Through the course of the Holocaust in the early 1940's, roughly eleven million people were killed because of their religion, race, appearance or convictions(The Holocaust Center of the United Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh). In 1995 in Rwanda, hundreds of thousands of people were murdered for either being Tutsis or for sympathizing with them. The people who carried out these evil deeds had been friends, neighbors, even relatives with the victims for years prior to the genocide's (Philip Gourevitch). So what happened to sway these everyday people to kill? There is no formula for making a good genocide, but by examining these recent ones we can hopefully note similarities and common denominators what may make a society more prone to accept these extremities.

First of all, the society must be ready to accept almost anything as a solution to their current problems. In Rwanda, the Hutu people had been farmers for years, making substantially less money than their Tutsi neighbors. The easiest way to explain their predicament was by alleging that it was the Tutsi's fault that they weren't making much money. When their president was killed in a plane crash, inducing further unrest in the community, it was the perfect time for Hutu extremists to make their move and set into motion what is probably the most bloody genocide in recent history by blaming the death of their president on Tutsis.

In Germany in the 1930's, World War I had crippled the economies of most countries involved in the war, but had left Germany particularly weak. To buy a ticket to a movie literally cost billions of marks, and even the rich were feeling the effects of a weakened economy (Albert Speer). When the leader of the nearly nonexistent Nazi Party began gaining popularity, he mentioned the Jews merely as a side note; a scapegoat for all of Germany's problems, because they didn't seem to be doing as badly as everyone else. At that time in Germany, many Jews worked for banks, as diamond cutters, and other professions that were still thriving, even in a depression(Holocaust Center). More importantly, however, Hitler gained support by constructing better housing structures for people who had to work on the construction of the autobahn for sometimes weeks at a time. He created jobs for people who were out of work and he had answers as well as, it seemed, solutions for fixing the economy. Only very slowly did he begin to expose the German people to his hidden agenda of improving the human race through eugenics.

Hitler was a firm believer in the science of eugenics, the study of improving the human race through genealogy. "Positive Eugenics" refers to the selective breeding of people to breed out negative traits. Octavia Butler writes about the breeding of individuals with extrasensory abilities in her science-fiction novel, "Wild Seed". But sadly, positive eugenics go far beyond science-fiction. Sterilization also fits under this category, where a person is forced to undergo surgery to prevent them from ever having children again. A good example of this is Carrie Buck, who was raped and gave birth to an illegitimate daughter. Unfortunately for Carrie, her mother was also being treated at a mental hospital for "feeblemindedness". Witnesses testified that Vivian was doing very poorly in school and was displaying signs of "feeblemindedness" as well. The state of Virginia decided that three generations of idiots were enough, and Carrie Buck was sterilized. It wasn't until years later that it became public that Carrie was actually raped by a relative of her foster parents, and that Vivian was not a result of her promiscuity (Lombardo).

"Negative Eugenics" refers to the systematic removal of an entire race to prevent them from creating any more people. A good example of this would be the Rwanda genocide, where the Tutsi race was so demonized that Hutus and Hutu supporters attempted to wipe them out all together (and they almost succeeded). The Rwandans, though, did not use eugenics to provide evidence as to how the Tutsi's were an inferior race. Theirs was a genocide spurred mainly by hatred, jealousy, and general political unrest. While it is true that many Germans had good reason to be jealous of the Jews, many of whom were managing to remain financially stable during the depression, and while there was a lot of political unrest, Hitler and other Nazi's don't use these reasons primarily to explain why they decided to annihilate the Jews and tried to create a "master race" of Aryans, blonde-haired and blue-eyed Caucasians. Hitler explains, in his book "Mein Kampf," all the differences between the races, all of their greater or lower values, who is on top and who is on the bottom. While the "Germanic Man" is on top, the Jews, Czechs, Poles and Russians are on the bottom. Hitler explains that the greatest enemy of the Aryan is the Jew, and accuses the Jews of controlling the world media and attempting to control the world finances. When Mein Kampf was released in 1925, it sold poorly. But when WWII broke out, it sold millions of copies which were given to newlyweds and graduates, and although it was considered "proper" to own a copy, not many people read the whole thing for themselves. To me, this sounds a lot like the bible (The History Place).

