Evil doesn’t even begin to cover it. The mass murder of millions of people. The complete obliteration of an entire society. Each and every genocide has the same core principles, but a distinct face. A dictator takes over a weak country with promises of returning it to its former glory, once he has everyone’s support, he implements extremely discriminatory laws and finds reasons to kill anyone who dares oppose him. The Holocaust and the Cambodian genocides are remarkably similar, and yet strikingly different. The Holocaust was an attempt to wipe out all Jews and other minorities such as gypsies and handicapped people. The Cambodian genocide, led by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, was in some ways a mirror image of the Holocaust, but it happened forty-two years later. On the other hand, there are many more that one distinction that sets Cambodia apart from all other genocides.
Although the two genocides are quite different at a first glance, they are interestingly similar upon deeper inspection. For starters, the Holocaust is best known for it’s brutal and inhumane treatment of prisoners, such as tattooing a number on their arm against their will and feeding them food that is not even fit for dogs to consume (“Holocaust”). It may be shocking for some people to hear that in Cambodia, it was just as atrocious, maybe even worse. During the Khmer Rouge takeover in 1975 most Cambodians were forced to leave their homes on such short notice that numerous families were killed on cite for not evacuating quickly enough. Those ‘lucky’ enough to escape immediate death were forced to work, unpaid, in labor camps until the fatigue wore down their immune system and they died of some wretched disease (“Genocide”). Another intriguing similarity betw...
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The genocide of Guatemala and Europe were both devastating. They are both similar and different on different levels. First, the perpetrators , they were both the government. Next, other country's involvement in the genocides, why were they involved and what they did. Lastly, the impacts that these genocides had left behind.
Genocide is “the deliberate systematic murder of a certain race, ethnic group, or even a nation.” To a very high extent the mass killings in Cambodia can be considered as genocide because the Khmer Rouge deliberately and systematically attempted to destroy the people of Cambodian people. After the deposition of Cambodian president Lon Nol the Khmer Rouge wasted no time in imposing their will on the country. Within days of overthrowing the previous government the Khmer rouge forced the civilians of Cambodia to leave their homes to go and work as unpaid labourers on a collection of farms. No one was shown mercy upon; the very old, sickly and very young were all sent. If they failed to move quickly e...
Imagine every friend, every neighbor, every single person in one city being raped, killed, tortured. In the genocide known as the Rape of Nanking, the city of Nanjing was brutally taken captive by the Japanese. On the other hand, all of Germany attacked the Jews. But both of the genocides involved killing, raping, and dehumanizing. The Holocaust exterminated a whole lot more people than the Rape of Nanking. Germany also paid for their crimes, while Japan hardly acknowledged it. Both genocides also happened during the same time period, too. The Rape of Nanking was a smaller genocide than the Holocaust, but they still have their similarities and differences.
Even though these were both similar by being genocides, they did have their differences. Barack Obama once said, “All people should be treated equally, regardless of who they are or who they love.” Both genocides are based on discrimination, they don’t care about what they did, they just care
The day that the survivors of the Cambodian Genocide will never forget, was the day that the Cambodian society took a turn for the worse. On April 17, 1975, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge went to Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, took control and renamed it Democratic Kampuchea also known as DK. Pol Pot announced to all the citizens that he had to “purify” the Cambodian society. Although the Cambodian genocide did not kill as many people as other genocides such as the Holocaust, it is still just as important. I think that the Cambodian Genocide is an awful thing that took place and I feel bad for all the victims of racism. I also think that the perpetrators in this situation are heartless because of the torture that they put the people Cambodian society through because those people were discriminated and did not deserve it. Just like other people who get discriminated by in other genocides such as the Holocaust. When the Jews were discriminated by Nazi’s in the Holocaust .
Firstly, they both fall under the correct definition of a genocide. Both occurred on a massive scale, destroying entire generations of people, leaving a horrible legacy. Racism was a common motivator in both cases. The Anti-Semitic views and policies of Nazi Germany are paralleled with the colonial views and policies of whites as the superior race. Mechanically, military forces were used as tools to enact the genocide (the S.S. of Nazi Germany and the Force Publique of the Congo Free State). There are many places where the two genocides are similar, however, there are major differences. The aim of the Holocaust was an “ethnic cleansing” of Jews and other undesirables, total extermination was the goal of the Hitler and the Nazi party. Genocide became an official state policy and was run in a very pragmatic manner under heavy state control. It was direct and focused extermination, exemplified by the concentration camps. This contrasts the lack of state control in the Congo Free State, which the Belgian government had little control over. The genocide in the Congo was a by-product of colonial rule, the people were victims of Imperial greed. This shows that the Congolese genocide was less direct in nature when compared to the
"Rwanda Genocide." Global Issues in Context Online Collection. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Global Issues In Context. Web. 12 Apr. 2010.
Both the Holocaust and the genocide of Rwanda displayed horrible actions against mankind. They both demonstrated a stage of a massacre which was terrible
What is genocide? “Genocide is a deliberate, systematic destruction of racial cultural or political groups.”(Feldman 29) What is the Holocaust? “Holocaust, the period between 1933-1945 when Nazi Germany systematically persecuted and murdered millions of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and many other people.”(Feldman 29) These two things tie into each other.The Holocaust was a genocide. Many innocent people were torn apart from their families, for many never to see them again. This murder of the “Jewish people of Europe began in spring 1941.”( Feldman 213) The Holocaust was one of the most harshest things done to mankind.
Levi, Neil, and Michael Rothberg. The Holocaust: Theoretical Readings. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2003. Print.
The Holocaust and Armenian genocide are similar in the reasons that started them, but they are different in who was involved and how the two genocides were executed. Even though there are differences the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust are very similar in the ways people were convinced to follow the government. Both of these genocides started with a change in government. The “Young Turks” who wanted one religion and one language told people that the Armenians were a threat to their national security and called all of them spies (Beecroft). They started with the intellectuals and the leaders.
Paradigms of Genocide: The Holocaust, The Armenian genocide, and Contemporary Mass Destructions, 156-168. Sage Publications Inc., 1996. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1048550
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 to 750,00 Cambodians through U.S. efforts to destroy suspected North Vietnamese supply lines. This devastation would take its toll on the Cambodian peoples’ morale and would later help to contribute that conflicts that caused the Cambodian genocide. In the 1970’s the Khmer rouge guerilla movement would form. The leader of the Khmer rouge, Pol Pot was educated in France and believed in Maoist Communism. These communist ideas would become important foundations for the ideas of the genocide, and which groups would be persecuted. The genocide it’s self, would be based on Pol Pot’s ideas to bring Cambodia back to an agrarian society, starting at the year zero. His main goal was to achieve this, romanticized idea of old Cambodia, based on the ancient Cambodian ruins, with all citizens having agrarian farming lives, and being equal to each other. Due to him wanting society to be equal, and agrarian based, the victims would be those that were educated, intellectuals, professionals, and minority ethnic g...
Hymowitz, Sarah, and Amelia Parker. "Lessons - The Genocide Teaching Project - Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law." American University Washington College of Law. American UniversityWashington College of Law Center for Human Rights and Humanitaian Law, 2011. Web. 9 Mar. 2011. .