Genocide Paper
“The human race is the only species that can and does think it's self into anger and violence.” (pup.org.uk) In prison camps, Prisoners were forced to do hard physical labor. Torture and death within concentration camps were common and frequent. (dosomething.org) during that time; 2.11 million people were killed during the holocaust, 1.1 million which were children. (dosomething.org) Some people argue that the Holocaust was not an act of genocide because they feel like there is nothing wrong with it but they don't know all the facts behind it. The Holocaust should be considered an example of genocide based on the United Nations definition, the stages of genocide, in the specific evidence provided in the memoir night.
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first reason why the holocaust should be considered an example of genocide is because of the United Nations definition, The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide Treaty that the United Nation wrote, explains genocide is a crime, and it should be prevented and punished. Genocide means any of the following act: (A) Killing members of the group; (B) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (C) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in a while or in part; (D) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (E) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group ( 1 ) In the memoir Night, by Elie Wiesel describes what Elie went through, about the acts of genocide he witnessed growing up during the Holocaust. He writes: “We were all going to die here. All limits had been passed. No one had any strength left. And again the night would be long.” ( 98) These quotes are important because they show how the Natzis were killing people and deliberately hurting them so they could suffer. It shows they were trying to break them down to nothing, and no one could do anything about it. The second reason the Holocaust should be considered an example of genocide, is based on the dehumanization state of genocide.
The 8 stages of Genocide is an article written by Gregory H. Stanton that explains that genocide occurred over 8 stages, how genocide and an act of genocide are the same thing, they are both equally punishable by law. Staton states in this stage “One group denies the humanity of the other group. Dehumanization overcomes the normal human revulsion against murder.” ( 2 ) In the memoir Night, the stage of dehumanization can be seen written by Elie himself “If anyone goes missing, you'll all be shot, like dogs.” ( 24 ) These quotes are important because they both show how people such as the SS officers treating the Jews and the prisoners as less than human, or like animals. It shows in both quotes that people who commit acts of genocide or complete genocide dehumanize people as if they are not worthy of human …show more content…
rights. The third reason why the Holocaust should be considered an example of genocide based on the extermination state of genocide.
According to Stanton “It is “extermination” to the killers because they do not believe their victims to be fully human. Sometimes the genocide results in revenge killings by groups against each other, creating the downward whirlpool-like cycle of bilateral genocide.” ( 3 ) Elie writes “Children were thrown into flames.” ( 32 ) These quotes are important because it shows throughout all the stages extermination was when they killed, murdered, got rid of people. Burning, poisoning, starving, assassinating, all types of killing are taken place just to get rid of the people they don't like and want off earth because they are worthless to
them. In conclusion the Holocaust should be expressed as an act genocide based on the United Nations definition, the stages of genocide, and the specific evidence provided in the memoir Night. After reviewing the topic, The Holocaust should be considered an act of genocide, my examples of genocide from the memoir Night, the 2 articles, and other reliable sources. Has proven my claim that the holocaust should be considered in act of genocide. Based off of just 2of the 8 stages of genocide, Dehumanization and Extermination, the holocaust show signs of all. The human race is a complicated species, at times that can become very difficult. We have been through several changes and issues throughout time. We put ourselves in the situations we get into such as anger and violence. Being that genocide is a crime of taking others lives and willing to devalue them we must put ourselves in the mindset that those are people just like us no matter the race, religion, gender, etc. We must take precaution and learn from our mistakes. For no one should have to go through the things that they went through.
In the book Night the character Eliezer faces many challenges and sees many things. But the most prominent feature of all the death camps that Eliezer is in was Dehumanization.Dehumanization is what the S.S. used to keep the jews in line in the concentration camps while they were in a animal like state where it’s every man for himself.Therefore this proves that dehumanization is a process that was used by the SS to keep the Jews in check by using the crematorium,beatings,and executions to make the Jews less human.
In the novel, Night, by Elie Wiesel, there were numerous examples of dehumanization. Dehumanization is the process by which the Nazis gradually reduced the Jews to little more than things, which were trouble to them. The first example is found in the third chapter, “I was a body. Perhaps less than even that: a starved stomach. The stomach alone was aware of the passage of time.” This reveals how the characters are completely ripped apart from the world, so much so that they are no longer even refer to themselves as humans. A German officer told the Jews “There are eighty of you in this wagon…if anyone is missing, you’ll be shot, like dogs…” (Weisel 22). This shows that the Germans thought nothing and had little to no respect for the Jews. The subject continues as they are split up by sex as an SS officer announces to a pack of Jews, Men to the left! Women to the right!” (Wiesel 27). They were treated like animals instead of humans. Dehumanization of the camps is added to the novel to allow the reader to get a more in-depth and realistic look into the tragic times for many Jews.
Lastly, Elie’s father dies just before the Jews are liberated and Elie sees his reflection in the mirror but does not recognize himself because he looks like a skeleton. The first way in which one can see the theme of inhumanity is through discrimination. This is when someone is treating other people badly based on his or her category instead of her character. For example, the officials beat the Jews in the ghetto mercilessly just because they are ordered to and because they are Jewish. In the morning of their last day in the ghetto the Jews are told to leave and “the Hungarian police used their rifle butts, [and] their clubs to indiscriminately strike old men and women, children and cripples” (16)....
