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Essay, 14 pages (3500 words)

What is the tradition of animosity between racial groups in europe during the twentieth century

Genocide has been a large problem throughout history, as it suppresses different groups of people and is the strongest form of racism, it is essentially murder and has occurred since records began with many different peoples suffering. It is arguable that this kind of action is part of human nature since it has occurred so much, but there are now very few people who believe that genocide is right, and it is now illegal to practice any form of genocide. The definition of genocide is as follows: “ Genocide – crime of destroying or conspiring to destroy a group of people because of their ethics, national, racial, or religious identity. The term was originally termed by a Polish legal scholar named Raphael Lemkin in order to describe Nazi Germany’s annihilation of groups of people either through indirect means or simple murder during World War Two.

The Nazi’s attempts to totally eradicate all Jews and Gypsies specifically is now known as the Holocaust. Genocide has been an crime under international law since 1951. Genocide has occurred since ancient times. Once a group or nation had conquered an area and there were survivors from the enemy, it was normal practice to murder all the men (soldiers and civilians alike) of the conquered group.

Famous examples of these happenings include widespread killings by the army of the 5th century Asian conqueror Atilla the Hun in Europe and huge massacres spread across the Middle East by Genghis Khan’s forces in the 13th century. Through the 18th and 19th centuries several nations came to an agreement that civilians should not be allowed to be killed or injured during war. Eventually international law came to include rules on warfare, but as there is no higher power than countries themselves these laws were not strictly enforceable. During the 20th century mass killings were part of an increasing number of nation’s policies to help them to achieve political goals. During World War One (1914 – 1918), the Turkish nationalist government organised and achieved the emigration and murder of an estimated 1. 5 million Armenians in the East side of Turkey.

Also the systematic genocide accomplished by Nazi Germany during World War Two finally ended with the deaths of approximately five to six million Jews, half a million Gypsies, along with millions of other people who were not wanted in German territory. Read alsoRoughly two thirds of all Jews in German – occupied and Allied Europe, nine out of every ten German Gypsies, half of all captured Soviet prisoners of War, and almost twenty percent of other peoples in Eastern Europe were killed. The government of Croatia in the former Yugoslavia was also responsible for genocide occurring during the Second World War, when they ended up killing an estimated 200, 000 to 340, 000 of its Serbian citizens. Social scientists estimate that since the Second World War ended at least sixteen nations have attempted or succesfully committed genocide.

Genocide has occurred in many countries in Africa, in both Americas, Asia, and also in Europe. From 1975 to 1979 in Cambodia, the Communist Khmer Rouge killed almost 1. 7 million Cambodians (source 30) . Also in 1975 Indonesia invaded East Timor, a former Portuguese colony located in the south – eastern portion of the Indonesian archipelago.

Indonesia’s attempts to incorporate the region led to the deaths of approximately two hundred thousand people, this more than one – third of the indigenous East Timorese population. From 1978 to 1983 in Guatemala, the national army systematically massacred roughly two hundred thousand people, most of which were Mayan Indians. In 1994 in Rwanda, (a country in east central Africa) an estimated 750, 000 people, mainly comprised of the Tutsi ethnic group (source 31), were slain after a coup by extremists of the Hutu ethnic group. Also, since 1991 thousands of people, largely Bosnian Muslims, have become victims of genocide in wars in the states of the former Yugoslavia.

The first large incident of genocide was before and during the First World War in the Ottoman Empire of the Turks. (source 19), It is agreed that the genocide was started on April 24th when the Turkish government disarmed the Armenian Army and murdered its soldiers shortly before arresting and killing their political and intellectual leaders. Anyone who survived was forced to walk to concentration camps on hot roads under the sweltering Turkish sun. Many people did not survive the weather harsh conditions, along with the brutal treatment by the guards and denial of basic survival requirements such as food and water.

The Turks committed awful monstrosities against the Armenians, with many awful sights to be seen (sources 14 + 15). What followed can only be described as a systematic policy of slaughter lasting three years during which 1. 5 million Armenians were killed. The New York Times wrote, ‘ At the beginning of this month all the inhabitants of Karahissar were pitilessly massacred, with the exception of a few children. (source 1)There is no doubt that the Turkish government deliberately conducted these killings, as of the systematic and organised nature despite their ongoing denials that the genocide ever happened -arguing to other countries that they were just ‘ casualties of war. ‘ Further evidence suggests that the Turkish government was responsible as any official who disagreed with this policy was immediately removed and that the atrocities were nowhere near any possible Russian invasion site, which was an explanation of what happened to the Armenian people.

