nothing to intervene with the United Nations peacekeeping mission, in spite of an opportunity to strengthen the UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda and prevent further escalation of violence in the country. References Fuji, L. N. (2008). The power of local ties: Popular participation in the Rwandan genocide. Security Studies 17 (3), 568-597. Hilberg, R. (1993) Perpetrators, victims, bystanders: The Jewish catastrophe, 1933-1945. New York: Harper Perennial. Jacobs, J. (2014). Sites of terror and the role of memory in shaping identity among first generation descendants of the Holocaust. Qualitative Sociology 37 (1), 27-42. Olaifa, T. A., & Danjibo N. D. (2013). The 1994 Rwandan conflict: Genocide or war? International Journal on World Peace 30 (3), 31-51. Slavkin, M. (2012). The Holocaust and education: What impact did educators have on the implementation of Anti-Judaic policies in 1930s Germany? Paedogogica Historica 48 (3), 431-449. Yahil, L. (1991) The Holocaust: The fate of European Jewry, 1933-1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Read More