Similarities Between The Cambodian Genocide And The Holocaust

The Systematic correlations of genocides

Many widespread actions follow outlines, collections of steps, or common traits. Genocides are an example of this. Major similarities are prominent in every genocide, through acts of violent discrimination, extreme dehumanisation, preparation for the end goal, and deadly persecution. The Cambodian genocide and the Holocaust follow the outline of the ten stages of genocide. With genocides following an outline it is a wonder how and why people continue to ignore the initial stages.

Discrimination was one of the major stages in both the Cambodian genocide and the Holocaust. When describing discrimination as a stage of genocide Holocaust Memorial Day Trust gives the example “Jews were stripped of their

In both genocides the perpetrators took rights from the targeted groups and left them defenceless with little way to fight back or to leave. The Night of Broken Glass, or Kristallnacht is viewed as one of the most memorable events in the Holocaust where synagogues all around Germany were destroyed and Jewish owned businesses were vandalized in the night. Similar to Synagogues, religious practices in Cambodia were banned as well. The shared brutality in both cases shows the clear effort to inflict distress onto Jewish and Cambodian people with restriction and destruction of religious values. Many people targeted in the holocaust were not Jewish but fell into one of the other groups that the Nazis targeted in an effort to create an “Aryan” race and “cleanse” the nation. In the Cambodian genocide, “Religious and ethnic minorities faced particular persecution. Christian and Buddhist groups were targeted for repression, but it was the Cham Muslim group that was most affected by the genocide” (University of Minnesota). The Khmer Rouge targeted anyone who did not fit into their strict requirements, which is relatable to the Nazi’s target

They were forced into communal farming with other prisoners, “the entire population of Cambodia became indentured servants forced to work on the farms in the countryside. They were organized into massive labor gangs that worked long hours, without wages or leisure” (Cambodian Genocide «Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center). Working on these farms could be comparable to concentration camps in the holocaust, with prisoners starving, overworking, undergoing sever abuse, and lots dying. “The Khmer Rouge created labor brigades, assigning groups depending on age and gender” (University of Minnesota). The labor brigades separated many families who would never see each other again, similar to the Holocaust separating families on where they would go. “Torture and execution were frequent in the collective farms. The majority of the victims of the regime were killed in the farms giving rise to the phrase, ‘the killing fields.’”( Terror, Museum of Communist), The killing fields are notorious in the Cambodia, similar to the Holocausts death marches, they both are exhausting systematic labour which resulted in