Today, January 27th, is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This day was established in 2005 by the United Nations in order to remember the event, honor the victims, and ensure it never happens again.
The Holocaust is one of the most well known in modern history for its atrocities, including a death toll of 6 million jews that were killed in open fire, burned alive, experimented on, and worked to death. Although Jews were the most impacted group, other minorities were also displaced, tortured, and killed.
Despite the importance of preventing this from happening again, it’s difficult to do so with the hate and ignorance that surrounds the subject.
To this day, there are many stereotypes, assumptions, and hate speech that not only harm the jews but also other groups impacted. Therefore, today should be a day to recognize not only the Holocaust but other genocides that show the extent to which hate can hurt people.
The Armenian Genocide
Considered one of the first documented modern genocides, the Armenian Genocide took place in the —no longer existing— Ottoman Empire during WWI (World War One). The Armenians were a big but concentrated population that formed part of the empire and lived in Anatolia.
The Armanians were feared by the Ottoman Empire because their different religion and large numbers would have given them the ability to claim independence from the empire if they wanted to.
Due to this fear, Armenians started being targeted in some shootings and dispersed attacks. As As they began losing battle in the Balkan Wars and then WW1, the Ottoman Empire increased the intensitiy of these attacks and converted them to Islam. Death counts are not accurate due to erasure but estimates say this genocide resulted in somewhere between 600,000 to 1.5 million killed Armenians.
The Holocaust
The Holocaust is the most infamous genocide. The Holocaust began in Germany when President Adolf Hitler took power. The scapegoats for many problems during the time were the Jews because of their differences compared to the rest of society. Hitler’s campaign promised to get rid of them and he had the idea of creating a pure white and blonde race.
Soon Hitler’s plan took place as he started taking over bordering countries and capturing jews, blacks, disabled, homosexuals, and other minorities. The result was a death toll of more than 6 million. This genocide took place during the Second World War, which faced its own steep death toll as well.
The Cambodian Genocide
The Cambodian Genocide took place from 1975 to 1979 in Cambodia and resulted in the death of 1.5 to 2 million mostly Cambodians but also Muslims, Buddhists and others. The Genocide stemmed from a group called the Khmer Rouge, a communist organization that took over the country of Cambodia and turned it into a communist aggrairian paradise; in order to do that, they set to killing all those who opposed them. This targeted any and all forms of religions, therefore all Cambodians with a religion were targeted to be captured and killed. The genocide finally stopped after four years when Vietnam invaded the country.
The Anfal Campaign
The Anfal Campaign, also known as the Anfal Genocide, was a killing of a small minority group known as the Kurds. The genoicde took place during the Iran-Iraq war from 1986 to 1989. The word anfal means “the spoils” and that’s what the Kurds were called by the Iraqis.
The Kurds had been blamed for many things in the past, but in times of war, they were accused of helping Iran and rebelling against Iraq. As a result, the Iraqi government began killing them through shootings, concentration camps, and chemical attacks. Towards the end of the genocide, they moved many Kurds to designated cities where they would be bombed. Overall, this led to the killing of between 50,000 to 182,000 Kurds.
The Bosnian Genocide
One of the latest genocides was the Bosnian Genocide, which occured during the Bosnian War in 1995. The genocide took place in mordern day Bosnia in Europe. At the time, Bosnia was controlled by Serbia, which held a large anti-Bosnian sentiment and made it known. Bosnians were killed, raped, assoulted, and tortured mercilessly, leading to the death of more than 8,000 Bosnians.
All these examples show that genocide is not a thing of the past, and hate can carry into stronger forms very quickly. Therefore, on a day like this, people pay their respects to those who died during the Holocaust and learn about events like those to make sure they never happen again.
