Genocide Committed during Second World War - 1181 Words

The genocide committed during Second World War is one that still scars the human psyche to this day. The horrors of the Second World War lead to Raphael Lemkin’s creation of a new word, â€Å"genocide† in 1944 (Conversi 2006: 320). The definition of genocide is still under dispute by academics (Dallaire and Coleman 2013: 778; Manaktala 2012: 179; Hinton 2012: 11). For the purposes of this essay the definition used is the one created by the United Nations following the signing of resolution 240 (Stanton 1998: 1). The definition in the current form reads, â€Å"acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part a national ethnical, racial or religious group† (United Nations Resolution 260 1948: Article 2). Using this definition, the three best examples of genocide in this era are Rwanda (Magnarella 2005: 801), The Holocaust (Vardejo 2012: 81) and Armenia (Hinton 2012: 13). Using these three genocides, this essay will examine the three key causes of genocide in the modern era. The first being hardships both economic and created by war that ultimately lead to a genocide. The next is the creation of an ‘us vs. them’ ideology which leads to the dehumanisation of the victims. The final cause is the enlightenment concept, which supports the perpetrators belief that they are doing this for a better world. Genocide and war have a connection that is often intermingled because both include the abject killing of people (Conversi 2006: 325). As Ronald Suny put it â€Å"Genocide is not theShow MoreRelatedThe Armenian Genocide Committed By The Ottoman Empire1579 Words   |  7 PagesThe Armenian genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire against its minority Armenian population from 1915-1917 left an estimated 1.5 million dead and to date, not one individual has been tried for these egregious crimes. The mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in World War I and Jews by the Nazis in World War II shocked the conscience of the international community and led to the creation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), in order toRead MoreThe Genocide And The Holocaust1198 Words   |  5 Pagesseveral genocides in the past century. The Cambodian Genocide and the Holocaust are two of the great tragedies of the twentieth century. The Holocaust oc curred in Germany and Eastern Europe. The Cambodian genocide took place in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge was an overwhelming communist force that took Phnom Penh by surprise. In Cambodia, â€Å"21% of the population was killed. That is about 1.7 million people that lost their lives† (â€Å"Past Genocides†). There was little commotion or outcry from the world afterRead MoreThe Armenian Genocide And The Ukrainian Genocide1225 Words   |  5 Pagesto repeat itself. Genocides have been committed throughout history, even before the term was assembled in 1944 and accepted by the United Nations in 1946 as a crime under international law. According to the United Nations, genocide is defined as â€Å"intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.† A minimum of twenty-seven genocides have been documented across the world. During the 20th century, the Armenian Genocide and the Ukrainian genocide (Holodomor) transpiredRead MoreThe Deni al of The Armenian Genocide Essay1442 Words   |  6 PagesThe denial of the Armenian genocide and the use of the term â€Å"alleged† are insults to those who have agitated over the years in highlighting the genocide and the Armenian people themselves. The pictorial anger and anguish of this painful traumatic experience had left the survivors of this horrific event with deep scars beyond repairs. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were a dark world for the Armenians who were held helpless and bound at the treacherous hand of the Muslim Turks ofRead MoreThe Holocaust : The Destruction Of The Jews1717 Words   |  7 PagesThe Holocaust is by far the worst genocide ever committed, with between 5 and 6 million Jews murdered; along with countless other minorities the Germans deemed inferior (The Holocaust Chronicle Appendices). The Holocaust began with the boycott of Jewish businesses, and ended in camps such as Auschwitz. The destruction of the Jews was made pos sibly with the rise of Adolf Hitler to power, as he and his fellow Nazi followers attempted to exterminate the Jewish populace of Europe. In the paragraphs toRead MoreA Look at the Rwandan Genocide Essay1014 Words   |  5 Pageseconomies. People are suffering and have very little hope. Genocide is the only reason. Everything could have been prevented if genocide didn’t exist. The world basically ignored the genocide and pretended like it never happened because they didn’t want to spend the money. Thousands of people could still be alive if the world stepped up at helped the victims of this horrible crime. Rwanda used to be a peaceful country until the Civil war started. Belgium then took over Rwanda and put the TutsisRead MoreThe War Of The World War II1730 Words   |  7 Pages A war crime is an act that constitutes a serious violation of the law of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility. Examples of war crimes include intentionally killing civilians or prisoners, torture, destroying civilian property, taking hostages, perfidy, rape, soldiers, pillaging, declaring that no quarter will be given, and using weapons that cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering. The concept of war crimes began to emerge during the end of the 19th century andRead MoreThe And Punishment Of The United Nations1640 Words   |  7 Pagesofficials or private individuals and they are often protected by special jurisdictions, sanctions, immunities, or amnesties. In 1945, at the Nuremberg Trials, which judged the accused war criminals of Nazi Germany, the international community pledged that never again would it allow monstrous crimes against humanity or genocide to take place. The United Nations recognized the need for an international criminal court to prosecute and punish persons responsible and to help end impunity for these perpetratorsRead More The Armenian Genocide Essay906 Words   |  4 PagesThe Armenian Genocide, also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Great Calamity, and the Armenian Massacre, was the organized killing of nearly 1.5 million Armenians. It occurred in the Ottoman Empire - present-day Turkey - where 2 million Armenians lived. The Armenian Genocide is the second-most studied massacre, after the Nazi Holocaust. Twenty-two countries have officially recognized it as genocide, but the Republic of Turkey rejects the characterization of the events as genocide. Many ArmeniansRead MoreEvidence of the Armenian Genocide Essay779 Words   |  4 PagesThe Armenian genocide was a systematic eradication of the Armenian population who liv ed under the Ottoman government. The genocide took place before and after World War I and it was set out in two phases. The first phase was to kill all able bodied men by massacre and forced labor. The second phase was to deport women, children, and the elderly and make them walk through the Syrian Desert in which a lot of people died from lack of food, water and the climate. The total population that had died was