The Genocides of the 20th Century

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Recommended: Use of propaganda in genocides

The genocides of the 20th century which occurred in Rwanda and Germany had striking similarities, something that should have alerted the world to stop them. At the core of these two massacres, patterns existed that outlined how similar thinking and reasoning could lead to something as horrible as these two events. One can see how both groups used their command of knowledge as a way to control the people, how the rest of the world refused to step up to stop the killings, and how the people were thought of as less than humans to provide a just cause for such terrible acts.
In both cases of genocide, the killings were done as a way to ‘cleanse’ the population; they both resulted from a political power rising up and wishing to kill off any impurities or competition. In Rwanda, the Hutus wished to eradicate the rival tribe, the Tutsis, and take back their home. Political tension had existed between the Tutsis and Hutus for years, as the more powerful Tutsis had taken the Hutus’ land militarily before the Belgian colonization. Even during the Belgian colonization, the Tutsis remained prominent and favored for their system of government. These conflicts had already led Hutus and Tutsis to have enmity between each other before the genocide started. This contrasts the Holocaust, as in Germany there was no political tension between the Jews and Germans to spark conflict. German propaganda had to play a larger role in order to convince common people that the Jews, homosexuals, Slavs, and others were all impure people. “In 1929, Hitler chose Josef Goebbels as his Minister of Propaganda. Goebbels developed extremely successful campaigns using simple slogans and images repeated over and again in order to win public support for the pa...

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... the killings. Many others received prison sentences for their roles in the genocide.
The genocides in Rwanda and Nazi Germany are just two examples of how the world sat back and watched as masses of innocent people were killed. Both were a result of political powers wishing to solidify control and create a better society, through the mass killings of those who were taught to be enemies of the state and sub-humans. Both relied on the use of propaganda to control knowledge common people had access to, thus controlling them. The differing methods of mass killing was a result of the varying reasons for killing, resources available, and power of the party in charge. The rest of the world can and should learn through these acts of hate that any unjust killing must be stopped, as country’s internal affairs can not be allowed to include massacres of innocent people.

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