The Holocaust: The Kurdish Genocide

The holocaust was the reason for about 6 million people to have lost their lives but what if you found out the much more torture and terror was created than just in 1933-1945. Almost 2 million people perished in the 3 major genocides that occurred after the holocaust.The Kurdish Genocide took the lives of almost 200,000 people by Saddam Hussein. The East Timor Genocide, when Indonesia invaded which resulted in 400,000 deaths. The Rwandan Genocide although was very short it killed about 1 million people of the Tutsi tribe. were all very saddening and horrific much like the holocaust but do you ever think where the people who decided to wipe out 100,000’s of people got the idea? Hitler brainwashed many people in WW2 but he also made the

idea of genocide much more common and influenced the Kurdish, East Timor, and Rwandan Genocides.
The Kurdish Genocide may have seemed minor but Saddam Hussein used many of the same methods as Hitler to erase the Kurd population and make Iraq the more powerful country.

The Kurdish Genocide happened about 53 years after the holocaust and looking at the methods of murder that the two dictators used were very similar. Hitler took power by force and did whatever he needed to rule Germany and the nazi party, Saddam was the exact same way if you didn't agree with him you were dead. Saddam and Hitler both lead in a time of war and were willing to do anything like murder 1000’s of babies and children to show how powerful they were. To show how harsh Saddam was he killed at least 20,000 of his OWN people for not agreeing with him. The two dictators both made themselves seem like heroes to their people. They brainwashed everyone into thinking that they were needed to ensure their safety while really both monsters were killing people by the 100,000’s. Another way that the holocaust may have influenced the Kurdish genocide is the way in which people were murdered. Concentration camps were set up all over Europe and were used to exterminate the jews, the Anfal campaign was another term for the ground attacks, aerial bombing, destruction of villages, concentration camps, mass executions and chemical warfare targeting the Kurdish population. The Kurdish cities were either evacuated, completely blown up, or all of the people were put into concentration camps. Those all seem very

harsh, and very similar to the holocaust. In the Holocaust there was a certain group or religion targeted, it was the jews and other people who had disabilities or were not accepted by the nazis, but why were the Kurds targeted? The Kurdish people are a group of people who lived by the Sunni Muslim religion. like Hitler Saddam Hussein was fighting a war with all of the surrounding countries and Kurds just happen to be where Iraq wanted, just like how Hitler needed Poland for food resources. (though I don't think mass murder was really a way to resolve their food issue.) Mass deportations were first used to evacuate the Kurdish land but when that was not very effective they decided on taking the more harsh measures. Hitler and Saddam Hussein used similar tactics to take power, mass murder methods, and they both targeted a certain group of people.
Not only do we see that The holocaust may be the cause of the Kurdish genocide but also the East Timor genocide. East Timor genocide took place in 1975 and was by the Indonesian. In the east Timor genocide, an estimated 400,000 people died. Much like the Holocaust and the Kurdish genocides The people of east Timor were forced to do terrible things to lessen their population. In the holocaust everyone knows they did things to lessen and attempt to exterminate the Jewish population well the Indonesians also had that same idea, is it a coincidence, I believe no. The way that the Indonesian government restricted the east Timorese population was an aggressively forced birth control programme. Some gruesome ways they used to terminate pregnancies was forced abortions, forced sterilization of women, and the murder of newborns by injection. This terrible method was part of the extermination of one-third of the population. Another way the holocaust seemed to be similar to this genocide was how the Indonesian and nazis mass murdered a large percentage of their populations. In the Holocaust about 60% of the Jewish population was killed off. That is over half of the population and is a drastic number of people which is extremely sad. The East Timor genocide was close but only about 40% of their population was murdered which even though is less than the holocaust it was still a lot of people. Now a different type of similarity occurred in the holocaust and the East Timor genocide. It was how involved America got. The Time of the east Timor genocide was a very low point for the U.S because we were actually supporting the with military and weapons. The U.S didn't get very involved in WWI until the end as well. Now the link between the holocaust and later genocides are becoming clearer.
The Rwandan Genocide was, in fact, the shortest genocide but in the 100 days of murder almost 1,000,000 people were killed. The Rwandan genocide took place in a time of civil war for their country. What happened with the Holocaust that was very similar with the Rwandan Genocide was they both took place during a war. The holocaust which took place from 1942-1945 which was during WWII and was a large reason of the war. The Rwandan genocide was in 1990/94 when the Rwandan government attacked the Tutsi tribe. Another major similarity between the holocaust and the Rwandan genocide is the ratio of deaths per year. The holocaust lasted for about 3 years while in those short years 6 million people died. That amounts to 2 million people a year that died. In the Rwanda, the genocide only lasted 1 year but it still claimed the lives of 1 million people, Those two ratios are pretty close. "The most horrible and systematic human massacre we have had occasion to witness since the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis." said by British Philosopher Bertrand Russell. This quote is comparing how brutal the two historic genocides were. The Rwandan government would just burst into the homes of innocent families and charge them for unethical crimes and kill them. This, as we know, is much like how the nazis handled things. It is really a shame that so many other genocides that took place after the holocaust are just a brutal.
It is really sad knowing how many people the Nazis killed in 1942-1945 but it is even worse to think about how many people were later killed because the thought of a genocide was put in evil, war criminals heads by Hitler.

The holocaust is to blame for creating the ideas and methods of mass murder, and influencing the Kurdish, East Timor, and Rwandan Genocides. Not only I have compared but many other people around the world are realizing that the Holocaust could be a goal of some leaders of genocides and that maybe if the holocaust never existed many other genocides could have been prevented. All it took was 1 idea, 1 man, 1 act that is causing millions and millions to die further and further into the

present.