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The Holocaust Readings: Smith et al, 946-950. Readings: Smith , et ., 946-950. Genocide in 20 th Century. Genocide had very specific form in 20 th century. Armenian Genocide had roots in late 19 th century but 1 ½ million were killed between 1915-1923
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The HolocaustReadings: Smith et al, 946-950 Readings: Smith, et ., 946-950
Genocide in 20th Century • Genocide had very specific form in 20th century. • Armenian Genocide had roots in late 19th century but 1 ½ million were killed between 1915-1923 • Used in concentration camps as well as mass deportations • Used Special Organization (Teshkilati Mahsusa) to organize killing • Turks claim it was an action against a bitter enemy during war
Rape of Nanjing • Japanese killed over 300,000 and raped between 60,000- 80,000. • Like Turks, claimed massacre was a necessary act against enemy combattants • Question: what is moral and immoral in war? Are 20th century wars different in the violence they enacted on civilians?
Nazi Policy—Extremes of Race-based Thinking (Eugenics) • Wanted to purify German (Aryan) Race • Afraid if intermarried and reproduced with other races, the Aryan race would degenerate. • In Mein Kampf, Adolph Hitler argued that it was necessary to exterminate Jews and other “inferior races”
Nuremberg Laws and Kristallnacht • September 1935 Nuremberg Laws—laws discriminating against the Jews, depriving them of citizenship, prevent them from having sexual contact with “Aryans”/Germans • November 1938—Kristallnacht “The Night the Broken of Glass” – Germans begin to put thousands of Jews in “concentration” camps, where they were forced to labor for the Government
Events during the War • Killing Intensifies • SS Einsatzgruppen (Action squads) • Mobile killing units • Firing squads murdered massive number of people • Buried them in mass graves • By 1941, the SS Einsatzgruppen had murdered 1.5 million people, mostly Jews • January 20, 1942 the Wannsee Conference in Berlin • The Jews were rounded up and sent to Labor and the Death camps. • 3 million people were killed in Auschwitz alone. • At least 6 million Jews killed
The Holocaust • European Jewish population fell from 9,739,200 to 3,505,800 • Also killed 5 million other undesirables (disabled, Slavs, gypsies, homosexuals, petty criminals, Jehovah’s Witness, communists). • After they were killed, the bodies were burned in large crematories, but many bodies still evident when camps liberated.
Could it happen again? • United Nations Declaration on Human Rights, But: • Genocide in Rwanda • Genocide in Bosnia • Genocide in Kosovo • Genocide in Sudan