An example of extermination is in the death camps when they would use the crematorium to burn the bodies, “Do you see the chimney over there?” (Wiesel 30). This is an example of extermination because they systematically killed the Jewish people with the crematoriums. Another example of extermination is when the foreign Jews were being killed “When they and finished their work, the men from the Gestapo began theirs. Without passion or haste, they shot their prisoners.” (Wiesel 6). This is an example of extermination because it was a systematic way of killing the Jewish people, shooting them then placing them in the trenches they dug. Denial was already taking place when the Germans were exterminating the Jewish people. An example of this is when they were exterminating the Jewish people with the crematorium. This is an example because when they would kill the Jewish people and burn them in the crematorium the only evidence left would be the ashes that were left behind, therefore no evidence left behind of the Jewish people killed. Another example of denial is when the foreign Jews were killed and thrown into the trenches.This is an example of denial because the bodies would either be buried or burned leaving no trace of the Jews. Denial and extermination were the
In conclusion, in the novel Night, the Germens had so much force and power that no minority (Jewish individuals) could stop them. As a result, the Germans took advantage of the power they had and killed a lot of Jews in very unpleasant ways, thus illustrating inhumanity. The Germans had no feelings or sympathy for their actions and through the two quotations provided, it is evident of how the Jewish society lived in fear and helplessness. Elie will never forget what he saw the first night he was at camp and this was the build up of fear, also how the Germens executed the child shows that they are heartless by making the innocent suffer. These examples were very brutal and inhumane ways of dealing with the Jews, as a result the Germans took advantage of their power in the wrong way, abused it by doing whatever they desire.
Dehumanization Through Elie Wiesel Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, is an account about his experience through concentration camps and death marches during WWII. In 1944, fifteen year old Wiesel was one of the many Jews forced onto cattle cars and sent to death and labor camps. Their personal rights were taken from them, as they were treated like animals. Millions of men, women, children, Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, disabled people, and Slavic people had to face the horrors the Nazi’s had planned for them. Many people witnessed and lived through beatings, murders, and humiliations.
The Holocaust will forever be known as one of the largest genocides ever recorded in history. 11 million perished, and 6 million of the departed were Jewish. The concentration camps where the prisoners were held were considered to be the closest one could get to a living hell. There is no surprise that the men, women, and children there were afraid. One is considered blessed to have a family member alongside oneself.
Many still believe that all the hard times are behind them. Those people believe that since they aren’t the ones having to face those harsh times. However, evil still exists till this day, like the Genocide in Darfur. The subject about Darfur has always been a delicate one to many. However, there are still many in this society that still don’t even have the slightest clue about what is happening over in Sudan. There have been many genocides in the past, and the most well known is the Holocaust, but it’s sad to think that it still goes on till this day. Furthermore, there are still many that haven’t done much about it. Society needs to find out about what is happening in Darfur and awareness needs to be raised as well.
has never left me.” (Wiesel, 109). So many times, people are saying the things they’re gonna do but never follow through with it. Although Elie isn’t one of them, the people that fight injustice are. This isn’t the only Holocaust or massacre the world has seen. The Armenian Genocide took place in 1915, a time where the government was trying to get rid of it’s minority Armenian subjects from their historic homeland. It lasted up to the 1920s with 1.5 million deaths. The horrific events that took place were much similar to the Holocaust. People were burned to death, tested on, and drowned. It’s almost as if this was a stepping stone to saying that this was okay. Where were the leaders, the liberals, the spokesmen for mankind? These are the type of things that stick and are hard to forget, and it’s something that has left a negative mark on
Genocide is the deliberate killing of people who belong to a particular racial, political, or cultural group (Merriam-Webster). This is what Hitler did to the six million Jews during the Holocaust, which led to many Jews fighting back. This paper will talk about how the Holocaust victims fought back against Hitler and his army. The Holocaust was a mass killing of Jews and non-Jews who were viewed as unneeded within the world by Adolf Hitler. Hitler became leader of Germany and tortured and killed many people. With Nazi Germany killing and torturing millions of Jews and non-Jews, victims decided to fight back with armed and spiritual resistance.
In the end, genocide is the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation. During the Indian Removal Act thousands of Native Americans were forced out of their home because they weren’t American and most died from diseases. Millions of people were killed during the Jewish Holocaust because they were Jews. Both of these events are alike and different in many ways. These incidents are considered genocide because people were killed because of their race or
As early as age thirteen, we start learning about the Holocaust in classrooms and in textbooks. We learn that in the 1940s, the German Nazi party (led by Adolph Hitler) intentionally performed a mass genocide in order to try to breed a perfect population of human beings. Jews were the first peoples to be put into ghettos and eventually sent by train to concentration camps like Auschwitz and Buchenwald. At these places, each person was separated from their families and given a number. In essence, these people were no longer people at all; they were machines. An estimation of six million deaths resulting from the Holocaust has been recorded and is mourned by descendants of these people every day. There are, however, some individuals who claim that this horrific event never took place.
What is genocide? “Genocide is a deliberate, systematic destruction of racial cultural or political groups.”(Feldman 29) What is the Holocaust? “Holocaust, the period between 1933-1945 when Nazi Germany systematically persecuted and murdered millions of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and many other people.”(Feldman 29) These two things tie into each other.The Holocaust was a genocide. Many innocent people were torn apart from their families, for many never to see them again. This murder of the “Jewish people of Europe began in spring 1941.”( Feldman 213) The Holocaust was one of the most harshest things done to mankind.
Irish Playwright, George Bernard Shaw, once said, “The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity.” Inhumanity is mankind’s worse attribute. Every so often, ordinary humans are driven to the point were they have no choice but to think of themselves. One of the most famous example used today is the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night demonstrates how fear is a debilitating force that causes people to lose sight of who they once were. After being forced into concentration camps, Elie was rudely awakened into reality. Traumatizing incidents such as Nazi persecution or even the mistreatment among fellow prisoners pushed Elie to realize the cruelty around him; Or even the wickedness Elie himself is capable of doing. This resulted in the loss of faith, innocence, and the close bonds with others.
flesh and blood were only a few examples of the numerous situations of this sort