Raphael Lemkin: The Origins Of Genocide

The Holocaust is essentially one of the most horrific and remembered acts of genocide within history, it’s estimated that “between 1941 and 1945, five to six million Jews were systematically murdered by the Nazi regime, its allies, and its surrogates in the Nazi-occupied territories ” (Jones 2010, p. 233). A majority of these killings were implemented by the German Army, but the German Army was not solely responsible for these horrendous crimes. As there was a majority of seemingly normal citizens ordering and engaging in atrocious crimes. These citizens were recognised as policemen, camp guards, office workers, doctors and nurses, their crimes were horrific and were performed in seemingly normal environments or situations. A majority of these people had

Eleven million individuals were victimized by the Holocaust. Six million of those victims were Jewish, while the other five million were groups targeted by the Nazi’s because they didn’t fit their discriminative criteria. Inhumane practices were used in attempts to purify and unify the German state (Novick, 225). When the Holocaust is discussed, the Jewish victims are usually the main focal point of the massive “genocide.”

Before genocide had a name, Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish jurist was trying to get protection for oppressed minorities. When the Nazis invaded Poland,

The Rape of Nanking was one of several atrocities committed by Japanese troops in the Second Sino-Japanese War. Throughout the eight years of war, Japanese troops utilized a number of war tactics, of which one was humiliating and dehumanizing residents of Nanking or Nanjing. Japanese troops headed toward Nanking on November 11, 1937, after they gained control over Shanghai, China. They wanted Chinese troops to surrender, instead of attacking them. Once they arrived to Nanking, Japanese troops gave them a chance to surrender, however Chinese troops did not. Consequently, Japanese troops started attacking the city; they burned down homes, raped, and looted residents of Nanking. They raped between 20,000 and 80,000 women and killed them afterwards. Some Japanese troops kept women alive so they could abuse them repeatedly. When troops went out and raped women, they spread terror and revealed what they were capable of doing. Women of all ages were abused and killed brutally. Some Japanese troops forced fathers to rape their own daughters, so they could display the civilians inferiority. As Japanese troops were raping innocent females of Nanking, they were gaining power over China.

The Imperial Japanese Army was ruthless in both war and treatment to civilians. This started as early as December 1937. The Japanese had conquered parts of China, and had just taken control of the Republic of China’s capital, Nanking. In those six weeks, the Japanese soldiers massacred half of the city’s 600,000 population in what would be known as “Hell on Earth” (The Rape of Nanking). On December 13, it all began with orders to kill all captives.

The Holocaust was a dark time in humanity’s history; a time that should be looked back on in shame. People lost their compassion and empathy towards one another. These emotions are essential in keeping peace and harmony throughout the world, and give mankind a natural kindheartedness towards one another. Having the innate sense to feel for one another and understand the trials and tribulations others go through is what truly makes us human. This is what was lost during the Holocaust. The inherent good that humans are born with, was taken away by Adolf Hitler and his Third Reich. It led to the deaths of entire cultures and millions of innocent peoples’ lives were changed for the worse. However, the Nazis did not carry out the mass killings of

For most of history, the Japanese army was not known for brutality in times of war. But the Rape of Nanking was very different than anything then the world had seen before (BBC News). To start off, there are many origins of genocide and ways to describe it, as well as different stages that compose genocide itself. In this genocide, China was invaded and the people residing there were discriminated and harmed by the Japanese army. However, genocide isn’t just one process. There are eight complex stages to every genocide that takes place on Earth, including the Rape of Nanking. Finally, the Chinese were devastated by the end of this genocide, which shows just the horror that they were put through by the Japanese. The Rape of Nanking, which

In the span of six weeks 300,000 to 600,000 civilians of Nanjing, China were murdered and/or raped(“The rape of Nanking 1937-1938”1). The Holocaust had 9 million victims. There are many similarities and differences between the Holocaust and Rape and Nanjing. Both the Holocaust and Rape and Nanking are genocides. A genocide is the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.