One of the most horrific acts committed by the Turks was the formation of an organisation named ‘ Teskillati Mahsusa,’ which brought about the formation of butcher battalions made of violent criminals released from prisons released in order to round up and slaughter the Armenian people. The genocide didn’t go unnoticed. It was condemned by the major powers of the world at that time, many countries coming close to taking action but were stopped from doing so due to little evidence of what they suspected, along with being occupied with the developments of the Third Reich at the time. It must also be noted now that the Germans and the Austrians were allies with the Ottoman Empire at this time. The Americans were chief spokesmen on behalf of the Armenian people and they did their best to save the Armenian orphans, who, as a leading Internet site on the genocide put it, were ‘ the wretched remnants of the death marches.

‘ A US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire stated that, ‘ I am confident that the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this. The great massacres and persecutions seem almost insignificant when compared to the sufferings of the Armenian race in 1915. ‘ (source 2) The systematic killings of the Armenian people stands out as an enormous crime against an individual people. Many people argue that this only occurred as the Ottoman Empire had the ability to do what they wanted with little interference as most countries were occupied with the Second World War at the time and so were unable to interfere with the crimes committed unto the Armenians. The Armenians did however survive this episode and were not completely eradicated, and they have survived to this day, albeit after having to allow thousands of refugees (source 32) back into their country. This example of genocide is often looked due to the enormous publicity surrounding the Holocaust which occurred at a similar time to the genocide of the Armenians, and many people simply do not know that this ever occurred, such was the skill of the Ottoman empire to time their attacks well and to hide all examples of the genocide.

Even when people found out about this it was not spread widely and people quickly put it out of their heads. Adolf Hitler when questioned about whether he would be able to get away with his genocide of the Jews, replied with, “ Who ever remembers the Armenians? ” (source 3) The next major genocide of the twentieth century was the Nazi murder of the Jews and the Gypsy peoples. This happened due to the rise to power of Adolf Hitler (source 16) and the successful implementation of his ideals in Nazi Germany. He believed that the Germans were racially superior and also felt the Jews and the Gypsies were ‘ biologically handicapped’ and were a threat to the German (Aryan) race, also referred to by Hitler as the master race. Such that these impure people would “ dilute” and weaken the strength of the natural Germans.

The Gypsies were a group of people living in Europe since the fifteenth century, bound together by a common language and culture, and (until the twentieth century) by a nomadic way of life. The Gypsies, also called Rom, were among the groups singled out by the Nazi regime for persecution, eventually ending in massacres. While there are differences of opinion regarding their early history, it seems fairly clear that the Gypsies originated in India and were in Iran by the fourteenth century. The general consensus is that the gypsies spread East from India eventually spreading out and finishing their journey spread all over Europe, after picking up all aspects of different cultures and ways of life from their travels. By 1438, they had reached Hungary, and had entered Serbia and other Balkan countries. The Gypsies then spread into Poland and Russia, and by the sixteenth century had reached Sweden and England.

In Spain they settled in fairly large numbers at the same time. While some Gypsies became Muslims (in Bosnia, and elsewhere) or Orthodox (in Serbia) most European Gypsies became Roman Catholics, but kept many of their pre-Christian beliefs alongside their new religion, which caused many fractions of the church to react differently to the Gypsies as they produced difficulty, which partially ended up in animosity to the Gypsy people. Split into many dialects, their language is only now becoming a written language, as it has been passed down by mouth for hundreds of years, even though Romany publications appeared in the Soviet Union in the early years of the Communist regime. Prejudice and animosity toward Gypsies were then and still are widespread across where hte Gypsies are present and have settled.

The Gypsies were normally seen as old fashioned folk who could not keep up with the modern times with their traditional ways (sources 35 + 36). Their professions were usually chosen by their wandering way of life; as they were unable to hold down normal settled jobs, and they were usually not allowed to obtain land in their chosen countries. Generally, they bought and sold horses and other animals, engaged in petty trade, and practised arts such as silver work, gold work, and music in order to earn money. Fortune-telling, for which they gained a wide reputation and are often mistakenly known for, was usually only a sideline work. Gypsies were frequently accused of stealing and dishonesty, largely because of their living habits and language, and it was much easier to blame other people and strangers than your own people. Aggression was diverted towards them as they were simply not the natives in the areas in which they settled, this was similar to that which was applied to the Jews.

