QUESTION

ANSWER

Introduction

Humanity is god’s own way of notifying the people about his presence and when his own people start trashing the same humanity with their wrong doings, even god finds it tough to cooperate. Holocaust and the several colonial genocides before the holocaust were that kind of human atrocities that have significantly changed the face of humanity.

Comparing the two phenomenon i.e. holocaust and colonial genocides will give a better understanding of what implied these kind of human violence that have killed millions of people worldwide and have shocked the whole human race that have ever existed on this planet. There were several colonial genocides and human violence prior to the holocaust that have questioned the existence of humanity on this planet and have raised several questions about the human race itself. Be it the Armenian genocide or the Ottoman Empire genocide, every time these atrocities have happened they have taken a chunk out of humanity with themselves with the human lives as well. The Nazi holocaust was the final nail on the coffins of humanity and that phenomenon was the cause that have given the birth to the term ‘genocide’ (Hayes,2015).

In this article we will see how the past genocides and holocaust can be seen in a new light where we can compare them and find out if there is some set patterns before the atrocities or they were planned to gain something out of it. We will also highlight if it is at all useful to compare the holocaust with that of past colonial genocides. There are several studies that are done on the topic of holocaust and colonial genocides over the years and each have their own views on the matter but one question remains the same over the years and i.e. what does humans and the humanity gained out of these human violence?

The Nazi Holocaust

The holocaust was the systematic, state sponsored and bureaucratic murder and persecution of over six million Jews by the German Nazi’s and their collaborators. The term ‘Holocaust’ is a word from Greek origin that means ‘sacrifice by fire’. The Nazi regime in Germany begun in 1933 with Adolf Hitler at the helm of the affairs. The Nazis have always thought of themselves as racially superior than that of the Jews and considered Jews as a threat to the German racial community. The Jewish population in 1933 was around 9 million in all of Europe and by the end of the world war second the Nazis have killed almost two third of the entire Jewish population of the Europe. The whole agenda behind killing of Jews was to keep the Germany clean from other racial intervention and the killing was called as ‘the final solution’ (Brosnan, 2018).

The Nazis have considered the Jews as the main threat to Germany and its culture and for that matter they have made some serious code of conducts for the people that can reside in Germany. Along with the Jews they also have killed Roma also referred as Gypsies and people with disabilities and biological deformities within their own population. The Nazis also have persecuted and murdered two to three million war prisoners from Soviet Union. They used the concentration camps as their aide for killing people and also have perpetrated mass killings through incarceration (Snyder, 2010).

The systematic and deliberate killing of one specific ethnic group has been referred to as the crime of all crimes. And the Nazi holocaust was just one of those crimes where innocent Jewish population was exterminated from the world population for some stupid belief of race and superiority. Mass violence has always been a focal point of the history of mankind and colonialism. The 20^th century have seen the worst of mass violence and killings despite all the pretensions of civilization (Stone, 2010).

Colonial genocides

Mass violence has always been a part of the political upheavals in the world and for that matter rulers of the past that have made colonies by invading different parts of the world has used this tactic to make their group more prolific. The genocides, as it was termed later was the ugliest aspect of colonialism in the 18^th and 19^th century and most of the invaders used it for fulfilling their agendas. In this section we will look at one of mass violence or genocide that was the highlight of the above mentioned past centuries.

The Armenian Genocide, 1915

In the early parts of the 20^th century, the Ottoman Empire was stretched across three continents. It was more of an agricultural society that has a Sultan at its helm of affairs. However, the Sultan did not have absolute power over the entire region as there were some remote local areas where the local rulers have enjoyed a comparatively larger degree of autonomy. The ottoman society has a mixed ethnicity from diverse cultures with peoples from Kurds, Arabs, Turks and many other cultures. There were around 2 million Christian Armenian living in the Ottoman Empire just before the 1^st world war. It was during this period that the Ottoman government started a systematic persecution of the Armenians and by the end of the war only a fraction of the total Armenians were left in the empire. It was a huge mass violence that almost had wiped an entire ethnic group from the system (Marrus, 2015).

The ideology behind the Armenian genocide was to gain supremacy over the Armenians by the Ottomans as the powers of ottomans was in decline and Armenians were rising rapidly both financially and intellectually. This decline of Ottoman Empire and the rise of Armenians led to political strife and that supposedly was the main idea behind the mass killings of the Armenians (Fischel,1998).