Since the end of World War II and the emergence of knowledge about the Holocaust, there have been questions regarding how the genocide of Jews could have occurred, what could have stopped it and what could be done in today’s world to stop current genocides in other nations. Scholars have researched these questions for years, but the debate is one that is never ending. Bureaucratic tendencies are what created the conditions necessary for the Holocaust. Many scholars, such as Zygmunt Bauman, believe that bureaucratic tendencies such as following procedure, impersonal nature and having a distinct hierarchy are what made the Holocaust possible.

The Holocaust is one of the horrible things that can, and did, happen during war, when hate and prejudice was at its highest. It forced many people to hide away in small cramped areas with little to no privacy and food. The Holocaust began in 1933 when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. It ended in 1945 when Allied powers defeated the Nazis. 1.1 million children were killed or died during this horrendous time in history. Not just Jews were murdered, many people were homsexual, hiding a Jew, or did not agree with Hitler and the Nazis. These people were escaping a horrible injustice based in stereotype, discrimination, and

The Holocaust was a very tragic event in all of history. Some Germans tried to put the chaos to a halt. Most Germans didn’t care at all; they thought Hitler knew what he was doing and that he was a good leader. Most Germans were clueless of what was happening in the concentration camps; they didn't know the pain and suffering Jews went through. They chose to not care. They could’ve saved lives’ but they chose to believe that Jews are bad. But some Germans chose to fight for what is right and tried to help Jews survive the Holocaust.Some of these people saved thousands’ of lives.

The Holocaust affect the Jews, Mentally/Physically Handicapped, and Dissenters. The Rape of Nanjing affected everyone in the city of Nanjing Visitors ,Chinese people ,kid ,parents ,and Grandparents (Walter2). The Perpetrators of the Holocaust were Hitler, SS/Gestapo, and Nazis. This SS and Gestapo were two elite groups of Nazi soldiers. The Gestapo was more of a spy. Their job was to find out where the Jews and find out who was keeping them and where they were hiding them and find out who was against the Jew party. The SS were every Jew's worst nightmare they were the brutal they didn't care. If they were supposed to kill you then you were dead and part of that was if they showed their brutality they got promotions. They gave their soldiers a drug called Methamphetamine. This drug made them where they got agitated easy and didn't require much food or sleep. The perpetrators of The Rape of Nanjing were the Japanese soldiers. At first the Chinese people were happy to see them because they didn't think the Japanese would go so low where they would rape the people and ruin their

Most people didn't know what was going on, and people didn't really know where Jews and gypsies etc. were going, all they knew was that they were being removed. When word and photographs got out into the public view about what happened in these camps, everyone is shocked to see so many dead bodies. With the role of media, the international response to the war crimes in the Holocaust was to establish an international tribunal and it was agreed to punish those responsible of crimes.

The Holocaust period had murdered a total of 6 million Jews (The). This number could have easily been prevented had various countries, specifically the United States, had come to the aid of the thousands of Jews that had tried to gain safety by coming to the US, but wasn’t allowed access. At this time, the US was facing many political, economic, and social factors that seemed to have justified their reasons for not sending aid. The United States obviously didn’t do everything in our power to help the European Jews during the Holocaust, that led to the death of many innocent people.

Rape of Nanjing also known as The Forgotten Holocaust of World War 2. In 1937, after the victory in Shanghai, the Japanese then marched to Nanjing with full intentions of killing all the captives. “Some were mowed down by machine gun fire while others were tied up soaked with the gasoline and burned alive”. Over 50,000 women and children were sexually assaulted. “Females were ... raped and gang banged by Japanese soldiers, pregnant women were raped then had their bellies split open and the fetuses torn out.” Japanese military forced father 's to rape their daughters, sons to rape their mothers and brothers to rape their sisters. They killed indiscriminately even forcing people to dig their own grave 's and bury one another. The country China was left in absolute devastation over one of Japan 's atrocities.