Comparative Analysis of Genocide: Patterns of Destruction
Senior 4 · History
Comparative Analysis of Genocide: Patterns of Destruction
Lesson 3 of 4
25 min
Read three phrases that perpetrators used while the killing was going on:
| Phrase | Who used it, and when | What it hid |
|---|---|---|
| "A precautionary measure" | The Ottoman government, explaining the deportation of Armenians to the Entente Powers and the United States in 1915 | Death marches into the desert and massacres |
| "Resettlement to the east" | Nazi Germany, describing the deportation of Jews by rail, especially from 1942 | Transport to killing centres in occupied Poland |
| "Pacification" | The authorities in Rwanda, towards the end of April 1994 | Not an end to the killing but, in Human Rights Watch's words, "greater control over killing" |
Sources: USHMM, The Armenian Genocide (1915–16): In Depth and Introduction to the Holocaust; Human Rights Watch, Leave None to Tell the Story (1999), Introduction.
Analyse it. Each phrase is a lie told by the people carrying out the crime, at the time of the crime. That is why Gregory Stanton writes that denial "is a continuation of a genocide": it starts before the killing ends, and it continues afterwards as an attempt "to deny its members even the memory of the murders of their relatives". This lesson follows the last three patterns, preparation, extermination and denial, and then sets out what made each genocide different.
Definition
Preparation: the practical steps taken before mass killing: plans, lists, weapons, the separation or rounding-up of victims, and often smaller "rehearsal" massacres that go unpunished. Example: the import of machetes in Rwanda in 1993.
Extermination: the mass killing of the members of the targeted group. Example: the mass shootings of Jews in more than 1,500 places in eastern Europe from 1941.
Denial: saying, during or after a genocide, that it did not happen, was not genocide, was not planned, or was something else, or twisting its facts. Example: the claim of a "double genocide" in Rwanda.
Euphemism: a mild word used to hide something terrible. Example: "resettlement to the east" for deportation to killing centres.
Impunity: freedom from punishment. When earlier crimes go unpunished, perpetrators learn that they can kill again.
Armenians. Earlier massacres had gone unpunished: at least 80,000 Armenians were killed between 1894 and 1896, and as many as 20,000 around Adana in 1909. On 24 April 1915 the authorities arrested 240 Armenian leaders in Constantinople and deported them east, removing the community's leadership before the mass deportations began in May.
The Holocaust. From 1939–1940, beginning in German-occupied Poland, Jews were forced into ghettos, areas of towns where they had to live separated from the non-Jewish population. USHMM calls the ghettos "a key means of isolating, controlling, and ultimately murdering" millions of Jews. Europe's rail network was then used to deport them to the killing centres.
Cambodia. From 17 April 1975 the Khmer Rouge emptied Phnom Penh and the other towns and marched their people into the countryside, where they were sorted, watched and set to forced labour.
Rwanda. Human Rights Watch shows that, during 1993, the organisers expanded the recruitment and training of the Interahamwe and planned a "civilian self-defense" force; administrators drew up lists of former soldiers to lead it; soldiers and politicians distributed firearms in 1993 and early 1994; and businessmen close to the president imported enough machetes "to arm every third adult Hutu male". Earlier massacres of Tutsi, from 1990 onwards, went unpunished. RTLM began broadcasting in August 1993.
In the Ottoman Empire, most Armenian men of fighting age were murdered, and convoys of women, children and old people were marched towards the desert regions of today's Syria and Iraq, where many died of starvation, thirst, exposure, disease and attacks. In the Holocaust, mobile units carried out mass shootings in more than 1,500 cities, towns and villages after June 1941, and from late 1941 five killing centres were built in occupied Poland: Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka and Auschwitz-Birkenau. In Cambodia almost two million people died of execution, forced labour, starvation and disease; at least 14,000 people were held at the prison S-21 alone. In Rwanda the killing began in Kigali on 7 April 1994. Officials ordered barriers to catch Tutsi trying to flee and search patrols to find those hiding; within the first week, organisers drove Tutsi to government offices, churches and schools, where they were massacred in large operations. More than one million people were killed in about 100 days.
Figure 1. The length of the main killing period in each case. Drawn by Ganzaa from the dates given by USHMM (Armenians, Holocaust, Cambodia) and the United Nations (Rwanda); months are rounded.
| Difference | Armenians | Holocaust | Cambodia | Tutsi, 1994 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Speed | About 18 months | About four years of mass murder | Almost four years | About 100 days |
| Main methods | Deportation, death marches, massacres | Mass shootings and gas in killing centres | Execution, forced labour, starvation | Face-to-face killing at barriers, homes, churches and schools |
| Killers and victims | Ottoman forces and auxiliary troops, at times helped by civilians | SS and police units with local collaborators; many victims deported by rail far from home | Khmer Rouge cadres and soldiers | Soldiers, militias and mobilised civilians, often the victims' neighbours |
| The outside world | Protests by the Entente Powers; a huge relief effort from the United States | The Allies fought Germany, but rescue came late (the US War Refugee Board saved as many as 200,000 Jews) | Justice came decades later: the ECCC began investigating in 2006 | UN peacekeepers were present; on 21 April 1994 the Security Council withdrew most of them |
| How it ended | No outside force stopped it | Germany's defeat, May 1945 | Vietnamese army, January 1979 | The RPF stopped it |
Analyse. The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi shared all six patterns with the other three. What set it apart was the speed and the closeness: the killers were often the victims' neighbours, and the killing was concentrated into about 100 days, while UN peacekeepers were in the country and were then reduced. It was also stopped from inside the region, by the RPF, not by a world power.
Warning
Do not turn the differences into a ranking. "Faster", "more" or "first" describe how a genocide was carried out; they never mean that one group's suffering counted for more. And never repeat a denial claim as if it were a point of view: present it as a claim, say who made it, and show the evidence against it.
Tip
For a "similarities and differences" essay, use a grid. Write the six patterns down the side and the cases across the top; fill each cell with one dated fact. Similarities are the rows that fill in every column; differences are the cells that do not match. Finish with a judgement: which differences matter most, and why?
Important
Discuss. Stanton calls denial "among the surest indicators of further genocidal massacres". Why might a society that denies a past genocide be at greater risk of another? Use one case from this lesson.
Genocide Watch, "Stage 10 – Denial", from Gregory Stanton's Ten Stages of Genocide series (2 minutes 24 seconds, illustrated). Note the ways perpetrators cover up evidence and blame the victims, and connect them to the three euphemisms at the start of this lesson.
Practice
Key points
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the analysis, the bar chart (Figure 1), the tables and the exercises. This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Quick check
Which of these is the clearest example of denial beginning while the killing was still going on?