On occasion, this animosity revolved into murderous policies. Thus the Prussian king, Frederick William I, decreed in 1725 that all Gypsies over eighteen were subject to killing, as they were seen as a waste of human people, and were slated to be exterminated. At the same time however, their music and their poetry were the inspiration of famous artists, for example Franz Liszt, this rooted their culture into their surrounding area. Although this was for different historical reasons, in many ways they shared with the Jews the unfortunate honour of being the fundamental strangers in an overwhelmingly Christian Europe.

The Gypsies occupied a special place in Nazi racist theories, as they were so different to all over peoples which the Nazis had to deal with. According to a report submitted to Heinrich Himmler in 1941, there were some thirty nine thousand Gypsies in their empire, twenty eight thousand Gypsies in Germany, and an additional eleven thousand in Austria. Most of these belonged to the Sinti and Lalleri tribes, which were the most widely spread of the Gypsy tribes. The basic attitude of the Nazi regime was extremely hostile towards the Gypsies; old prejudices and animosities were added to an ideal of a “ pure” Nordic society that emphasised peasant life and sedentary habits, when life was a lot simpler. This stood in clear contradiction to the Gypsy’s way of life, as they comprised of many different roots and hermitages and were not ready to completely settle down. In the eyes of the regime, the Gypsies were “ asocials” who did not fit into the new society that was to be built, so as a result were a bad influence on the regime.

. While you could not doubt the Aryan parentage of the Gypsy families, they were also clearly seen to be “ people of different blood” (Andersblutige). According to Dr. Ritter and his co-workers, an examination of some twenty thousand Rom showed that over 90 percent were to be considered not of mixed blood (Mischilinge).

This solved the problem of having to deal with an Aryan minority; the Nazis simply denied that the Gypsies were Aryans, and they were not argued against. Ritter’s proposals to keep the Gypsy people suppressed were to prevent Gypsies from mixing with people of “ German blood”, and to perform sterilisation on them, whilst keeping them in forced-labour camps. Both “ pure” and Mischilinge Gypsies were considered asocial, and were treated the same way. Eventually however the Gypsies ended up in the concentration and extermination camps of the Second World War (sources 33 + 34), during the holocaust. According to Himmler’s decree of December 14, 1937, “ preventive” arrests could be made of persons who, while not guilty of any criminal act, “ endangered the communality by their asocial behaviour.

“, this free phasing of regulations gave the Nazis room to maneuvre and enabled them to get away with many different crimes against the Gypsies. Regulations implementing this decree, which were issued on April 4, 1938, specified that it was directed against “ beggars, vagabonds (Gypsies) and prostitutes without a permanent residence. As the Nazi’s racial policies became more radical, the murder of Gypsies increased dramatically. While a few pure and mischilinge gypsies were reintroduced into Gypsy society, many ended up in concentration camps. While most of the gypsies were gassed to death, a few had atrocious medical experiments performed on them, there were no limitations to the humiliations which the Gypsies suffered from the Nazis. Eventually, approximately 200, 000 gypsies were killed during the holocaust.

But once again this atrocious example of genocide has been overshadowed by the killing of the Jews in the Holocaust, even though the crimes were committed by the same people. This example of genocide stands to show that the Nazis were attempting to refine their people through the removal of unfit cultures from the gene pool, and were not just out to eradicate the Jewish people. The main target of Nazi hatred was the Jews, and this is the most famous example of genocide during the twentieth century, if not ever, as it received such enormous amounts of documentation on it and from this the Holocaust is now incredibly well known. The Jews were originally treated as a scapegoat for Germany’s loss in World War 1 and for the economic depression set in 1923, the Jewish people were given the blame by the Nazi regime for the countries main problem, and as they were the minority, the Jews were unable to stand up for themselves. ‘ The idea of the racial enemy is as essential to National Socialism as the class enemy is to communism’ T.

Heuss -1932 (source 4) Hitler (source 16) himself made his feelings towards the Jews clear when he gave speeches and talked about Nazi ideals. Below are examples of what Hitler said on the subject of the Jewish problem, Once I really am in power, my first and foremost task will be the annihilation of the Jews. ‘ (source 5) ‘ Now for the first time they will not bleed other people to death, but for the first time the old Jewish law of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, will be applied. ‘ (source 6)’In the event of war, the result will not be the bolshevism of the earth, and thus victory for Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.

‘ (source 7) ‘… and we say that the war will not end as the Jews imagine it, namely with the uprooting of the Aryans, but the result of this war will be the complete annihilation of the Jews.

