Rwanda Genocide Massacre, annihilation, extermination, these are just some synonyms for the word Genocide. Genocide-the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation. When one thinks of mass murder, they think of the Holocaust. A genocide that many people may not know of is the Rwandan genocide, also known as the Genocide against the Tutsi. It was a mass slaughter of Tutsi in Rwanda by members of the Hutu Majority government in East Central Africa. They murdered from 500,000 to 1,000,000 people. This genocide took place during the Rwandan Civil War. Hutu nationalists were the first to start this genocide. This genocide spread through the country like an epidemic; fast and deadly. …show more content…
The hatred is so strong that they feel that those certain people or groups shouldn't even exist. For Elie Wiesel it was the case for him and the rest of the Jewish people that suffered through The Holocaust. Elie is quoted saying “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.” He is talking about his first night in the camps. And just how this would eventually be his because of Hitler and the new power in Germany. The “new power” in Germany also known as The Nazis started as just a local Fascist political group. But then gained much power when Adolf hitler came into the leadership role. He believed in a more “pure” Germany. He believed that the Jews were inferior to the rest of the population. He wanted a full population of blonde hair and blue eyes. He then began a genocide that would eventually grow into one of the biggest and most famous genocide to date. People in the Rwandan Genocide experienced things like that, but not quite the exact same. The genocide was started when Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down going over a Kigali airport on 6 April 1994. In the coming hours …show more content…
For the Jewish it was a little more strange. When Elie and the rest of the people from Transylvania were just getting in contact with the Germans, they thought they were getting saved from the incoming war and army. On page 7, Elie runs into Moshe the Beadle he is then quoted saying, “They think i'm mad.” This is when Moshe escaped the camps and came back to warm all of his peers about what is happening, and that they need to get out while they can. The whole town was convinced he was a madman, and that he was crazy. They should have listened to him This was one small way that they may have able to avoid the Holocaust themselves. During the Rwandan Genocide the Tutsi knew right away. Within hours the Hutus were mass murdering their own people. The staff at History.com wrote “During this period, local officials and government-sponsored radio stations called on ordinary Rwandan civilians to murder their neighbors.” This is quite different than Elies experience during the Holocaust. The Jews were transferred from their homelands and brought to different concentration camps. When Elie first enters Auschwitz, he enters through a gate that has the writing, “Arbeit macht frei.” Which means work makes you free in english. The whole goal of the camps was to have the Jews work until they could not work anymore. Once you got to that point, you were deemed useless and
Lawyer: the word genocide, is the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular nation or ethnic group.
Elie is just a young boy whenever everything happens, and his faith in humanity is still quite strong. However, as time goes on, Elie is faced with an abundance of challenges and tasks that will test just how strong his faith is. Whenever Elie was young, he was curious about God and wanted to know more, causing him to soon meet Moshe the Beadle. Moshe was a strongly religious person and taught Elie almost everything he knew. In a way Moshe was Elie’s best friend. He lived a joyous life and loved all of the people surrounding him, until he disappeared with the Germans. All of the Jews believed that they were going to a “resort”, however, they were horifically wrong. The treatment they received from the Lagerkapo, was indescribably awful. Whenever Moshe was the only one to return and he was changed tremendously and kept screaming about how they were going to die and the Germans were going to hurt them, no one believed him and called Moshe crazy and felt pity for him. This was the first time that Elie’s faith in humanity was slightly tested. The first sign of no humanity that Elie noticed, was the first camp he was deported to, Birkenau, and saw young babies burning in a fire. Throughout the Holocaust, Elie loses all his faith that humans have potential. He believes they care more about their own survival than trying to help others. At this point, Elie has no faith in man and that the
Genocide is the act of killing a lot of people, depending on their race, ethnicity, and religion. There are 8 stages of genocide, which include extermination and denial. The victims of the Bosnian genocide consists of elders, women, men, children, and even babies. The Bosnian genocide is a war between Bosnian Serbians and Bosnian Muslims to which the republic can control Bosnia. Many Serbains deny the fact that his genocide even happened, even though there is scientific proof that this genocide happened.
Some had no chance, like mothers and young children, they were killed immediately. Elie’s mother and sister were taken from him without him even knowing that would be the last time he’d ever see them. In a single moment they were gone. If the Germans had any mercy in them at all they would’ve at least let them say their last goodbyes. They were not looked at like human beings but rather objects that were a nuisance to the Germans. To the Nazis, the Jews had no souls, no worth, no emotions. They might have been as important as a piece of dirt to the Germans. Those who didn’t starve or die from illnesses were killed in gas chamber by the thousands. Families became strangers. Friends became enemies. These people undergoed such traumatic and unrelenting cruelty that they’ll never be who they were before. “One day when I was able to get up, I decided to look at myself in the mirror… From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me.” (115)
Genocide, the systematic and planned extermination of an entire national, racial, political, or ethnic group. From 1992-1995 that was happening in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, conflict between the three main ethnic groups, the Serbs, Croats, and Muslims, resulted in genocide committed by the Serbs against the Muslims in Bosnia.
