the armenian genocide the first genocide the forgotten genocide - more than 2 million armenians part...
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The Armenian GenocideThe First Genocide
The Forgotten Genocide
- more than 2 million Armenians part of Ottoman Empire at onset of genocide- thriving community – generally well-educated and middle class- mostly Christian
- Ottoman Empire was decaying crumbling empire “Sick Man of Europe”
The Armenian Genocide
- Ottomans lacked technology & modern ideas in early 1900s- population mostly uneducated and peasants - 1896, Sultan begins to oppress Armenians for their call for reforms 100,000 killed
- Young Turks seize power in 1913 w/ hopes for reforms- Guarantee basic rights through constitution- Nationalism strong, united Turkish empire- one religion Islam
PROMISE DID NOT INCLUDE ARMENIANS
The Armenian Genocide
- Young Turks glorified the virtues of simple Turkish peasantry at the expense of the Armenians in order to capture peasant loyalty
- exploited the religious, cultural, economic and political differences between Turks and Armenians so that the average Turk came to regard Armenians as strangers among them
The Armenian Genocide- Armed round-ups begin April 24, 1915- mass killing and deportation follow- property taken by local Turks- Ambassador Henry Morgenthau reported to Washington, “When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race..."
The Armenian Genocide
- estimated 1,500,000 killed- oppression and murder of Armenians in Turkey continues until 1923 - destruction of the Armenian communities in this part of the world was total
International Response - May 1915, Great Britain, France, and Russia advised the Young Turk leaders they would be held personally responsible for crimes against humanity - post-war demands that the Ottoman government prosecute the Young Turks accused of wartime crimes
International Response- relief efforts were also mounted to save “the starving Armenians” – US sent $75,000 (~ $2,500,000 in today’s money)- American, British, and German governments sponsored the preparation of reports on the atrocities and numerous accounts were published (NY Times)- despite moral outrage of the international community, no strong actions were taken against Ottoman Empire- no steps taken to require the postwar Turkish government to make restitution to the Armenian people for their immense material and human losses or prosecute those responsible
Armenians being marched out of Harput, Red Cross
Armenians from Kesaria in front of jail one hour before all were killed
Turkish hangmen and their victims in Aleppo, 1915
Photographed by a German Officer in Turkey
The Holocaust
1933-1945- January 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany
- Hitler had repeatedly blamed the Jews for Germany's defeat in World War I and subsequent economic hardships
- put forward racial theories asserting that Germans with fair skin, blond hair and blue eyes were the supreme form of human, or master race
- Jews were the racial opposite – actively engaged in an international conspiracy to keep this master race from assuming its rightful position as rulers of the world.
Who Said the Following?
Therefore be on your guard against the Jews, knowing that wherever they have their synagogues, nothing is found but a den of devils in which sheer self glory, conceit, lies, blasphemy, and defaming of God and men are practiced most maliciously and veheming his eyes on them.
Moreover, they are nothing but thieves and robbers who daily eat no morsel and wear no thread of clothing which they have not stolen and pilfered from us by means of their accursed usury. Thus they live from day to day, together with wife and child, by theft and robbery, as arch thieves and robbers, in the most impenitent security.
If I had to refute all the other articles of the Jewish faith, I should be obliged to write against them as much and for as long a time as they have used for inventing their lies that is, longer than two thousand years.
Did I not tell you earlier that a Jew is such a noble, precious jewel that God and all the angels dance when he farts?
…one should toss out these lazy rogues by the seat of their pants.
...but then eject them forever from this country.
For, as we have heard, God’s anger with them is so intense that gentle mercy will only tend to make them worse and worse, while sharp mercy will reform them but little. Therefore, in any case, away with them.
Over and above that we let them get rich on our sweat and blood, while we remain poor and they suck the marrow from our bones.
However, we must avoid confirming them in their wanton lying, slandering, cursing, and defaming. Nor dare we
make ourselves partners in their devilish ranting and raving by shielding and protecting them, by giving them food, drink, and shelter, or by other neighborly deed.