The Ottoman leaders took the matters in hand and the three important factors that have triggered the Armenian genocide were:

1. The loss of the Balkan war and important Ottoman territory in 1912-1913

2. The military coup by the young Turks in 1913

3. The start of the 1^st world war

All the above mentioned factors were the major trigger points for the Armenian genocide and also the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

Historical significance of the genocides

Genocides have a deep impact in the political scenarios all around the world and have contributed significantly towards a more civilized society in the aftermath of it. However, there are different views on the matter from many researchers across the world on the impact of these events. The study of all the genocides can give some significant references for understanding the holocaust in a better way and may provide with some fresh impetus on the proceedings of the events and the understanding of the points that have triggered the holocaust. However, while comparing the past genocides with the holocaust can also be not useful at all as every events has its own bearings and proceedings where one cannot compare two different events of two eras (Berenbaum, 2006).

Right from the beginning of the 15^th century to the happening of holocaust one can understand and deduce the fact that almost all the mass atrocities were the because of political or military upheavals and have a huge bearings on one set of an ethnic group or race. Be it the killings of Armenians or the Indians in famine they were all part of the political tensions amongst the ruling empires. If we compare the mass atrocities of many genocides with that of the Indians by the British empire, we find that in all the other genocides the numbers of the people that are being exploited or killed are far more less than the numbers of people that have killed them but in the Indian genocide we see a reversal of the trend as the numbers of people that are being killed or exploited are way more than the peoples that have killed or exploited them. This shows that every genocide from outside may seems like one more mass killings but the buildup, the processes and the aftermath is different from each other (Black,2016).

Bystanders, perpetrators and the collaborations

No crime can be done without the involvement of some outside people that give shelters to the accused. And same goes with the neutral people who even though of having the power of stopping the crime just watches it without doing anything to stop it.

If we carefully study all the past genocides and also the holocaust we will easily chalk out the events that have led to these crimes and we will also be able to chalk out the various parties and their involvement in the crime even if they were watching it from the outside. The Armenian genocide have those sets of people that we can labelled as bystanders, perpetrators and the collaborators and we can also see how these set of people have significantly contributed to the events that have happened during the course (Hilberg,2003).

In the Armenian genocide the main perpetrators were the young Turks that have occupied the empire after the 1913 coup and they systematically planned the whole atrocity with the help of insiders. They did it on purpose as the whole empire was on decline after the rise of Armenians into elite positions and in order to hide their own failure they made the Armenians scapegoat for all the events including the defeat in the First World War. The bystanders were countries from Europe along with the Turks and the Kurds themselves as they acted as both the rebels and the collaborators (Black, 2016).

The Turks and the Kurds were also the main collaborator in the whole event as they were receiving huge sum of money from the Ottoman Empire for providing information on the whereabouts of the Armenians (Landau, 2016).

Seeing and understanding the whole phenomenon of the past colonial genocide one can easily say that the events of this scale where there is a trying of terminating a whole group cannot be done without the help of peoples from inside as well as outside. And one more thing, there were always some parties in the regime or outside of it that have the powers to stop it but they refrained from doing so and that may be because of their apprehension or their own profit (Crowe, 2008).

Relationship between Holocaust and Past Genocides

Every time there is a talk about mass violence of crime against humanity, there is a reference of holocaust and this is called as ‘the holocaust paradigm’ where there is always a collective reference or similarities were chalked about other genocides and holocaust.

Usefulness of comparing Holocaust with other genocides

1. The holocaust is often considered to have given the birth to our idea of the today’s term for mass violence ‘genocide’ which was coined after the 2^nd world war and in terms with the crimes of the German Nazis on the Jewish population of the Europe. So the researchers have more or less agreed to the fact that holocaust may well be a high referential point and the foundation for studying any other genocides and crime against humans and humanity (Stackelberg, 2002).

2. Learning and comparing holocaust with other mass atrocities and genocides can not only allow the researchers and scholars to deeply understand the similarities between these events but also allow them of the key differences. Another important things that can be deduced while learning and understanding about the holocaust is that it may help the researchers in understanding the other genocides in good stead. By the same token, learning about other genocides can also lead to a better understanding of the holocaust also (Dawidowicz, 1986).

