Compare And Contrast Rwanda Genocide And German Holocaust

In the history of humanity, there have been a number of times when depravity has overwhelmed the humanity. Some of the known instances include Rwandan genocide of 1994 that resulted in the death of 800, 000 largely Tutsi minority (HISTORY.com). Another instance is the German Holocaust in WWII that saw the massacre of about 6 million Jews among other people. In contrasting Rwandan genocide and German holocaust, it is necessary to look at key factors that greatly influenced the course of such inhumane actions. Genocide refers to the deliberate slaying of a larger group of persons, particularly those of a specific nation or ethnic group. Genocide is often facilitated by a number of factors such as witnessed in Rwandan and German genocide. First,

At the time the media was controlled by the Hutu radicals, for instance, when RTML (Radio Télévison des Milles Collines) first aired it was spreading hate but concealed its actions by offering poplar music. However following the outbreak of killings, RTLM moved beyond advocating hate, it was actively involved in the slaughter (Wallis,). The RTLM called for the Hutu to kill the Tutsis often using the phrase, “cut down the tall trees” code expression for Hutu to begin murdering Tutsis. The main idea of the propaganda was that the Tutsis were the cockroaches that often attacked the Hutus in the cover of the darkness (Ndahiro,). Since they were regarded as the infiltrators of the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), Hutus saw them as cockroaches- qualifying as adversaries to be slaughtered. Owing to the long existing tension between the Tutsi and Hutu, the propaganda perpetrated by the Hutu extremist was the much needed spark to ignite the violence against the Tutsis. Throughout their operation, the Nazis attempted to keep their camps secret; however, the scale of killings made this almost impossible. However, the international community was silent due to the limited news about the holocaust, as well as the rejection and doubt that animosities of such magnitude could be happening. The result was the death of millions of Jews and non-Jews in the concentration camps. For instance, in Auschwitz a camp in which Wiesel was millions were massacred in a process that seemed like a major industrial operation. Though gassing was only for the Jews, non-Jews died in large numbers in the camps due to starvation, whippings, or ailments (Wiesel, and Wiesel, 68). Several forces among them the Soviet forces, moved against the Nazis and this marked the beginning of the collapse of the regime.