Martin Luther, 1543 from The Jews and Their Lies
When the question relative to the sacred festival of Easter arose, it was universally thought that it would be convenient that all should keep the feast on one day… It was declared to be particularly unworthy for this, the holiest of all festivals, to follow the custom of the Jews, who had soiled their hands with the most fearful of crimes, and whose minds were blinded. In rejecting their custom, we may transmit to our descendants the legitimate mode of celebrating Easter, which we have observed from the time of the Savior’s Passion to the present day. We ought not, therefore, to have anything in common with the Jews, for the Savior has shown us another way; our worship follows a more legitimate and more convenient course; and consequently, in unanimously adopting this mode, we desire, dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews, for it is truly shameful for us to hear them boast that without their direction we could not keep this feast. How can they be in the right, they who, after the death of the Savior, have no longer been led by reason but by wild violence, as their delusion may urge them? We could not imitate those who are openly in error. But even if this were not so, it would still be your duty not to tarnish your soul by communications with such wicked people [the Jews].
Constantine I at the Council of Nicaea, 325
The HolocaustKey Events & Ideas
- Jews comprise approximately 1% of Germany’s 55 million pre-war population- Nuremberg Laws of 1935 – strips Jews of German citizenship & forbids intermarriage- removed from schools, banned from the professions, excluded from military service
The HolocaustKey Events & Ideas
- November 9 – 10 Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) – after Parisian Jew shot & killed a German embassy worker in Paris, Joseph Goebbels begin campaign against all Jews in Germany – whips up hysteria against Jews- 90 Jews killed nationwide, 500 synagogues burned to ground, and most Jewish shops vandalized- begin mass deportation to concentration camps- made Jews pay for damage!
The HolocaustKey Events & Ideas
Do not try to write this entire quote from Adolf Hitler on the eve of WWII
“In the course of my life I have very often been a prophet, and have usually been ridiculed for it. During the time of my struggle for power it was in the first instance only the Jewish race that received my prophecies with laughter when I said that I would one day take over the leadership of the State, and with it that of the whole nation, and that I would then among other things settle the Jewish problem. Their laughter was uproarious, but I think that for some time now they have been laughing on the other side of their face. Today I will once more be a prophet: if the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevizing of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!”
The HolocaustKey Events & Ideas
WWII begins on Sept. 1, 1939 with German invasion of Poland- Poland overrun quickly and Jewish populations were forced to live in squalid conditions of the ghettos- concentration camps for extermination and slave labor quickly built in Poland – overseen by Henirich Himmler, leader of special unit known as the SS
The HolocaustKey Events & Ideas
- 1941 – invasion of Soviet Union – turning point of war- turn on Russian Jews – 33,000 Jews in the Ukraine were shot in ravine near Kiev during two days in Sept., 1941- construction of gas chambers at Auschwitz & Birkenau for “Final Solution”
The HolocaustKey Events & Ideas
- June-July, 1942 - New York Times reported over 1,000,000 Jews had already been shot- December 1942 - British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden declared the Nazis were “now carrying into effect Hitler's oft-repeated intention to exterminate the Jewish people of Europe”- 1943 – Americans Jews hold rally at Madison Square Garden to pressure US government to stop the extermination- Bermuda Conference held by US and Britain – little results- World response – condemnation but little change
The HolocaustKey Events & Ideas
- Some resistance- Warsaw ghetto – 750 Jews against 2000 heavily armed SS troops - burned ghetto after heavy fighting- “The Jews stayed in the burning buildings until because of the fear of being burned alive they jumped down from the upper stories. With their bones broken, they still tried to crawl across the street into buildings which had not yet been set on fire. Despite the danger of being burned alive the Jews and bandits often preferred to return into the flames rather than risk being caught by us.”
