In 1933, 11 million people, 6 million of them being Jews, were brutally murdered in Hitler’s attempt to “purify” Germany. Men, women, and children had their lives stripped away from them for no other reason than their race. This tragic event is known as the Holocaust. In fact, the event is so tragic that in 1944, Raphael Lemkin created the term “genocide” just to describe it. Genocide means the intent to completely destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Though the Holocaust is the most well-known genocide, it is not the only one. In 1915, the Armenian Genocide took place; 1.5 million people were murdered when the Turkish government wanted a new empire with only one language and one religion. In 1975, an estimate between 1.7 and 2 million people died in the Cambodian Genocide. Other mass killings include Rwanda in 1990, Bosnia in 1995, and Darfur in 2003. Every time a genocide takes place, people tend to use the quote, “Never again!”; …show more content…
Educating the subject of mass atrocities could potentially lead to a political level, preventing any national leader or organization to commit the crime. Looking back at past genocides, the United States either helped too late at not at all. If U.S. citizens were to shine a light on the subject as well, not only will genocide be prevented in their own country, but it will also provide the education needed to prevent it in other countries; and of course, acting before it is too late. Additionally, human rights must become a core value. Teaching and using value could prevent discrimination from even taking place in a country. In order to keep genocide from happening again, the public must not have a blind eye to the situation; and definitely not the subject of human rights