The Eight Stages of Genocide

Genocide is a process that develops in eight stages that are predictable but not inexorable (at each stage, preventive measures can stop it).

ClassificationUs vs. Them: Groups are divided

based on differences

SymbolizationSymbols forced upon groups to

distinguish them.

DehumanizationMembers seen as animals, diseases,

non-human. At this stage, hate propaganda in print and on hate radios is used to vilify the victim group.

OrganizationTrained units or armies to carry out

acts of violence

PolarizationUsing propaganda- either with “us” or

with “them.” Extremists drive the groups apart and target the moderates, intimidating and silencing the center.

Identification

Victims identified and separated from the rest of society due to race, ethnicity or religion

ExterminationQuickly becomes the mass killing

legally called genocide. It is extermination to the killers because they do not see the victims as human.

DenialThe 8th stage that always follows a

genocide. Perpetrators deny crimes were committed.

The 8 Stages of Genocide in the Holocaust

ClassificationHolocaust: German vs. Jew “

Jews are forced tocarry anti-Semitic signs.

SymbolizationHolocaust: Jews were forced to wear

the yellow star under Nazi rule

DehumanizationHolocaust: Anti-Semitic posters,

children’s books, radio stations used to implant idea that Jews are less than human

A page of The Poisonious Mushroom, an anti-Semitic novel forchildren. The page shows children how to identify a Jew: “The Jewish nose is crooked at its tip. It looks like the number 6.”

OrganizationHolocaust: German police, Jewish

police (that the Nazi’s organized), Gestapo, and S.S. were used to find, assault, and kill Jews

A damaged lintel above a Torah ark in a synagogue in Nentershausen. Synagogues were burned, Jewish homes were looted, and 91 Jews died. Gestapo, supported by local armed police, arrested approximately 30,000 Jews and deported them to death camps.

Polarization

Holocaust: Propaganda continues and increases. Moderates who are most able to stop the genocide are arrested and killed

German propaganda campaign climaxes in the daysleading up to invasion of the Warsaw.

IdentificationHolocaust: Jews are segregated into

ghettos and deported into concentration camps

The sealing of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1939.

ExterminationHolocaust: concentration camp mass

murders

DenialHolocaust: Perpetrators dug up

mass graves, burned bodies, attempted to cover up evidence, blamed victims, and blocked the investigations of the crimes