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Erik Krajnak
Professor Annika Friedberg
History 512B
December 8, 2013
Parallels of Genocide
Genocide is one of the words in the English language that once said immediately brings
up emotions. Genocide is truly a horrifying tactic countries use in order to create a more
stabilized majority led nationality. In regards to genocide in the 20th there are a few parallels that
that show up. One parallel would be that the genocides in the 20th century stem off broken
political systems that have failed its citizens. Another parallel of genocide would be the use of
nationalism. A final parallel would be that the formation of new political systems would bring
about the rise of genocide.
The failures of established governments in Eastern Europe would bring about a wave of
new governments in Eastern Europe. The fall of communism for instance would gear the
countries of Yugoslavia for the creations of new political system different than the previous
communist régime. Communism had failed the citizens of Yugoslavia and they began looking
towards new form of government which also means new leadership. One such leader would be
Slobodan Milosevic who would become the leader of the Serbian nation.1 Slobodan Milosevic
would gear his new power into gaining one united Serb nation and blamed the ethnic minorities
for all the problems the Serbs had been forced to face. Most similar would be how democracy
1
Annika Freidberg, “Yugoslav Wars”, San Diego State University,11-15-2013
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failed in Germany leading to the creation of the fascist state of Germany. Adolf Hitler would
become the leader of the Nazi party and like Slobodan Milosevic would dehumanize the ethnic
minorities, mainly the Jews, living inside Germany’s borders in order to sustain his power. Both
Hitler and Milosevic used genocide and ethnic cleansing to create a more pure nation. This was
made possible because they were able to gain power through the introduction of new forms of
Governments that replaced the broken ones the countries previously instituted. The Ottoman
Empires collapse in the early twentieth century would bring about the backdrop of genocide for
100 years.2 The collapse of the Ottoman Empire led to breakdown of multi-national empires
resulting in the creation of nation-states. This would lead to the genocide of the Armenian
people whom the Turkish forces would carry out.
Another parallel of genocide and ethnic cleansing is nationalism. Nationalism maybe the most
key aspect to which genocide and ethnic cleansing occur. Hitler and the Nazi party used
nationalism in order to create a unity among Germans. Those who were not Germans with pure
Aryan blood were seen as ethnic minorities and the Nazis marked them as inferior and the
dehumanizing of them would begin the steps towards genocide. The Germans would use
national rhetoric in order to raise the hysteria that would fuel the fires which would end in
genocide with the Holocaust and murdering of millions of Jews. Slobodan Milosevic would
follow a similar path with the use of nationalism in order to achieve the goal of genocide during
the Yugoslav wars. Milosevic would preach to his followers that a strong Serb nation required
the ethnic minorities to leave the nation. “To Milosevic all other nationalities aside from
Serbian became his problem.”3 Milosevic painted the ethnic minorities living inside the
2
Hatred 17
Naimark Norman, Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe, (Cambridge, MA and London:
Harvard University Press, 2002). 155
3
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Yugoslavian borders the culprits for all the problems the Serbs faced. Milosevic use of
nationalism would result in the genocide and deaths of thousands of innocent Muslims,
Croatians, and Bosnians by the Serbian military and Serbian paramilitary.
The third parallel of genocide and ethnic cleansing is that most often the two occur during times
of war. The reason that genocide and ethnic cleansing occur during times of war is because it is
easier to hide it. During the Holocaust, the horrors the Jews were facing went largely unnoticed
because most people were focused on their own countries war efforts. War allows the leaders of
countries carrying out genocide and ethnic cleansing to be able to have the safety of cover that
would normally not be available if war was not going on.4 WWII gave the Nazis the cover
needed to begin and carry out the Holocaust. The Yugoslav wars gave the Serbs the needed
coverage as well and finally the Balkan Wars gave the fire to the Turkish people to begin their
acts of Genocide in which nearly 800,000 Armenians were murdered. “War provides the
opportunity to deal with a troublesome minority by suspending civil law in the name of military
exigency.”5
There tend to be three common parallels of genocide and ethnic cleansing. One such
parallel would be the fall of a previous political system. This is the case with the fall of
democracy in Germany, fall of the Ottoman Empire in Turkey, and the fall of communism in
Yugoslavia. This would lead to the second parallel of genocide and ethnic cleansing would be
the rise in nationalism that would lead to the disturbing acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing in
countries such as Yugoslavia, Germany, and Turkey. The third and final parallel is that genocide
4
Naimark Norman, Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe, (Cambridge, MA and London:
Harvard University Press, 2002). 187
5
Naimark Norman, Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe, (Cambridge, MA and London:
Harvard University Press, 2002). 187
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and ethnic cleansing occurs closely to the times of war. Such is the case of WWII in Germany,
The Yugoslav wars in Yugoslavia, and The Balkans wars that would ignite the Turks into
carrying out genocide and ethnic cleansing. Genocide and ethnic cleansing can be seen by
historians as following a few parallels and it is important to understand that these conditions can
lead to the disturbing truth that a country is in the beginning stages of genocide.