The Devastation of Genocide

Lindsay Casson

SOCI 361

3/4/14

The Devastation of Genocide

            According to the Merriam Dictionary, genocide is defined as “the deliberate killing of people who belong to a particular racial, political, or cultural group”. The Holocaust is the most commonly known genocide but unfortunately there have been more throughout history. The book “Fires of Hatred Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth- Century Europe” by Norman M. Naimark is a great book that compares different genocides that have happened throughout history.

            The first chapter tells the history of Armenians and Greeks after the wars in the Balkans. The Secret Organization was created to deport Greeks. Turks deported 150,000 Greeks from the coasts to Greece and islands, and 50,000 to the interior of Anatolia. The Secret Organization was also ordered to disarm the whole Armenian population. “Armenians were beaten, arrested, or tortured if they did not give up weapons” (Naimark, 2001, pp.27). During the Armenian genocide there were death marches. The Armenian people were forced to walk every day for miles in the blistering heat. They were given small rations of food and never given a chance to bathe. Only 15% managed to survive these marches (Naimark, 2001). Most died from disease and malnutrition or left behind because they were too weak to continue on. The Turks destroyed everything that was Armenian to leave to trace of them behind.

            The second chapter talks about a commonly known genocide of the Jews called the Holocaust. The Nazis blamed the Jews for the troubles Germany had and for war. They believed the only way for Germany to be powerful again would be to get rid of all the Jews. They believed all Jews were dangerous to the German people. The first step of getting rid of the Jews in Germany was to limit their fate, making it hard for them to live in Germany (Naimark, 2001). “Hitler was constantly creating policies that would force the Jews out of Germany and Europe” (Naimark 2001, pp.63). The problem was there was nowhere for emigrants to go. Most Jews were sent to Ghettos and then Labor camps, also known as concentration camps. Some Jews were shot, some died in the gas chambers, and some died from the disease and harsh conditions they lived in.

            Both Genocides were horrific and devastating. These two events in history happened at different times with different groups of people but have many similarities. One similarity is both cases had leaders who ordered the mass murders of certain groups of people. Another thing they have in common is there is nothing linking these leaders directly to the orders of the killings. In both cases the murders were planned out acts for extinctions of certain groups. Both genocides happened while wars were going on. In both genocides the victims were dehumanized and ideologies were used to point out their differences and create hatred. Another similarity is the treatment of women during these times. During the ethnic cleansing and genocide women were normally left behind taking care of the young, elderly, or sick and are vulnerable to attack. Armenian women were deported, raped, attacked, killed and some converted to Islam into Muslim families. Nazis developed ways to sterilize women to keep them from reproducing more Jews. Jewish women and children were often the first to be sent to the gas chamber. It is extremely unfortunate that devastating genocides have happened repeatedly in our history.
        The third chapter discusses Stalin and the Soviet Union taking over territories and deporting the people East. They were elimination these groups of people by forcing them out of the country where they then were forced to adopt new cultures. Instead of exterminating all the people by killing them they got rid of their culture.This genocide is different from the other two discussed earlier but thousands of people we still killed and many people were forced to abandon their cultures.


http://www.armenian-genocide.org/photo_wegner.html
 http://www.ppu.org.uk/genocide/g_holocaust.html