3. While comparing the Nazi holocaust with that of other genocides may also allow the learners to identify the common processes and patterns in the lead up to genocidal situations. This will also give a better understanding of the past genocidal processes and the situations and may help the learners in identifying the warning signs in the process and that can hopefully save the humanity from any further blushes of genocidal crimes.

4. Learners must also appreciate the fact that the holocaust have contributed significantly towards the creation of stringent laws for any other genocidal situations in the modern age.

5. By comparing the holocaust with other past colonial genocides can provide maple information and caution to the young people regarding the potential danger of mass atrocities and genocides. This will also strengthen the awareness amongst the new age generation regarding their responsibilities in the world and the global community.

6. Comparing holocaust with other genocides may also help learners to overcome the scarcity of recognition of other mass killings and genocides.

7. Proper learning and awareness about the genocides and comparing them with holocaust will also be helpful in coping up with normalcy in the aftermath of it. People that have survived can be better equipped with resources once they will proper information on the phenomenon.

Conclusion

Humanity will never forgive the perpetrators of the mass killings, genocides and holocaust. They may have long dead and buried but they have taken a huge chunk of humanity with them and it will take a long road of redemption for to be fully rectified. What we can do today at this time is to be understand the process of these events and learn about them in intricate ways as this will allow us to be in a position in the future where if we witness the same kind of events we will able to stop it from happening. That is where one must understand the importance of these events as they have a huge impact on our lives in general and society in particular.

There is no denying in the fact that the study of holocaust have been done several times and many researchers have contributed on the topic but there is a scarcity of materials on the past genocides and that will not help us in determining the impact of those genocides on the holocaust. But with proper learning of other past colonial genocides and comparing them with holocaust one can be able to create a drawing line from where those chains of events started that eventually led the whole process to crimes against humanity in such scale that it was termed as genocide by the renowned scholars.

Through this report we tried to draw a line between holocaust and the Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Empire. We highlighted the main reasons behind both the events and chronicalised the entire event to understand the similarities and the differences. There is no doubt regarding the horror of both the events but there is also no denial about the historical significance of both the events. Both the events have changed the face of humanity for forever and also one can think that the Armenian Genocide may have led to the holocaust given how both the Ottoman Empire and the Nazis were after one particular ethnic group due to their own inferiority complex. They deemed their own fellow human beings as their imagined enemy and tried to kill the entire group.

References

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2.  Landau 2016, p. 3.

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4. ^ “Remaining Jewish Population of Europe in 1945”. Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Archived from the original on 13 June 2018.

5. ^ For the date, see Marcuse 2001, p. 21.

6. ^ Stackelberg & Winkle 2002, pp. 141–143.

7. ^ Crowe 2008, p. 1.

8. ^ Dawidowicz 1986, p. xxxvii.

9. ^ “Holocaust”. Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 5 October 2017. Retrieved 4 October 2017.

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11. ^ Crowe 2008, p. 1; “Holocaust” (PDF). Holocaust Resource Center, Yad Vashem. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 February 2018.

“The Holocaust: Definition and Preliminary Discussion”. Holocaust Resource Center, Yad Vashem. Archived from the original on 26 June 2015.

12. ^ Fischel 2010, p. 115.

13. ^ Meltzer, Julian (23 May 1943). “Palestine Zionists Find Outlook Dark”. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 10 August 2018.

14. ^ Lustigman & Lustigman 1994, p. 111.

15. ^ Black 2016, p. 201.

16. ^  Hilberg 2003, p. 1133.

17. ^ Fischel 1998, p. 46.

18. ^ Berenbaum 2006, p. xix.

19. ^ Brosnan, Matt (12 June 2018). “What Was The Holocaust?”. Imperial War Museum. Archived from the original on 2 March 2019. Retrieved 2 March2019.

20. ^ Jump up to:^a b Hayes 2015, pp. xiii–xiv.

21. ^ “The Holocaust”. Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. Archived from the original on 10 February 2019.

22. ^ Marrus 2015, p. vii.

23. ^ Snyder 2010, p. 412.

24. ^ Stone 2010, pp. 1–3.

25. ^ “Introduction to the Holocaust”. Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Archived from the original on 1 October 2017. Retrieved 4 October 2017.