Guatemala And Holocaust Similarities

During the genocide of Guatemala , the government said one of the biggest lies to their people. They had said 40,000 people had “disappeared” from unknown causes. They didn’t disappeared , they were killed, annihilated from the face of the earth, all because they were different. Very similar to the Holocaust that occurred in Europe.

The genocide of Guatemala and Europe were both devastating. They are both similar and different on different levels. First, the perpetrators , they were both the government. Next, other country's involvement in the genocides, why were they involved and what they did. Lastly, the impacts that these genocides had left behind.

Both of the genocides similarities include similar perpetrators, which is the government.

The reason why the perpetrators did this was different. In the Holocaust , the Nazi and Germany’s leader, Adolf Hitler was the government. They did as he told, he was in full control, the Nazi army shared the same beliefs as he did. They decided to annihilate a group individuals because they felt as if those people were inferior. The Nazi party seeked world domination and thought this was a step towards their goal.”Beginning in the fall of 1939, Nazi officials selected around 70,000 Germans institutionalized for mental illness or disabilities to be gassed to death in the so-called Euthanasia Program. After prominent German religious leaders protested, Hitler put an end to the program in August 1941, though killings of the disabled continued in secrecy, and by 1945 some 275,000 people deemed handicapped from all over Europe had been killed”. The government of Guatemala, they were ruthless. They thought the same as the German government. They acted as if a certain group of people were nothing, as if beings that were not needed. So they decided to kill them, as many as they could. They just wanted to stop a rebellion and took it to an extreme.”The Guatemalan government, using the Guatemalan Army and its counter-insurgency force (whose members defined themselves as 'killing machines'), began a systematic campaign of repressions and suppression against the Mayan Indians, whom they claimed were working towards a communist coup.” Inconclusive, both of these genocides had the same kind of perpetrator, the government.
Both of these genocides had countries getting involved in the genocides, but in different ways.In both genocides the countries were involved in some sort of way. In the Holocaust genocide, the United states were there to help stop what the Nazis were doing and to get revenge for their fallen comrades at Pearl Harbor.” A swarm of 360 Japanese warplanes followed, descending on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in a ferocious assault.” In doing so, they were able to do just that and free Jewish prisoners from camps. The other countries that were involved were either there to support the Nazis or to discontinue them.In the Guatemala genocide, there were different reasons for their involvement. The united states were supplying weapons to the immoral government, doing so caused more of the guatemalans’ lives to be lost. The reason behind this was to stop the rebellion.” Code-named Operation PBSUCCESS, it installed the military dictatorship of Carlos Castillo Armas, the first in a series of U.S.-backed dictators who ruled Guatemala.”Therefore,the twain genocides have both foreign country involvement. In the Guatemala genocide, there were different reasons for their involvement.
The impacts of both of these dreadful genocides are similar, but differ.In both, they left a mark in history of the terrible things that could happen when bad people have power.

In Germany during the holocaust, the evil man was named Adolf Hitler. He forced his opinions on people, and made the opinions become “facts” to those who listened to him. He did this and then caused a massed genocide. In the genocide of Guatemala , the leader of the country wanted to stop a small rebellion, but he ended up doing more than that. He decided to take it to the extreme and kill 166,000 people, people who may have not been involved at all. The difference in their impact was,what happened afterward the genocides. In the holocaust, the society was broken and destroyed. The Jewish survivors were traumatized and looked upon on differently than what they were before. "A hellhole. People were lying all over the place".Eugene remained at Auschwitz Birkenau for around ten days before being selected for slave labour. He was sent by train to the Little Camp at Buchenwald and then on to Dora Mittelbau.” In the other genocide, there was a peace treaty created. The soldiers involved in the genocide that were sent to massacre the mayans were sentenced to 6,060 years in prison, so sentenced for life. Homes and communities were destroyed.”In June 2011, General Héctor Mario López Fuentes was caught and charged with genocide and crimes against humanity. In August 2011, four soldiers were sentenced to 30

years for each murder plus 30 years for crimes against humanity, totaling 6,060 years each for the massacre in a village of Dos Erres in Guatemala's northern Petén region.”The overall impact of both genocides were devastating, and lasted for a long time.
The perpetrators of both genocides were similar, they were both caused by the government.

Although the differ in reasons , the Nazi party wanted domination and the Guatemalan government wanted to stop a rebellion. Next, both genocides had countries getting involved. In the holocaust different countries had gotten involved, either to support the Nazis or to go against them. In the Guatemalan genocide, the united states had gotten involved by supplying weapons to the guatemalan government to stop the rebellion. Lastly, the impacts that the genocides had. The holocaust had traumatized the survivors and broke the society. The Guatemalan genocide had many soldiers in prison for

life.
These genocides relate to my life showing what terrible things that can happen when power is entrusted in the hands of wrong people and how devastating events like these affect people.