Critical review of account of causes & effects of massacres of half a million Tutsis by Hutus. Examines the international reaction as compared to other genocides.
1,350 words (approx. 5.4 pages), 1 source, 1999, $ 47.95
From the Paper "Alain Destexhe, in Rwanda and Genocide in the Twentieth Century, describes the massacres of half a million Tutsis in Rwanda, places that genocide in its historical context, explains how such a holocaust could occur just fifty years after Hitler, and calls for punishment of the guilty by an international tribunal to forestall another genocide in the future. The book is brief but powerful, leaving the clear impression that what has happened in Rwanda is truly among the three most horrible mass murders in the century. The author is relentless in focusing on the fact that the international community allowed this horror to occur, did little to stop it, funnelled its efforts into largely after-the-fact humanitarianism, and failed to punish the guilty and thus deter future genocide. The author suggests that the world has learned little from the genocides of the Armenians and..."
Abstract Examines the issue of German guilt for the Holocaust and how that guilt affected subsequent generations. Discusses the protagonist, Michael, as inheritor of collective guilt and examines his guilt over his relationship with Hanna.
From the Paper "In the novel The Reader, author Bernhard Schlink explores the issue of German guilt for the Holocaust and how that guilt affects subsequent generations who ask who is responsible, who participate in the guilt even though they were not there, and who in ..."
Abstract This paper claims that the international community failed to act or even uphold international law as a genocide was occurring because Rwanda is a poor African nation, which has very little significance within international relations. The paper examines the issue of hypocrisy within international relations when it comes to upholding and applying international law. The paper claims that international law is applied, or not, depending on the status of a country. It attempts to prove this through an examination of the reaction of the international community to the events that occurred in Rwanda, starting in April of 1994. The paper analyzes the issue of the Rwandan genocide to illustrate that, within international relations, a country receives the protection of the international community, like Kuwait did, not because of any utopian ideals, but because of realistic calculations regarding the importance and significance of this country.
From the Paper "In the second place, and as Philip Gorevitch writes, the Tutsi sent several appeals to the international community to save them and sent detailed reports of what was happening to governments, media and to representatives of Western governments (98-99). In the third place, foreign governments found the reports of the genocide believable enough to order the evacuation of all their citizens from the country. The French government sent its military to evacuate French nationals and witnessed the genocide for themselves (142-144). Consequently, the explanation for lack of action as being lack of knowledge of the genocide is not acceptable by any standards."
Abstract This paper discusses the book "Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland", authored by Christopher Browning. It emphasizes the importance of the command structure during the early days of the Nazi regime, which allowed each person to accept only a small portion of the responsibility for any action. The paper expands on the conditions that caused ordinary men like the members of Battalion 101 to explode into homicidal and even genocidal violence.
From the Paper "We would all like to think that there is something that separates good people from evil people. We would all like to think that there is nothing that would make us behave like the people that we read about in our history books people who slaughter the innocent ..."
Abstract This paper discusses several instances of how the Holocaust has been viewed through the different types of media. The author examines the impact of this and how it has influenced society's opinion about the Holocaust.
From the Paper "World War II is a well-known and well-studied historical event. One experience that is most commonly associated with this is the Holocaust, the worst incident of genocide in history. The accounts of this widespread murder of six million Jews by the Nazis have been passed down through history. Some even refuse to believe that the Holocaust ever took place, even with the numerous accounts and testimonies of survivors along with the countless pieces of evidence that still remain today. Nevertheless, the effects of the Holocaust, the crime of the century, continue to shape our culture long after the actual barbaric event took place."
Tags: adolf, camps, concentration, europe, germany, hitler, ii, jewish, nazi, prisoners, war, world, ww2, wwii
From the Paper Roger Daniels, in Prisoners Without Trials: Japanese Americans in World War II, makes clear that the internment of Japanese-Americans was not simply a fluke that was justifiable during wartime. To the contrary, that internment was part and parcel of both the long American history of prejudice and discrimination against minorities in general (Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, etc.) and especially against Asian Americans.
