Genocide Propaganda

Consistent with Rossel, Germany has had a past of anti-Semitism, starting in 1542 when the great German Protestant leader Martin Luther wrote a booklet called Against the Jews and Their Lies. Even earlier the Catholic Churches had taught that the Jewish people killed Crist and should therefore be hated (10). Early teachings of anti-Semitism lead to a hating of the Jewish community, but with the German’s calling themselves the “Aryan Race” and the Jewish people calling themselves the “chosen one’s” there was bound to be competition on who was superior.

(26) Rather than comfort her, or investigate the danger she seemed to warn them of, the people with her in the car resorted to denying the issue and quieting her–turning to violence in the end. The people didn’t want to hear her, or the possibility that the danger she told of was real. That the fire was coming for them. This time, when the foreshadowing came true, the people were met with death or concentration camps. Their denial brought them nothing, even though they tried using it as a shield to deflect their

“How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don’t think” (Hitler, Mein Kampf). As time passed, there has been many times in history where a genocide has occurred. A genocide is a one-sided massacre from one party toward an ethnic or different group of people. As genocides occurred, questions such as “Why do people kill?” and “How can people allow these atrocities to occur?” are asked. There have been many theories made up as people researched the reason behind genocides. Throughout different centuries in history, genocides such as the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, and the Asian genocide, have occurred because of the negative psychological effects on the people caused by propaganda, corrupted leaders, and differences in ethnic groups.

At the end of WWI in 1918, Germany’s economy was in ruins. There were very few jobs, and bitterness began to take over the country. According to the text, “Hitler, a rising politician, offered Germany a scapegoat: Jewish people. Hitler said that Jewish people were to blame for Germany’s problems. He believed that Jews did not deserve to live.” (7) This was the birth of Antisemitism--prejudice against Jewish people. Europe’s Jewish people have always been persecuted due to their “different customs and beliefs that many viewed with suspicion.”(7) Hitler simply reignited the flames, and a violent hatred was born.

Germans in the beginning of the Nazi era were campaigning to eliminate any signs of Jewish intellectualism or anti-socialist ideas within the public. This is eminent when the author states in the article “Book Burning” that, “German govt was trying to create support for the Nazi cause, by driving in the nazi ideas in social and cultural groups”(Book Burning, Holocaust

German anti-Semitism played the main role in Holocaust and extermination of Jewish population in Europe during World War 2. There are different views on this subject among historians. Some support the fact that German society was anti-Semitic and ordinary

German Attitudes Toward the Jews and the Final Solution There are those that claim that Hitler’s conscious personal hatred of the Jews, his unique and central role in the rise of Nazi Germany were fundamental in the development of the anti-Jewish policies that emerged leading to the final solution. However, there is strong evidence to suggest that the anti- Jewish feeling in Germany reflected a much stronger, widespread support amongst its people and this essay will examine the role and attitudes of the German people towards the Final Solution. On the 1st of April, 1933, the boycott of Jewish businesses reflected evidence of widespread anti Jewish feelings amongst the lower bureaucracy of the

Propaganda during the Rwanda Genocide. The Rwanda Genocide was a long lasting Genocide. The people of Rwanda lost over 10 percent of their population due to the hate and the differences between the Tutsis people and the Hutus. There was lots of manipulation and fear during the 100+ days of this horrifying situation.

The crime of genocide is one of the most devastating human tragedies throughout the history. And the word genocide refers to an organised destruction to a specific group of people who belongs to the same culture, ethnic, racial, religious, or national group often in a war situation. Similar to mass killing, where anyone who is related to the particular group regardless their age, gender and ethnic background becomes the killing targets, genocide involves in more depth towards destroying people’s identity and it usually consists a fine thorough plan prearranged in order to demolish the unwanted group due to political reasons mostly. While the term genocide had only been created recently in 1943 by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish legal

To many Americans, the feeling of being a bystander as countries slaughter their own people has been in legal debate since 1933, it has gradually developed into a concept that can be applied in many situations, both historical and contemporary. The meaning of the phrase genocide is the cleansing of a race or ethnicity in a country. There has been evidence that this phrase can be used to describe past and present day massacres being committed around the world and how media has changed its perception on this issue overtime.

Representations of War and Genocide Edwidge Danticat’s Farming of the Bones portrays genocide and massacre in a number of ways. This essay concentrates on reasons why in history, the Parsley massacre is not known as genocide but rather a massacre. Massacre is defined as the act of mass murdering of people because of a variety of reasons; it is indiscriminately killing of a large number of people and especially the less powerful, less power and those that are not rebellious. Massacre can also be referred as an act of destruction where not only people are slaughtered by their properties are destroyed as well. Genocide is an act of killing people from a certain ethnic group or discriminatory killing of people.

There are so many reasons why one would deny a genocide, but that doesn’t mean it is right to not take responsibility for ones actions. An example of a genocide that has not been universally acknowledged is the Armenian genocide. One might ask why with witnesses and proof one would deny these events, there are so many reasons, but two are reparations and the public opinion. During the genocide many of the victims were taken away from their homes and stripped of their belonging which would mean that the perpetrators would have to make amends and they would do this in a form of compensation, and that would cost the government millions of dollars. Another reason why one would not admit to committing genocide is because of the public embarrassment

Being a bystander becomes part of the genocide’s motivation because the states or organization either aid the genocidal state or do nothing. Even if they don’t actively be part of the killing they still help without knowing like economic aid and trading.

Reification serves to reduce a person or other living creature to the status of merely an object or to ‘thingify’ them. According to Weisband, to ‘reify’ someone is “to attribute fixed, frozen, materiality or substantiality to those who character or status includes freedom, rationality, or features of spiritual status” (Weisband, “Cultural Constructions of Collective Identity in Multiple Perspectives”). When you reify someone, you reduce them from a dynamic character to a concrete symbol for a fixed idea. The atrocities of mass violence and genocide have their roots in the process of the reification of a minority group which stems from the self-reification of the majority group due to the psychological stream of the logic of illogic which perpetuates false ideas that justify violence and annihilation of the minority group. Collective identity plays a large role in reification that results in genocide due its ability to create a divide between two perceived distinct groups. Collective identities, which “are constructed through shared beliefs, values, habits, customs, norms, and traditions associated with common heritage, background, or lineage,” cause a group to unite and discriminate against those who seem to have an ‘otherness’ about them, making the ‘Other’ vulnerable to becoming a scapegoat for any problems that in-group has endured (Weisband and Thomas, 21). Hence, the effects of the logic of

Chapel, Joseph. "Denying Genocide: The Evolution of the Denial of the Holocaust and the Nanking Massacre." Joseph Chapel, "Denial of the Holocaust and the Rape of Nanking" (2004). N.p., May 2004. Web. 18 Apr.