Almost all genocides in history have had underlying tones to them, but why do genocides occur and what instigates them? The causes of genocide have varied throughout history with different genocides being motivated by different reasons and alternative instigating factors. The actions and speeches of senior Nazi officials such as Heinrich Himmler leading up to the Holocaust, in addition to the views held by the soldiers of the Khmer Rouge, prove that the perpetrators of genocide all having various racial and historical factors they believe justifies their actions.
The Holocaust is an example of a genocide which was founded on the idea of racial superiority. Adolf Hitler and his group of Nazis proclaimed Germans as the ‘Master Race’ with the ‘lesser races’ and the ‘lowest of the lows’ (which he believed included Poles, as well as Jews) deserving extermination. This shows that there are definitely racial undertones to genocides. Such strong and racist stereotyping are important aspects in understanding why genocides occur. n January 1933, after a bitter ten-year political struggle, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. During his rise to power, Hitler had repeatedly blamed the Jews for Germany's defeat in World War I and subsequent economic hardships. Hitler also put forward racial theories asserting that Germans with fair skin, blond hair and blue eyes were the supreme form of human, or master race. The Jews, according to Hitler, were the racial opposite, and were actively engaged in an international conspiracy to keep this master race from assuming its rightful position as rulers of the world.
Another example of how the perpetrators of genocide had come to see their actions not so much as a crime, but rather as a duty, is that of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. The Cambodian genocide was one of the darkest times in the history of Cambodia. It occur when the Khmer Rouge was in power of the country. However, it’s important that individuals understand the history behind it to ensure that it never is repeated. The Cambodian genocide happened because of the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge formed and rose to power in Cambodia in 1975, and stayed in power until 1979. While in power, the Khmer Rouge systematically executed over seven million citizens for reasons that ranged from breaking minor rules to wearing glasses.
The genocide in Cambodia and Holocaust is similar because they both were persecuted off their religion and their cultural. None of them was ever released. After torture and interrogation, sometimes stretching over several months, all of these men, women and children were brutally put to death. If they were too weak to work they were killed , many died from starvation and dying from overwork all day and night.
The genocide in Cambodia and Holocaust is different during the Cambodian Genocide of 1975-1979, approximately 1.7 million people lost their lives (21% of the country's population), it was one of the worst human tragedies of the 20th century. But the holocaust the word generally refers to the deaths of Jews, but often other victims of Nazi Germany are often also included. (It is also often used to describe the genocide of the Armenians in 1915-1917 by the Ottoman Turkish régime).
As such, even though the world does not want to admit that horrible things, such as killing mass groups of people without a good reason still occur today, it cannot be denied. The Holocaust was one of the first of these genocides to take place, and the world said that nothing like this could even happen again. Yet, it is possible for the world to not learn from its mistakes and there are many problems similar to the Jewish Holocaust to support this. The Cambodian genocide took place only about thirty years after the world witnessed one of the greatest hate crimes ever. It seems as if that laws and public education on tolerance and equality has fallen on deaf ears and as long as the world continues to exist, genocide as a concept may never die.
