Essay Genocide and Modernity

The crime of genocide is one of the most devastating human tragedies throughout the history. And the word genocide refers to an organised destruction to a specific group of people who belongs to the same culture, ethnic, racial, religious, or national group often in a war situation. Similar to mass killing, where anyone who is related to the particular group regardless their age, gender and ethnic background becomes the killing targets, genocide involves in more depth towards destroying people's identity and it usually consists a fine thorough plan prearranged in order to demolish the unwanted group due to political reasons mostly. While the term genocide had only been created recently in 1943 byRaphael Lemkin, a Polish–Jewish legal...show more content...

From the first colony established for penal settlement in 1788 at Port Jackson, it all seemed to begin peacefully in the start. In reality, as the white settlers expands their territories with more colonies established, those movements destroyed not only the lives but also the trusts from the aborigines, unlike such as initially when Governor Arthur Phillip issued the Letters Patent establishing the colony of South Australia in 1836 with the confidence that "nothing should affect the rights of the natives in regard to their enjoyment or occupation of the land" . Over the past, Aborigines had their own complex social organisation, yet they had different language and customs in various tribes but have managed to live peacefully with one another. Still the British settlers saw the Aborigines as an inferior and a primitive group, simply because they have a lack of what they are used to, westernization. Such as a visible administration and therefore, they introduced the nation–state and complex political institutions along with the rise of new class, race, and gender concepts, which these are all parts of the preface towards modernity and civilisation.

Ironically, the civilised people who brought the 'improvements' could not cope to live in peace with the natives, where countless Aboriginal lives vanished under the 'superior' governance of the new settlers. Regardless which part of the continent including Tasmania, the history has shown many unfair

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Genocide has been classified by the United Nations as: Any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group (Nagdy).

Many people believe that genocide is not a common occurrence, and are educated on only a few of the substantial genocides, but they are terribly wrong. "Since the end of the Holocaust in 1945, over...show more content... When Pol Pot took hold of the Cambodian government, he planned to kill off everyone who didn't meet the requirements for his communist civilization. He believed that all citizens should be hard–working, uneducated peasants who were loyal to the government. "Pol Pot declared the year zero and began to "purify" society. In support of an extreme form of peasant communism, western influences such as capitalism and city life were expelled. Religion and all foreigners were to be extinguished" (Amendola). Pol Pot considered cities and citizens who lived in them to be the center of capitalism, and therefore determined that they had to be eliminated. He began mass killings of what he believed was left of the "old society," which included educated and wealthy citizens. Pol Pot attempted to murder anyone in his way of a "perfect society," including people of the same ethnic and religious group. Instead of wanting a hard working and uneducated population like Pol Pot, Hitler's "perfect society" was an Aryan race of people that he believed were superior to all

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Genocide in Germany

Beginning in the early 1930's, officials in Germany saw that they could put the blame of their troubles onto the Jews. After the First World War, the German public was extremely angry with the government officials, especially because of the aftermath of the war. The German economy tumbled to a point that children could use blocks of German Marks as building blocks, French from right across the border could get pastries and other goods in Germany for less than an eighth the price of the same goods in France. Added onto that was the fact that Germany owed many war debts to the Allies.Adolf Hitler, a man who fought in World War I, saw that he could use this hatred to his...show more content...

Due to America's own depression, many American's felt resentment toward the Jews also. The papers only talked about oppression towards Jews and the beatings, something that was occurring in the U.S. in smaller numbers than in Germany. The information given to the American public wasn't enough to make them care too much, and due to their own problems Americans didn't feel the need to go looking for information that might have been readily available.

Many Americans, because of the depression during the early 1930's, had long hated the Jews. In America during the depression, like Germany, many people saw Jews as a people who succeeded in anything and for that they hated them. Jews have been known throughout history as great businessmen. When Americans read that Jews were kicked out of their businesses in Germany, Americans secretly enjoyed hearing news like this; it meant that not only was the depression hurting them, but also Jews who were known for their success during the depression were now in the same boat as the rest of the country. A 1933 London Times article reputed "In a public appeal dated Nuremberg, April 7, a group of Nazi physicians and lawyers in Bavaria favored the complete elimination of Jews from all the liberal professions."[2] When one is feeling down about their life, nothing

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