The HolocaustKey Events & Ideas
- Rebellion at Treblinka and other camps- little aid from non-Jews- notable exceptions – Denmark saved its 7000 population of Jews by shipping them to safety- Oskar Schindler- saved 1200 Jews by transferring them from camp to his hometown
The HolocaustKey Events & Ideas
- as Allies closed in on Germany, Himmler orders quickening pace of killings and dismantling of gas chambers- first camp liberated by Soviets in Jul, 1944 at Madjanek in eastern Poland- Auschwitz liberated Jan, 1945- Apr., 1945 Hitler commits suicide
Final Countest. 4,000,000 Jews gassed at campsest. 2,000,000 Jews killed outside of
campsPhotostory
The HolocaustKey Events & Ideas
Nuremberg-October 1, 1946, the defendants received the verdicts of the tribunal- 18 defendants were convicted on one or more counts and three were found not guilty- 11 were sentenced to death by hanging- 3 were acquitted, and others were given prison sentences of 10 to 15 years, or life imprisonment- 10 were hanged in November 1946 – Hermann Goering committed suicide just hours before his scheduled execution“A thousand years will pass and the guilt of the Germany will not be erased.” – Hans Frank, before execution
Cambodian Genocide1975-79
- genesis of Cambodian Genocide tied to Vietnam War- Viet Cong (Vietnam Communist) used bases and supply routes through Cambodian
- US bombing in Cambodia forced peasants to flee to Phnom Penh, the Capital- also destabilize gov’t
Cambodian Genocide1975-79
- Pol Pot – leader of revolutionary Communist party in Cambodia – Khmer Rouge- formed alliance with Prince Norodom Sihanouk in 1970 after Prince was overthrown by US-led coup- Pol Pot gains popularity because of hatred towards US bombing - with US-installed gov’t mired in corruption & incompetence, Pol Pot is able to seize control in Apr., 1975 with a young peasant army
Cambodian Genocide1975-79
- Pol Pot attempts to institute cultural reform modeled after Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward in China- purification based on ridding society of capitalism, western culture, city life, religion, and all foreign influences
- foreigners were thus expelled, embassies closed, and any foreign economic or medical assistance was refused- newspapers and television stations were shut down, radios confiscated, and mail and telephone usage curtailed
Cambodian Genocide1975-79
- Cambodia was sealed off from the outside world- cities evacuated to promote peasant revolution- millions forced to work as slaves in “killing fields”
- “old society” - the educated, the wealthy, Buddhist monks, police, doctors, lawyers, teachers, and former government officials purged
Cambodian Genocide1975-79
- ex-soldiers were killed along with family- anyone suspected of disloyalty to Pol Pot, including eventually many Khmer Rouge leaders, was killed- meetings of 2 or more illegal- children taken from parents- collective marriages- thousands imprisoned, tortured, & executed
Cambodian Genocide1975-79
- Dec., 1978 Vietnam invades Cambodia to stop attacks in Vietnam- Phnom Penh falls in Jan., 1979- Pol Pot deposed and flees to Thailand to run guerilla campaign against new gov’t- Genocide ends- est. 2,000,000 killed – including 450,000 minorities (Chinese, Vietnamese, Muslims, etc.)- International response – little/none
Pol Pot dies of heart attack in 1998 following his arrest- never tried by international tribunal for his crimes
“I had no choice. My family was threatened and I would have been killed myself. What could I do? They would have killed me and someone else would have done it.”
Would a person using this statement have anything in common with Bradley Smith, David Irving, Nabi Sensoy, et. al.? Why or why not?
Bosnian Genocide1992-95
- conflict among 3 main ethnic groups, the Serbs, Croats, and Muslims - resulted in genocide committed by the Serbs against Muslims in Bosnia
Bosnian Genocide1992-95
- Break-up of Yugoslavia after death of Josef Tito- lack of leader to hold together fragile confederation- Serbian leader – Slobodan Milosevic- uses nationalism & ethnic & religious hatred to gain power
- Claims Orthodox Christians mistreated by Muslim Albanians in Kosovo
- excuse to dominate region
Bosnian Genocide1992-95
-Croatia & Slovenia declare independence in 1991
- Milosevic – limited interest in Slovenia but begins war to control Croatia
- Croatia has past Nazi ties
- invade Croatia in July, 1991 claiming to protect minority Serbs
- 86 consecutive days and reduced Vukovar to rubble
- 1st mass execution -> thousands of Croats killed & buried in mass graves
Bosnian Genocide1992-95- no US response, other than
recognition of Croatian independence
- UN imposes arms embargo
- no real effects on Milosvic (died awaiting verdict on human rights violations)
- conflict ends Dec., 1991 - Bosnia declares independence in March, 1992 – US & most of Europe recognizes independence- Serbia invades Bosnia and attacks Sarajevo- Serb snipers kill 3500 people, incl. many children
Bosnian Genocide1992-95
Bosnian Genocide1992-95
- Bosnian Muslims outgunned- forced to flee homes- rape used as weapon of terror- mass shootings- makeshift concentration camps
