Similarities Between The Holocaust And Rwanda

Rwandans are represented as very poor and defenseless in the movie. The Tutsis are seen as defenseless and the Hutu extremists are seen as very violent towards them. The entire country is seen as very unclean and disorganized because of all the conflict. There is overcrowding in many places, especially hotels(Hôtel des Milles Collines) and places of residency. The Hutus show no mercy to the Tutsis and kill at will, no matter where they are. For example, Hutu soldiers personally went to Tutu homes and scavenged them for Tutu people to kill and take to concentration camps. Paul had to pay a great amount of money just to get 4 out of about 20 Tutsis free from Hutu militia. The Rwandan genocide and the Holocaust had differences and similarities. A major difference was the method of

killing. They were both organized, but the Nazis used sophisticated gas chambers to do a lot of the killing, while Rwandans used guns and machetes.

Also, the speed in which each genocide was completed differed. The Rwandanw genocide took place in about 100 days (about 800,000 killed), while the Holocaust took place over about 3 or 4 years (around 6 million died). There were different incentives in each genocide for targeting the victims . Obviously the identity of the victims was different, but in Rwanda, the Tutsi group were targeted because the RPF (Tutsi-led army) was attacking Rwanda, and many of the Hutu killers believed all Tutsi supported the RPF. This doesn't excuse the killing of innocent civilians, but say the Tutsi were a lot more threatening than the Jews, who were a harmless minority. The act of peacekeeping was apparent in Rwanda but not in Germany.. There were peacekeepers, such as the United Nations, in place trying to prevent conflict in Rwanda, while in Germany and Eastern Europe, there were no such peacekeepers since the war was going on. There were similarities to the two as well. In both genocides, propaganda played a large role in making the murders of neighbors seem

acceptable. During the Holocaust, print media, radio, film, and public rallies were common methods used to spread dehumanizing messages. In Rwanda, radio was used for encouraging community members to both hate and murder their neighbors. In both genocides, the international community (not peacekeeping, but world superpowers such as the US) did little to stop the murders of innocent people. There will outward signs that a genocide was coming in both cases, but other countries largely ignored these warnings, thereby permitting genocide to take place. In both genocides, the successful destruction of a group of people depended on the willingness of average citizens to both actively engage in the oppression of other citizens and stand by while others engaged in murder.