Ethnic Cleansing

A detailed Summary of Ethnic Cleansing

Modern Eastern Europe: The Politics of Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide

When dealing with genocide, no one case is exactly alike. Many different people play certain roles when genocide occurs. In the Armenian, Ukrainian, and Jewish genocides, people suffered tremendously. In this paper I will explore the reasons for the mass murder of an innocent people. I will also look in-depth on the Jewish Holocaust. I will compare and contrast two authors that have written on the subject. I picked the Jewish genocide because of the powerful leader. Adolf Hitler was a powerful man that intrigues many others and me.

How were the leaders in these genocides as perpetrators similar and different? Obviously, the leaders in each case had immense hatred or fear of the people they persecuted. In the Armenian genocide, the young Turkish leaders were jealous of the Armenian wealth. The Turkish leaders also envisioned a united Turkey with all the people being Turkish. The Ukrainians genocide or famine had a similar occurrence, as did the Armenians. Stalin and the Soviet government to fuel the industrialization of Moscow and feed the Russian peo

ple used the Ukrainian people. Soviet soldiers, much like in the Armenian case, stole the possessions of the Ukrainians from them. In the Ukrainian genocide millions of people died. The Jewish genocide is very similar to the other two genocides. Millions of Jewish people died. They were perpetrated by a group of people that had a very deep hatred for them. The leader of this group who hated the Jews was Adolf Hitler. He resembled the other leade!

Besides similarities in the roles of the leaders and the common people, there were also similarities in the ideology. In all three cases of genocide, the perpetrating people feared the victims politically or religiously. The perpetrators saw the victims as a group that could rise up politically. The perpetrators also saw the victims as a lesser person because of religious aspects. In each case of genocide the perpetrating people were jealous of the victims wealth and prosperity. There was also an ideology of the victimized people being of lesser race. The perpetrators thought the people were inferior and to have their own nation thrive they needed to be done away with. Along with this inferior attitude fell a deep hatred of the people they were going to eliminate.

In the terms of the factual information contained in each of the books they were fairly similar. Both authors covered the factual information about the Holocaust. Goldhagen however, did not deal with the ghettos. Goldhagen had some graphic pictures of the Jews that were murdered. Dawidowicz's book did not provide photos to my knowledge. Both books dealt with many dates of certain events.

The book I chose to read was Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans And The Holocaust. This book is a little different than the ones we have been discussing in class. This book deals with the common Germans and their part in the Holocaust. In evaluating this book I would say it is a very good book. This book stands apart from the other Holocaust books. It takes a peculiar point of view. Goldhagen also shows the facts, but mostly deals with the reactions of the common German people. I would recommend this book to anyone trying to find out about the German people during the Nazi period.

There were also differences in the ideology as a motivating factor between the ethnic cleansing episodes. The German ideology was the most persuasive. Adolf Hitler masterminded this ideology that was consumed by the German people. He cemented the idea of the Jews as a infestation to the German people and of Germany. His feeling was that if they did not eliminate the Jews they would eliminate them. This ideology and sentiment rushed through the country. This anti-Semitic feeling lasted in Germany for many years. The feeling in Turkey towards the Armenians was not as deep. The Turkish people felt jealous of the Armenian people more than anything. There was also a religious matter that involved the Armenian genocide. Armenians were the only Christians in this area. There was a different ideology in th

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Approximate Word count = 2071
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History