In the book Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in
Twentieth-Century Europe by Norman M. Naimark, Naimark distinguishes the
difference between the terms genocide and ethnic cleansing by discussing prior
tragic events in history to highlight the distinctiveness of the two
aforementioned terms. According to Naimark genocide can be defined as “the
intentional killing off of part or all of an ethnic, religious, or national
group; the murder of a people or peoples is the objective,” whereas the goal of
ethnic cleansing is “to get rid of the “alien” nationality, ethnic, or
religious group and to seize control of the territory they had formerly
inhabited” (3). Although these words slightly resemble each other they are not used
interchangeably. Genocide and ethnic cleansing have both been demonstrated by separate
horrific instances in history.
In
chapter 2 Naimark discusses the tragedy that was the Holocaust, the mass murder
performed by the Nazis of millions of innocent Jews as well as others who did
not fit into the stereotypical “pure” Aryan race. Hitler’s initial plan was to
ethnic cleanse German society of the Jewish race because he believed them to be
infected, disease-like creatures that if not removed would ruin the pure German
race. In order to properly begin the process of eliminating the Jews Hitler
used propaganda to expose the Jews and make it so that they were hated by all
societies. In order to effectively enforce an ethnic cleansing or genocide upon
a group of people the use of modern media, a bureaucratized state and
nationalism is essential as well as a flashpoint that triggers the downward
spiral of events to come. When the removal of the Jews from Germany was not
taking place as quickly and efficiently as Hitler had planned, forcibly
displacing the Jews was no longer an option and soon ethnic cleansing turned
into genocide. Hitler used dehumanizing violence to kill his innocent victims
by means of starvation and brutal torture in labor camps, tricking them into
gas chambers and flat out shooting them without warning.
During
the time of the Holocaust the discovery of eugenics-“the attempt to identify
and, through selective breeding, to improve the racial characteristics of
humans,” when in the hands of Hitler was a deadly weapon used to stop the
reproduction of Jews and people with physical and mental disabilities (Naimark,
60). The use of eugenics still continues today but in a much different form
than the forced sterilization that was required of those who would not benefit
the increase of the Aryan race. Today people have the ability to choose to have
tests done to find out if their baby is free from disability and disease and if
not the parents can choose to abort the child if they wish to do so. Although
eugenics has made some great strides in science when compared to its degrading
past; however, there is still much debate whether it is immoral for parents to be
able to genetically select how they would like their child to be born. Typically
Hitler targeted innocent women and children to be killed almost immediately because
they were of no use to him, whereas boys and men could be put to work in labor
camps. He planned to kill them all anyways but he was able to force the men to
do work and suffer before they eventually died. Still today in Syria there have
been reports of attacks on cities and the murders of hundreds of innocent
civilians and the attackers have been known to do atrocious things to the
bodies of the victims. Although the Holocaust took place many years ago there
are still similar instances occurring throughout the world today.
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