The word genocide was derived from the Greek root genos (people) and the Latin root cide (killing), and did not exist in the English language until 1944, which was the end of World War II (Power). According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, genocide is “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.” Such violence occurred during the Holocaust and during the separation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The problems of ethnic cleansing and repression have become so prevalent in the last century that they have contributed to two world wars, over fourteen million deaths, and a new word. United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, said, “Far from being consigned to history, genocide and its ilk remain a serious threat. Not just vigilance but a willingness to act are as important today as ever.”
History contains horrific periods of time that which people suffer and are murdered. This period of time is known as genocide. The legal definition of genocide is “the international destruction of a group of people as such, a crime so severe that it demands immediate and total condemnation” (Rothenberg 395 ). The most well known genocide is the Holocaust, a genocide in which six million Jews were killed by Nazi Germany. After World War II and the Holocaust, the word genocide was originated by Raphael Lemkin. Lemkin coined the word “genocide” by combining Greek genos, meaning race or group, with Latin cidere, meaning to kill or murder.
Africa has been an interesting location of conflicts. From the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea to the revolutionary conflict in Libya and Egypt, one of the greatest conflicts is the Rwandan Genocide. The Rwandan Genocide included two tribes in Rwanda: Tutsis and Hutus. Upon revenge, the Hutus massacred many Tutsis and other Hutus that supported the Tutsis. This gruesome war lasted for a 100 days. Up to this date, there have been many devastating effects on Rwanda and the global community. In addition, many people have not had many acknowledgements for the genocide but from this genocide many lessons have been learned around the world.
People can be mean, rude, and even bullies. Genocide is a mix of all three of these things and not just one person is acting like that. A group of people can be picking on a specific race or community of people. The world today is like Genocide because we believe that one person must get rid of a weaker person to get to the top. In the Rwandan Genocide the Hutu Tribe wanted to eliminate the Tutsi Tribe because they thought that they were better and more powerful then the Tutsi tribe so they decided to have a mass murder of that tribe. In this specific genocide, the Hutu Tribe was much larger than the Tutsi tribe. According to (unitedhumanrights), “Hutu (approximately 85%), Tutsi (14%).” This shows me that the Hutu Tribe was more than 75% of the population. Some misconceptions in this genocide is the Hutu people think that they are better than the Tutsi people just because they have a bigger population then them. This is a misconception because it is almost impossible for one group of people to be discriminated against just because they have a small population.
Genocide is the “deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.” (Dictionary.com, 2010) In 1924, after World War I, Belgian colonists entered Rwanda and allowed the Tutsi dynasty to remain in power. However, after World War II concepts of right and wrong changed. Since the Belgians had been favouring the Tutsis, this change in ethics caused the Belgians to have compassion on the Hutus and promote the Hutu cause, creating tension. (Thompson, 2007) It was the Belgians who cre...
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. Throughout his recollections, it is clear that Elie has a constant struggle with his belief in God. Prior to Auschwitz, Elie was motivated, even eager, to learn about Jewish mysticism.
During the Eight Day Passover, the Jewish community celebrated. The Bible ordered them to, but everybody was wishing that they could stop pretending. The worst was yet to come, and Elie’s spiritual conflict was just beginning. Elie and his father went in and out of different camps, but eventually ended up in Auschwitz.
The analysis of this empowering term is fairly self-explanatory when the time is taken to break it down. Linda Jacobs Altman author of Genocide The Systematic Killing of a People claims that in 1944 the Greek word genos, meaning “race” or “tribe” and the Latin cide, which means “killing” were combined to result in the title of genocide. Altman states that today’s definition recognizes genocide as “Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such”. A similar description has genocide as “A form of one-sided mass killing in which a state or other authority intends to destroy a group, as that group and membership in it are defined by the perpetrator”(Altman). Due to genocide being a worldwide issue, definitions have been known to cause controversy. Countries that represent perpetrators of past genocides often argue, on ridiculous terms, that their actions did not constitute a formal genocide. The breakdown of the word is helpful in the decision making process when determining if acts truly are those of genocide.
Rwandan Genocide The history of Rwanda is very interesting. Rwanda is located in East Africa, in East Africa people are not treated as equal. Today, eastern Africa is way different from how it is now. Back in the 1996s the Africans faced many problems.
Destruction of people can be named murder, genocide, or if you are really screwed up, fun. Murder can be grouped into any killing or just killing people outside of war and battle. Some people think that killing people in war is not murder because the government does not persecute them for it but give them paychecks, promotions, and awards. Webster’s definition of genocide is: the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group. Adolf Hitler is p...