The Holocaust and Bosnian Genocides: a comparison
Genocide: from the Greek word “Genos” meaning race, and English “-cide” denoting the act of killing. The systematic mass destruction of a race, of a culture, of a religion, of ideas and ideologies, of precious human life; and they have been going on for a long time. Though most people typically don’t ever hear about it until we talk about the Holocaust, it was not the first one, nor the last. Even after one of the most prolific mass killings of a race of people, genocide has happened many times after, and Genocide is even happening today. From the 1930’s, fast forward to the 1990’s, from the Holocaust in Germany to Bosnia and beyond.
“January 30th, 1933: President Hindenberg appoints Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany” (2) , and this is considered to be the very beginning of the Holocaust. It was Hitler and the Nazi party who began the mass extinction of various groups and minorities as a part of a cleansing of those who did not fit the “Aryan” cookie cutter. The Nazis targeted Jews as well as Poles, Slavs, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Homosexuals, their political enemies, Communists, Socialists, people with mental and physical deformities, and dissenting church figures. This ideology of “Ethnic Cleansing” did not die out with the end of the Holocaust. Many Genocides are based on this idea, and the Bosnian Genocides, forty seven years later, was one of those Genocides with the intent of Ethnic Cleansing as the Serbian nationalists of Bosnia began to harass and destroy the lives of many non-serbians, and primarily a group of people known as “Bosniaks” or Muslim Bosnians. When analyzing the aggression towards Jewish people, it should be first mentioned that anti-semitism is not new content for textbooks. The Jewish people have faced persecution since before the written word. Hitler fed off the nationalism of his people and then used his influence to give the angry and desperate German people a target for their rage. Hitler was also a native of Austria, which was regionally in favor of anti-semitism at the time of his early life and he subsequently subscribed to the belief of a superior “Aryan” race. Similarly, the Serbians blamed the Bosnians for a great deal of their suffering. Centuries prior to the Genocide itself, the Ottoman Turkish Empire had participated in the enslavement of Christians during an occupation attempt on the Balkan region. The Bosnians, who are looked upon as survivors …show more content…
The Holocaust had officially ended on May 8, 1945. But, not much was done at the beginning to help the Jews in terms of re-establishment and assistance, at least not until the United States decided to step in and start making strides in relieving some of the surviving or otherwise displaced Jewish people. Likewise, during the Serbian genocide of the Bosniak and Croat populations, the world did nothing notably proactive about easing tensions in the region or attempting or effectively try to keep it from happening, thereby taking a reactive stance; only doing something when the truly horrid happened. However, during the Genocide the UN put a lot of effort into the prosecution of those that participated in what was then considered a heinous war crime, but of course being too late to save hundreds of thousands of precious human
Genocide: from the Greek word “Genos” meaning race, and English “-cide” denoting the act of killing. The systematic mass destruction of a race, of a culture, of a religion, of ideas and ideologies, of precious human life; and they have been going on for a long time. Though most people typically don’t ever hear about it until we talk about the Holocaust, it was not the first one, nor the last. Even after one of the most prolific mass killings of a race of people, genocide has happened many times after, and Genocide is even happening today. From the 1930’s, fast forward to the 1990’s, from the Holocaust in Germany to Bosnia and beyond.
“January 30th, 1933: President Hindenberg appoints Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany” (2) , and this is considered to be the very beginning of the Holocaust. It was Hitler and the Nazi party who began the mass extinction of various groups and minorities as a part of a cleansing of those who did not fit the “Aryan” cookie cutter. The Nazis targeted Jews as well as Poles, Slavs, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Homosexuals, their political enemies, Communists, Socialists, people with mental and physical deformities, and dissenting church figures. This ideology of “Ethnic Cleansing” did not die out with the end of the Holocaust. Many Genocides are based on this idea, and the Bosnian Genocides, forty seven years later, was one of those Genocides with the intent of Ethnic Cleansing as the Serbian nationalists of Bosnia began to harass and destroy the lives of many non-serbians, and primarily a group of people known as “Bosniaks” or Muslim Bosnians. When analyzing the aggression towards Jewish people, it should be first mentioned that anti-semitism is not new content for textbooks. The Jewish people have faced persecution since before the written word. Hitler fed off the nationalism of his people and then used his influence to give the angry and desperate German people a target for their rage. Hitler was also a native of Austria, which was regionally in favor of anti-semitism at the time of his early life and he subsequently subscribed to the belief of a superior “Aryan” race. Similarly, the Serbians blamed the Bosnians for a great deal of their suffering. Centuries prior to the Genocide itself, the Ottoman Turkish Empire had participated in the enslavement of Christians during an occupation attempt on the Balkan region. The Bosnians, who are looked upon as survivors …show more content…
The Holocaust had officially ended on May 8, 1945. But, not much was done at the beginning to help the Jews in terms of re-establishment and assistance, at least not until the United States decided to step in and start making strides in relieving some of the surviving or otherwise displaced Jewish people. Likewise, during the Serbian genocide of the Bosniak and Croat populations, the world did nothing notably proactive about easing tensions in the region or attempting or effectively try to keep it from happening, thereby taking a reactive stance; only doing something when the truly horrid happened. However, during the Genocide the UN put a lot of effort into the prosecution of those that participated in what was then considered a heinous war crime, but of course being too late to save hundreds of thousands of precious human