Holding the darkness in the light
An act of commemoration before
Holocaust Memorial day
Holocaust (Shoah)
Extermination camps
Auschwitz 1,000,000
Belzec 600,000
Chełmno 320,000
Jasenovac 58,000 – 97,000
Holocaust (Shoah)
Extermination camps
Majdanek 360,000
Maly Trostinets 65,000
Sobibor 250,000
Treblinka 870,000
Victims killed
Jews 5.9 million
Soviet POWs 2 – 3 million
Ethnic Poles 1.8 – 2 million
Romani 220,000 – 1,500,000
Disabled 200,000 – 250,000
Freemasons 80,000 – 200,000
Slovenes 20,000 – 25,000
Homosexuals 5,000 – 15,000
Jehovah's Witnesses 2,500 – 5,000
Genocides from today
89,400 – 130,400, Civil war, Syria, 2011, ongoing
8,813 – 1,400,000, Violent civilian deaths by
NATO, Afghanistan, 2001 – 2013
15,000 – 52,000, Violent deaths from 1948,
Palestine, ongoing
2,000 – 70,000, Persecution of Falun Gong, China,
1999, ongoing
Massacres of pygmies, Democratic Republic of
the Congo, 1998, ongoing
Genocides
864,531 – 1,500,000, Genocide by US, Iraq,
2003 – 2011
178,258 – 400,000, Darfur conflict, Sudan,
2003 – 2010
8,000 – 8,500, Srebrenica massacre, Bosnia, 1995
500,000 – 1,000,000, Rwandan genocide, 1994
100,000 – 200,000, Massacres of Mayan Indians,
Guatemala, 1962 – 1996
Genocides
44,000 – 150,000, Civil War, Algeria, 1991 – 1999
150,000 – 500,000, Mass killings, genocide, Ethiopia,
1974 – 1991
50,000 – 200,000, Al-Anfal campaign, Iraq, 1986 – 1989
18,600 – 183,000, East Timor, 1975 – 1990s
1,000,000 – 3,000,000, Genocide, Cambodia,
1975 – 1979
9,089 – 30,000, Dirty War, Argentina, 1973 – 1983
Genocides
Several millions, Starvation, North Korea
100,000, Burmese government killings of Shan, Karen,
and NDU, Burma, 1962 – 2007
20,000 – 80,000 Dictatorship and political repression in
Equatorial Guinea, 1969 – 1979
35,000,000, Class enemies, religious minorities and
Uighurs by Maoist government, PRC army, Red Guards
and police, Peoples Republic of China, 1949 – 1977
100,000, Persecution of Hmong by government, Laos,
1975 – 2003
Genocides
800,000 – 3,100,000, American holocaust, Vietnam,
1959 – 1975
50,000 – 100,000, Massacres of Hutus, Burundi, 1972
26,000 – 3,000,000, Bangladesh atrocities, East
Pakistan (now Bangladesh), 1971
450,000, Indonesian genocide of West Papuans, West
Papua, 1969 – 1990s
1,000,000 – 3,000,000, Nigerian Civil War, Nigeria,
1967 – 1970
Genocides
500,000, Anti-communist purge, Indonesia,
1965 – 1966
2,000,000, Purge of Nuer and Dinka by Khartoum
government, Nuba region, South Sudan, 1956 – 1972
92,000, Tibet uprising, 1959
50,000 – 150,000 Harkis by FLN, Algeria, 1954 – 1962
Collective punishment by British troops, Malaya, Oman
and North Yemen, 1950s, 1960s
300,000 – 320,000, Mau Mau massacres of Kikuyu by
British colonialists, 1950 – 1959
The holocaust 1941 - 1945
4,194,200 – 17,000,000
Genocides
500,000 – 3,000,000 Expulsion of Germans after World
War II, Europe, 1945 – 1950
60,000 – 174,000, Communist purges, Serbia,
1944 – 1945
270,000 – 655,000, Ustashe genocides of Serbs, Jews,
Roma and Croats, Croatia, 1941 – 1945
60,000 – 200,000, Volhynia massacre, Poland,
1943 – 1944
7,000,000, Bengali famine, India, 1943
Genocides
20,000 – 30,000, Katyn massacre, USSR, 1940
13,160 – 70,000, Dersim massacre, Dersim, Turkey,
1937 – 1938
250,000 – 300,000 Nanking massacre by Japan, 1937
20,000 – 30,000 Execution of Haitians, Dominican
Republic, 1937
2,582,000 – 8,000,000, Holodomor (and Soviet famine),
Ukrainian SSR, 1932 – 1933
300,000 – 1,500,000, Armenian genocide, Anatolia,
1915 – 1923
Genocides
300,000 – 500,000, Decossackization, Don River area,
Soviet Union, 1919 – 1920
275,000 – 750,000, Assyrian genocide, Anatolia,
1915 – 1918
200,000 – 1,000,000 Greek genocide, Anatolia, 1915 – 1918
20,000 Bombing and gassing, Sudan, 1918
8,000,000 – 10,000,000, Tropical diseases, and the
exploitation of the Congo Free State under the rule of
King Leopold II of Belgium, Congo Free State, 1885 – 1908
24,000 – 75,000, Herero and Namaqua genocide, Namibia,
1904 – 1908
Genocides
2,000,000 – 100,000,000, European colonization of the
Americas, Americas, 1492 – 1900
1,200,000, Maafa, Atlantic ocean, 16th C – 19th C
2,500 – 50,000, Samar massacre, Philippines,
1901 – 1902,
part of 1,000,000, US pacification programme,
1899 – 1913
1,500,000, Hazara genocide, Afghanistan, 1888 – 1890s
20,000 Extermination of aborigines, Tasmania,
1788 – 1901
Genocides
12,000,000 – 29,000,000 Mass starvation, India,
1876-8, 1890s
1,000,000 Irish Great Famine, Ireland, 1845 – 1852
400,000 – 1,500,000, Circassian genocide, Circassia,
1817 – 1864
480,000 – 600,000, Massacres in Zunghar Khanate,
Western Mongolia, Kazakhstan, northern Kyrgyzstan,
southern Siberia, 1755 – 1758
80,000, Massacres in Khoshut Khanate, Qinghai and
Tibet regions of China, 1723 – 1725
Civil wars, massacres and starvation
The list is incomplete. We also mention
South Africa
Zimbabwe
Paraguay
Chile
Mozambique
others
Crimes against humanity
HIROSHIMA
NAGASAKI
Reflections
The Buddha: Which is greater in the cycle of
life, the tears you have shed this long, long
time, crying and weeping from being joined
with what is displeasing, being separated from
what is pleasing – or the water of the four
great oceans?
Reflections
The light for which the world longs is already shining. It
is shining into the darkness, but the darkness does not
apprehend it. It is shining into the darkness, but the
darkness is not overcoming it. It is shining in many a
soul, and already the new order has begun within the
kingdom of the heart. It is shining in many a small
group and creating a heavenly-earthly fellowship of
children of the light. It will always shine and lead many
into the world of need, that they may bear it up into
the heart of God.
Thomas Kelly, Quaker, in 1941.