Bosnian Genocide1992-95
Radovan Karadzic named President of “Bosnian Serb Republic”- carries out genocide with immunity- no world response 1992-94 - Feb., 1994 – Serbian shell explodes in marketplace in Sarajevo killing 68 & wounding 200 civilians outrages world
- UN declares cities as safe havens – ignored by Serbians- Bill Clinton demands cessation of hostilities thru NATO
Bosnian Genocide1992-95
- Human shields- worst mass slaughter in Europe since Holocaust & continuing mass rape - Srebrenica- General Ratko Mladic
- NATO begins bombing of Serb positions in Aug., 1995 in response to Srebenica- organized Bosnian Muslim-Croat army puts Serbs on the run
Bosnian Genocide1992-95
- Nov., 1995 Serbs begin negotiating peace treaty- Dayton Accords reached in Dec., 1995 ending conflict- International force (NATO) oversees compliance- Bosnian independence recognized- war criminals charged- 200,000 Muslims murdered in Bosnia, 20,000 missing, and 1,000,000 displaced
- “the greatest failure of the West since the 1930s”- Milosevic died while on trial at the Hague in 2006- Mladic captured 2011- Karadzic is currently on trial at the Hague
Rwandan Genocide 1994
- Hutu largest population in central Africa- Tutsi minority population but historically in control- Hutu-Tutsi tensions in Burundi from 1970s cause tensions in Rwanda
- Fragile peace overseen by UN force of 2500 Peacekeepers (UNAMIR) in 1993
Rwandan Genocide 1994
- Burundi President Cyprien Ntaryamira and Rwanda President Juvénal Habyarimana assassinated together on Apr. 6, 1994
- Hutu extremists begin extermination of Hutu moderates and Tutsis – in next 4 months 800,000 killed with as many as 10,000 per day- after 10 Belgium peacekeepers were captured, tortured, and killed by Hutus, US & UN withdraws forces
Rwandan Genocide 1994
- Hutus use clubs, machetes, guns to carry out murder- national ID cards identifying ethnicity facilitate killings- propaganda campaigns further inflames passions
- professionals join in the killings- Hutus forced to kill Tutsi neighbors to avoid their own death- churches & hospitals targeted
Rwandan Genocide 1994- radio effectively used – give directions and whereabouts of Tutsis- lists of victims given to Hutus to seek and kill- 1996 UN report claimed rape was “a rule and its absence was the exception”- every female survivor was raped
- killings end in July, 1994 after Tutsi rebels from neighboring countries intervene
Holocaust Deniers
Mark Weber
←
Robert Faurisson
→
David Irving←
Bradley Smith→
Mark Weber
“Don’t for a minute think that indoctrinating wide-eyed school children with the lies and slanders against
Germans, Slavs, Catholics, Christians, Europeans, and whites in general isn’t a primary purpose of the Holocaust-mongers. ... The Holocaust is a religion. Its underpinnings in the realm of historical fact are non-existent -- no Hitler order, no plan, no budget, no gas chambers, no autopsies
of gassed victims, no bones, no ashes, no skulls, no nothing.... Secondly, it’s a religion for losers.... Suffice it to
say that the rise of religions such as this generally coincides with the decline and fall of nations which tolerate
them.”IHR Newsletter, May 1989
Robert Faurisson
“The alleged Hitlerian gas chambers and the alleged genocide of the Jews form one and the same historical lie, which permitted a gigantic financial swindle whose chief beneficiaries have been the State of Israel and international Zionism, and whose main victims have been the German people and the Palestinian people as a whole.”
- as quoted by the Guardian Weekly, April 7, 1991
Bradley Smith
“Rabbis normally come from a sophisticated urban intellectual background, which encourages a self-
righteous contempt for the views and sensibilities of those who don’t, hypocritical betrayal of
proclaimed ideals to disguise true motives, and a rejection -- for self-serving ends -- of any kind of
good will or even civility towards those with whom they disagree.”
IHR Newsletter, February 1992
David Irving
“It [the Holocaust] is something like a religion.... The Intellectual Adventure is that we are reversing this
entire trend within the space of one generation -- that in a few years time no one will believe this particular
legend anymore. They will say, as I do, that atrocities were committed. Yes, hundreds of thousands of people
were killed, but there were no factories of death. All that is a blood libel against the German people.”
Speech in Portland, Oregon, September 18, 1996 (posted on Internet)
Arthur R. Butz
The claim of the legend [the Holocaust] is that there were no technical means provided for the specific task of
extermination, and that means originally provided for other purposes did double duty in improvised
arrangements. Thus, the Jews were allegedly gassed with the pesticide Zyklon, and their corpses disappeared into the crematories along with the deaths from “ordinary” causes (the ashes or other remains of millions of victims never having been found). Surely any thoughtful person
must be skeptical.From The Hoax of the Twentieth Century: The Case Against The Presumed Extermination Of European Jewry