Genocide

Genocide: the systematic and purposeful destruction of a racial, political, religious, or cultural group. There have been many acts of genocide throughout history

Armenians Date: 1915-1917 Location: Ottoman Empire Leader: Leaders of the Ottoman Empire Victims: Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks Type of Genocide: Ethnic Total Deaths: Between 1 and 1.5 million

Armenian Methods Mass burning Suffocation Use of poison Deportation

The Great Purge Date: 1936-1938 Location: the Soviet Union Leader: Joseph Stalin Victims: government officials, Communist party members, peasants Type of Genocide: Political/Cultural There is a person - there is a problem, there is no person - there is no problem.—Joseph Stalin

Holocaust Date: 1938-1945 Location: Europe Leader: Adolph Hitler Victims: primarily Jews but also gypsies, Poles, Soviets, and political opponents Type of Genocide: Ethnic Total Deaths: 6 million Jews, 10 million people total

What led to the Holocaust? Totalitarianism combined with nationalism History of anti-Semitism Defeat in World War I and economic depression blamed on German Jews Hitler’s belief in the master race http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/camp/view/

1942: the Wannsee Conference Reinhard Heydrich—given the task of creating the “Final Solution to the Jewish question” Idea for deportation of Jews to Eastern Europe for work on roads and other public projects “Under proper guidance, in the course of the final solution the Jews are to be allocated for appropriate labor in the East. Able-bodied Jews, separated according to sex, will be taken in large work columns to these areas for work on roads, in the course of which action doubtless a large portion will be eliminated by natural causes. The possible final remnant will, since it will undoubtedly consist of the most resistant portion, have to be treated accordingly, because it is the product of natural selection and would, if released, act as the seed of a new Jewish revival". Instead, were often sent to concentration camps

The Final Solution Hitler’s plan, decided during the Wannsee Conference, to systematically exterminate the Jewish race and other unmentionables in Germany

Step 1: Ghettos

Ghettos After Kristallnacht, many Jews emigrated Hitler knew he couldn’t get rid of all Jews through emigration Sent Jews to ghettos – segregated Jewish areas Sealed off with barbed wire and stone walls

Step 2: Trains

A Typical Boxcar 100 people would be loaded into one freight car Jews had to pay their own way

Step 3: Selections and Camp

Step 4: Camp Life and the Gas Chambers

Cambodia Date: 1975-1979 Location: Cambodia Leader: Pol Pot Victims: the educated, artists, government officials, monks, and minorities Type of Genocide: Cultural Total Deaths: 1.7 million people (~20% of the population)

Rwanda Date: 1994 Location: Rwanda Leader: the Hutu majority Victims: the Tutsi minority Type of Genocide: Ethnic Over the course of 100 days, over 800,000 people were killed