The argument that the interment was justified because Japanese Americans posed a threat to the security of the United States ignores the fact that Italian Americans and German Americans were not rounded up and placed in internment camps. This was true despite the fact that Germany and Italy were enemies in World War II along with Japan. The racism of the..."
From the Paper "During World War II, the United States interned Japanese residents of the Western states in internment camps such as that at Manzanar in California. The reason was indicated in Executive Order 9066, signed in 1942 by President Roosevelt to give authority to the War Department to define military areas in the western states and to exclude anyone who might be seen as threatening the war effort (Houston and Houston xi-xii). Japanese living in the Western states were seen as potential subversives and were summarily removed to camps to prevent this. The camps operated until after the surrender of Japan, though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled at the end of 1944 that loyal citizens could not be held in detention camps against their will (Houston and Houston, 1973, xii). The United States was wrong to place any Japanese who had not committed any offense into these..."
Abstract This paper analyzes the historical and personal importance of the themes and symbols in Elie Wiesel's award-winning novel on the Holocaust, "Night." The paper examines the symbolism behind the title, the main character's struggle to maintain faith in God and the "silence" of God, the inhumanity of the holocaust, and the change in the father-son relationship between Eliezer and his father.
From the Paper "Elie Wiesel's Night is a deep and dark first hand look into the horrors of the Holocaust. However, more than being just a book on the external events that occurred during this horrific period, it is a story of the internal struggle of a boy who was the only one of his family and one of the extremely fortunate people in the camps to have survived long enough to be rescued. Although the boy in Night is not Elie Wiesel himself, he writes the novel as an autobiography in which the story is virtually the same as was his own, but with some minor details changed. It is really a human document, a first-hand look into the horrific and barely believable acts of inhumanity of the holocaust, and an in-depth look into the slow, torturous destruction of a human soul. This is more than a witnessing of events, more than a historical first-person account of facts. This is a personal story that was similar to millions of others, a story of a moment in history where even God could not have existed. By analyzing the themes and symbols of this work we can better understand the impact the holocaust had on the world and the souls of humanity, the horrific historical impact, and begin to understand what humanity is truly capable of doing to its own kind."
Abstract This paper states that Elie Wiesel's "Night" is a terrifying account of the horrors of Holocaust through the eyes of a child who sees his family killed and whose own spirit is sorely tested, even these many years later, as he looks back on these events. The paper explains that the boy questions everything that in the past has provided some sense of stability--the community, the family, and God as well. The author feels that this book is an exploration of personal identity and an attempt for one man to come to grips with the fact that he has survived while so many did not.
From the Paper "The Holocaust tested those who survived and left them with questions that cannot be answered, or with answers, they could not understand. Moshe says the questions come from the soul and stay there until death, and the question of how and why this could happen is such a question. It is evident that this book is in part an attempt to come to grips with that question, though ultimately the boy who wonders about God in the beginning and who feels by the end that he has been all but abandoned by God never finds the answer as to why this has happened."
Abstract The paper states that the comic book style format used in "Maus" by Art Spiegelman gives a fresh approach to a much-told story of the Holocaust. The paper reveals that the characters being portrayed as mice are seen in sharper relief as human concerns transferred to the world of the mice. The author believes that "Maus" concludes that the failure of so much of the rest of the world to do anything allows the evil of the Nazis to flourish.
From the Paper "In Vladek's world in the 1930s, being "human" meant living in fear and uncertainty. Each day, more people would disappear. If you walked through the wrong door at the wrong time, you could be one of those rounded up that day and taken away. At one point, Vladek sees the S.S. checking papers and slips away, and the S.S. took away half the people on the street that day. He escapes for a time through the intercession of friends who provide him with proof of a job manufacturing goods for Germany, which affords some protection (I 78). This also points to the central motif of the book and the central way in which human beings retain their humanity in the face of great opposition--they do so by helping one another. This happens again when Vladek sees Ilzecki, and Ilzecki takes him into his home to protect him (I 80). In such times, sacrifice comes in many forms--Ilzecki gives up his son to others to raise, and the son lives; Vladek's wife refuses to do the same with her son, and he does not survive (I 81)."
