What is Genocide?

Definition of Genocide: The International Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide wrote a complete definition of "genocide." "In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."

Definition of Genocide: Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Conditions in Warsaw Ghettos Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Sterilization Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." U.S. treatment of Native Americans

8 Stages of Genocide Stage 1: Classification Stage 2: Symbolization Stage 3: Dehumanization Stage 4: Organization Stage 5: Polarization Stage 6: Preparation Stage 7: Extermination Stage 8: Denial

Stage 1: Classification All cultures have categories to distinguish people into "us and them" by ethnicity, race, religion, or nationality. German and Jew, Hutu and Tutsi. Bipolar Societies that lack mixed Categories, such as Rwanda and Burundi, are the most likely to have Genocide.

Stage 2: Symbolization Names or other symbols are used to represent classifications.

Stage 3: Dehumanization One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with rodents, insects, or diseases.

Stage 4: Organization Genocide is always organized, usually by the state, often using militias to provide deniability of state responsibility. Can be informal (mobs) or decentralized (terrorists)

Stage 5: Polarization Extremists drive the groups apart. Hate groups broadcasting polarizing propaganda. Laws may forbid intermarriage or social interaction.

Stage 6: Preparation Victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or religious identity. Death lists are drawn up.

Stage 7: Extermination Killing begins and quickly becomes the mass killing legally called 'genocide'. Killers do not believe their victims to be fully human.

Stage 8: Denial The stage that always follows genocide. The perpetrators of genocide dig up the mass graves, burn the bodies, try to cover up the evidence and intimidate the witness. Perpetrators deny the committed a crime and even blame what happened on the victims.

Doc A: These were sewn onto the clothes of each concentration camp prisoner Jewish Star of David worn by all Jews…

Doc B: Hitler organized a special militia the “brown shirts” also known as the SA. They terrorized Jews and opponents of the Nazi party.

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Doc E-Hitler Quotes All the human culture, all the results of art, science, and technology . . . are almost exclusively the creative product of the Aryan. . . . He is the Prometheus of mankind from whose bright forehead the divine spark of genius has sprung at all times “...the personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew.”

Doc F-View of one of the warehouses in Auschwitz, overflowing with clothes confiscated from prisoners.

Doc G: German and Polish Jews forced to move to a walled in ghetto in Warsaw.

Doc H: Bodies burned in Auschwitz in the summer of 1944

Doc I-Nuremberg Laws SECTION 1 1. Marriages between Jews and nationals of German or kindred blood are forbidden. Marriages concluded in defiance of this law are void, even if, for the purpose of evading this law, they are concluded abroad. SECTION 2 Relation outside marriage between Jews and nationals for German or kindred blood are forbidden. SECTION 3 Jews will not be permitted to employ female nationals of German or kindred blood in their households. SECTION 4 1. Jews are forbidden to hoist the Reich and national flag and to present the colors of the Reich. 2. On the other hand they are permitted to present the Jewish colors. The exercise of this authority is protected by the State. SECTION 5 1. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of section 1 will be punished with hard labor. 2. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of section 2 will be punished with imprisonment or with hard labor. 3. A person who acts contrary to the provisions of section 3 or 4 will be punished with imprisonment up to a year and with a fine or with one of these penalties.

Doc J-Crematoria ground plan translated into English

We’ve just discussed the Stages of Genocide that occurred during the Holocaust. Although American treatment of Japanese Americans is NOT considered to have been genocide, it did involve serious civil rights abuses. Which stages of genocide did Japanese Americans suffer?

Doc K-This Anti-Japanese poster from WWII encourages Americans to conserve goods that could help the war effort.

Doc L-Anti-Japanese poster promoting conservation of war goods.