Rwanda Genocide Persuasive Speech

Although separated by fifty years, the Rwandan Genocide and the Holocaust both made their marks as being some of the most deadly genocides in history. In 1994, over 800,000 people were killed in one-hundred days in Rwanda. When the Belgians first settled the area, they split the natives into two groups: the Tutsis and the Hutus. Once they lef, hundreds of years later, they put the Tutsi people in charge; they also left behind a strong resentment between the people. On April 6, the killings of the Tutsi people began, led by the bloodthirsty Hutu extremists known as the Interahamwe. Similarly, around 1940, the German Nazis conducted the extermination of those they deemed unworthy of the German Empire, such as Jews, Homosexuals, and Gypsies. By

It allowed Valentina and Wiesel to convey what happened during that time of their life, although the words could not possibly do the events justice in how gruesome and terrible they were. "First they asked people to hand over their money, saying they would spare those who paid. But after taking the money they killed them anyway. Then they started to throw grenades. I saw a man blown up in the air, in pieces, by a grenade. The leader said that we were snakes and that to kill snakes you had to smash their heads,” (Keane, 4). This quote is from an article about Valentina in which she talks of what happened in the church as hundreds of innocent people were murdered, including her own family. She also talked of the methods and heartlessness of the killers. "If they found someone alive they would smash their heads with stones. I saw them take little children and smash their heads together until they were dead. There were children begging for pity but they killed them straight away," (Keane, 4). Within the first 50 pages of “Night”, a book written by Wiesel that tells of his experiences, he talks of the horrors he witnessed. “Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky. Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever,” (Wiesel,