Norman Naimark’s book, Firest of Hatred, on the “Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-century Europe recapitulates the events that occur in Europe, mainly around World War II.  The basis of chapters one through three is the different ways European countries experienced/practiced ethnic cleansing, and furthermore the effects it had on the state. Naimark wrote about two particular men that I will be focusing on throughout this blog.  I will also visit the tactics used in Europe compared to the tactics we, as American’s, have used in our own theater. 

            When the term Genocide is used, one of the most popular events that come to mind is Adolph Hitler and Nazi Germany.  Genocide is roughly defined as the removal of a specific type of group by another from an area specifically a country or state.  Hitler systematically targeted the Jewish population in order to rid Germany from, what he called, a less superior race.  He began his rein or terror by first targeting mentally handicapped people along with others that had disabilities.  The initial act of cleansing spiraled into the concentration camps and gas chambers that we learn about and have dedication days of remembrance today. 

            The Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin employed vary similar genocidal acts.  However, he utilized a method of division and bureaucracy that separated all ethnic groups instead of just one.  He embraced the idea of nationalism and ownership of ethnicity.  By doing so, he was able to clearly separate the different ethnic groups and then deport them.  In Stalin’s case he utilized a method that mobilize “national self-consciousness” and started from the top and worked his way down (Naimark, pg. 84).  Naimark refers to this system as a “Marxist-Leninist ideology”, as a way to systematically take down the aristocrats and the bourgeoisie and work his way down. 

            Americans have taken genocidal actions toward the Native Americans during the beginning of our existence.  Although the war against Native-Americans was not completely a black and white, good guy and bad guy war, we still eradicated another race due to the conceptual ideas that one skin color was better than the other.  With the notion of race hierarchy in mind, there is a modern spin of genocidal war through means of racial prejudice.  The war has no real front, and is not fought through means of conventional definitions. The Race hierarchy is suggests there are superior and inferior races on a continuum.  Based on where your race and ethnicity falls on the spectrum, are the opportunities that are afforded to you.  The ones at the top are rigorously trying to maintain their status at the top by keeping this system in place and oppressing the groups that fall underneath them.  Furthermore, remaining at the top means they will continue to shape policies and legal institutions that are put in place in order to further the gap between them and the others.  This notion of racial and ethnic segregation is a slower demise than history has shown.  The races toward the bottom will continue to stay there or fall to a lower position, and not necessarily being passed by another, but just falling.  The basis of this argument is to show that there is a very profound genocidal principle being employed right in front of us, but it is not seen as such.  It is portrayed as capitalistic opportunities that have not been taken by some and been ravished by others.  America needs to stop this constrictor-like fate, or the ethnic cleansing will continue.