(source 8) As soon as Hitler came to power he started making laws to hinder the Jew’s social status with the aim to eventually suppress the Jewish people heavily enough to enforce genocide, in 1933 laws were passed that forced Jews to give up their civil service jobs, university and law courts. In the same year a boycott of Jewish businesses was established. This was the beginning of the bad treatment of the Jews, and once this step had been taken, each following step of unfair action towards the Jews became easier and easier to make, as the Jews were given more and more bad positions in society (source 17). Then in 1935, the Nuremburg laws were passed. These laws brought about the loss of citizenship for all Jews in Germany, which essentially made German Jews outsiders in their own country.

The Jews were no longer defined as a race themselves but by the blood of their grandparents. From 1937 to 1939 more laws were passed that meant that Jewish children could not go to public schools, Jews could not go to theatres, cinemas, or vacation resorts. Even where a Jew wanted to live was restricted and they were not permitted to walk in certain areas of cities. Jews were forced out of economic life in this time as well, as all Jewish businesses had severe sanctions put on them, eventually, the Nazis seized businesses and properties or forced them to sell their business at a very low price. There was also the mass anti-Jew Propaganda in which posters and cartoons were used in order to make the German people support the Nazi’s actions which were taken against the Jews and to slowly make the people less and less bothered about the unfair treatment of the Jews, as they blamed the Jews for their problems and supported the ideas of the Nazis.

By 1938 this abuse of the Jew’s rights developed into physical abuse, the first example being ‘ the night of the broken glass. ‘ On that night, which has become infamously known as Kristallnacht, more than 30, 000 Jews were sent to concentration camps, and many murdered. 191 synagogues throughout Germany were set on fire, and 76 were completely destroyed; 815 Jewish-owned shops were demolished, 29 warehouses and 171 homes were set on fire or likewise destroyed. The Jews were being physically attacked with war efforts in their own country, only because of their grandparents blood.

This was a huge step made by the Nazis as it was the first time in which the Jews were not sanctioned, but actually attacked. Kristallnacht was a general riot planned and executed by the Nazi government and was an attack on Jews and Jewish businesses wherever they were found. The program to eventually exterminate the Jews became far more serious during the Second World War, as the Nazis were able to get away with more atrocities as surrounding countries were much else able to intervene with what they were doing. Conquered cities like Warsaw and Lodz were converted into Jewish ghettos, many Jews died there due to the awful conditions in which the Jews had to live in, whilst this occurred concentration camps (source 18) were being set up in Poland and conquered regions of the Soviet Union. Jews were killed in all of this places in varying ways, including gassing, and mass shootings (source 11). Jewish leaders and other opposition figureheads were rounded up and executed systematically to further suppress the people.

Many concentration camps were set up in Poland. Notorious examples were Auschwitz-Birkenau (sources 12 + 13) and Chelmno (this was the first camp where mass executions were carried out. ) Prisoners at camps such as these were executed in mobile gas vans into which gas was pumped. The most infamous camp was Auschwitz-Birkenau. Here, roughly 1, 250, 000 people were killed.

About 9 out of 10 of these people were Jews. The Jews will always be remembered due to the awful atrocities which they had to suffer due to the Nazi regime. As they were the most widespread foreign people in Germany they were attacked perhaps the most heavily by the regime being the most obvious target, and it shows that they were the largest example of genocide in the twentieth century. The tradition of animosity in Europe in the Twentieth Century between different racial groups has evolved across the century, largely due to the actual examples of genocide which occurred in the Twentieth Century in Europe. At the start of the century many people where intolerant of others and it was difficult for countries to intervene in other countries business in order to uphold the international law.

Genocide was only possible as it was introduced in such gradual steps that people were unable to draw the line as to what should not happen, and that it was difficult for people to object against small actions. The Turks enforced their regime so heavily that their people were unable to fight against what was happening to the Armenians, and other countries were unable due to the distractions of war, this allowed the Turks to commit these grievous crimes and the tradition of unfair acts was able to escalate to the levels of genocide, with the attitude between different races remaining the same at the time to all previous times. The events in Nazi Germany occurred through one man’s vision and his ability to sell his ideas to large amounts of people, his ideals were imposed on and accepted by his people and once he had support he was able to convince people that what he believed was right and that all people should support him and his actions, this was also because the Nazi regime suppressed all other viewpoints. The Holocaust was largely kept secret at the time and this allowed Hitler to get away with his actions, along with partially persuading the people that other blood was wrong and they must purify the Aryan race. The Second World War’s attempts at bringing down the Nazi regime were partially fuelled by the crimes which the Nazis committed against the Jews and Gypsies, but as their enemies were trying to stop him Hitler was still able to attempt to exterminate these races.

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