The holocaust is one of the most inhuman and barbaric kinds human suffering the world has ever experienced. In this very event, millions of European Jews lost their lives in the most painful and sufferable way possible. This was one of example of Genocides that have struck the world in different places at different times under diverse circumstances. In general, the term genocide refers to the deliberate annihilation of a specific ethnic, racial or religious group. Of all the crimes against humanity, genocide is termed as the worst form.
There have been several incidences of genocide in twenty first century. The first genocide of modern times was the Armenian Massacre in 1915 by the leadership of the then Ottoman Empire that later became present-day Turkey (Kinloch and Mohan, 15). In this genocide about 1.5 million Armenians were murdered by Young Turks and other millions displaced. Today, most of ethnic Armenians living out of Armenia are a result of this displacement.
The second and the most pronounced kind of genocide was the Holocaust. This was the elimination of European Jews by the NAZI government that controlled most of Europe under the leadership of Adolf Hitler. This genocide went beyond the Jews. The Nazi government also intended to eliminate people with disabilities, prisoners of war, political opponents, homosexuals and soviets (Kinloch and Mohan, 28). With all these humans in the list of extermination, the number of the dead is believed to be around 17 million people.
The holocaust is one of the most controversial and most debated genocide of our time. This is due to the fact that the cause of this aggression, against Jews and people of low social status such as the disabled, was purely an ideological reason. While other genocides are based on economic and territorial disputes, the holocaust was motivated by a Nazi illusionary ideology that these groups tainted the more supreme German Aryan race and thus should be eliminated at all cost. These Nazi Germans believed that Jews were intentionally spreading around the world so that they would one day dominate and rule the earth. On the other hand, the Aryan race was a pure race with good intentions and of proper and sound ideologies.
For this reason, when Nazis took over Germany in 1933, there was a consistent and intentional alienation of Jews within the German population. Hitler urged the German people to shun the Jews, their company and not to do any business with these people. In some neighborhoods and schools Jews were not allowed to live or attend and they were later moved into concentration camps. The prolonged war took its toll Germany controlled much of Europe giving Nazi government a chance to experiment its racial ideology on these Jews.
Once they were convinced that Jews were a weaker race and an impurity on Germany, there began mass murder and elimination of this ‘weaker’ population. They were sent into gas chambers and massive crematoriums to save on cost of elimination process.
In almost all genocide, the leadership or perpetrators enjoyed somewhat totalitarian or dictatorial leadership with the absence a strong opposition or oversight bodies to provide checks and balances. For instances, in the German case, Nazi took over and declared its rule the Third Reich and that no one was to oppose the leadership. In the other cases such as the Kosovo Massacre on the early 1990s, it was a dictatorial leadership that led to genocide. To avoid such genocide, no leadership should be allowed to exist without the influence of the population. This influence is commonly vested upon an independent political opposition arm. As a student, one should agitate for a strong political system in the country with several independent political parties. Additionally, a country’s constitution should not have a totalitarian leadership rather it should allow several political ideas that ensure proper distribution of power and resources in the country.
In conclusion, genocides have occurred under several circumstances depending on specific conditions. However, any genocide has been done under poor and dictatorial leadership without an independent academic group to counter poor claims by the leadership. This leadership also lacked a strong challenging opposition to keep them in check. A student should provide a way that a country delinks political influence from key institutions. Additionally, bravery from the intelligentsia is required to avert illusionary believes from authoritarian rulers.
Works Cited
Kinloch, Graham Charles and Raj P. Mohan. Genocide: approaches, case studies, and responses. New York : Algora Publishing,, 2005.
