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20th Century Genocide

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As the Genocide Convention of 1951 states, the twentieth century was named the “century of genocide” because of the high number of genocides during that time period. They also state that genocide is a mass slaughter with the intent to destroy/exterminate, in a whole or a part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group of people. For the main purpose of this presentation, the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide and the Armenian genocide will be the three genocides of the 20th century that will help determine the causes of modern genocide by investigating these three events as case studies. There are various reasons why genocide has occurred and it is mostly due to a combination of circumstances that leads to genocide. This presentation will …show more content…
Therefore, these groups were seen as legitimate targets for extermination. This form of “purifying” the human society by genocide can also be reflected through the language of the genocidaires. Armenians were termed “tubercular microbes” and a politician asked rhetorically “isn’t it the duty of a doctor to destroy these microbes?”. Hitler spoke of the “Jewish virus”, called them the “dirty race” and mentioned that “by eliminating the pest, he would do humanity a service”, following a certain idea, belief or ideology. Not only medical terms were used to justify the killings but gardening metaphors can also be found. Like in Rwanda, the extermination of Tutsi men was called “bush clearing”, slaughtering women and children was labelled as “pulling out the roots of the bad weeds”, the executions were also referred to “cutting down the tall trees” and calling the tutsis “cockroaches”. Genocide was often justified by the idea of “purifying” the human race through tasks that a doctor or a gardener would achieve in order to change and improve an unhealthy body, a garden or protecting themselves and their loved ones against a …show more content…
Turning towards a wealthy minority such as the Jews in Germany or the Tutsi in Rwanda is simple, however, another important factor is the need to belong to a group during difficult times such as war, poverty, famine, economic difficulties, etc... Being part of a group provided the feeling of belonging and obtaining protection and power through the unity of a group, creating a majority over others. When leaders take advantage of a group, it can turn people into killers who experience happiness through belonging to a group that seeks to “purify” the nation from a perceived evil and want to change the miseries around them. Incidents of genocide are not unique to the modern era; like humans’ wish to improve their lives and societies. If a certain group is seen as standing between the population and its goal, it can be seen as a threat and even like the right thing to do by getting rid of that group. The chances of genocide occurring against a minority group that is perceived as standing between society and utopia is more likely during times of hardship, such as those of war, misery, economic crisis, etc... Humans feel the need to blame a minority group and eliminate that threat to

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