As the genocide in Rwanda grew nearer and nearer, citizens said that they could sense the impending catastrophe in the months before. Radio stations that had before played music for all were taken over by Hutu propagandists, who slid their agendas into the programming whenever it was possible. Suddenly, listeners all over the country (it is a small country) were hearing that Tutsis were cockroaches, that they needed to be squashed (Gourevitch)! Since there aren't many radio stations in Rwanda, most people just kept listening. You wouldn't think that something so simple as comparing a group of people to an insect would be enough to incite mass murder, but the results say otherwise. Newspapers started springing up that also glorified the Hutu position. Slowly, people began to gather in opposition to the Tutsi race as a whole, and slowly those people began plans to put into action an extremely brutal genocide.

One particular newspaper called "Kangura" managed to cause quite a stir. With a format nearly identical to another paper called "Kanguka," that criticized the anti-Tutsi movement, Kangura served to represent the opposite school of thought. When Agatha Habyarimana, wife to the Hutu chief (some say she was truly the power behind the throne) discovered Kanguka, she decided to start her own newspaper. Gourevitch states "They didn't know the first thing about newspapers, but they were experts on human weakness- especially vanity and veniality". Hassan Ngeze was appointed to edit the new paper, but it wasn't long before he and the editor of Kanguka were both jailed for disrupting the public order. However, when Ngeze managed to get out and resume editing his paper, the editor of Kanguka remained in prison. Soon, Kangura became nothing more than an anti-Tutsi testament that was published on a regular basis. With comics, articles, and specials such as "The Hutu Ten Commandments," the paper became widely circulated and immensely popular. I think it can safely be said that this newspaper was one of the key contributors to creating public anger and unrest of the Tutsis, while simultaneously managing to dehumanize them (Gourevitch 85). Similarly, Hitler won his fans through propaganda. Although Hitler was appointed to power by the Kaiser, and was never actually elected, he did have a following of fans who weren't all hateful people (Vera Langhorst). Through a wide range of expert speakers, beautiful posters, and his own book, Mein Kampf, Hitler won himself quite a following. By referring to murder and killing with words like "cleansing" and "purification," the act of killing was no longer evil, and no longer a sin. By killing a Jew, you were doing a service to mankind (similar to the way that killing a Tutsi as doing a favor to mankind, because who wants cockroaches around?) (Holocaust Center). Although not all of the people who followed him knew what his agenda truly was, he didn't really make his agenda clear until he had sufficiently demonized the Jewish people (Speer). You could argue that with Dachau first built in 1933, as a home for communists and enemies of the Nazi party, that Hitler's hateful intent should have been clear (Dachau Scrapbook). But it had not yet been established that these camps would be used to eradicate the Jews, and holding your enemies as prisoners has been standard practice since the dawn of war.

The brightest color in the picture is the blazing red of the Nazi flag, and a brilliant eagle soars right over the sun, we can see his impressive wingspan in his silhouette. In the background we can see a mighty river flowing through the mist. Hitler's right hand is clutched determinedly, and the look in his eyes is solemn but set. There is no question about it, this picture is portraying the Nazi's marching off to war, with Hitler leading them to victory. This is just one of the countless propaganda images that Hitler produced. I would include one of the poster's used in Rwanda but I couldn't find a single one.

The dehumanization of our enemies has also been a tactic used by armies for years. During World War II, there were plenty of posters portraying Japanese people as repugnant, cold hearted killers, often wielding guns or missiles. While this must have been effective in making it easier for our boys to shoot down Japanese planes, it also caused conflicts among the Japanese community and the rest of the USA at home (Genocide Watch).

The Jews were dehumanized in a number of ways. First, Nazis simply encouraged people to boycott Jewish businesses. But eventually, many Jewish businesses were either forced to be sold to non-Jewish owners, or were shut down all together. Jewish doctors and lawyers were restricted from practicing on anyone who wasn't jewish. Eventually, little by little, the Jews were forced out of society. Jews were also required to display a yellow star on their clothing. One of my sources compared this to the branding of cattle. And of course, there were countless posters depicting Jews as greedy old misers, and even as a mix between Blacks and Arabians. All of this dehumanization took place over 5 or 6 years, and it's effectiveness was proven on the night of November 9th, 1938, when thousands of civilians throughout Germany and Austria took place in "Kristallnocht," or "The Night of Broken Glass," when thousands of Jews were killed or deported to concentration camps, and everyday people looted their shops and broke into their homes causing mass havoc. The name "The Night of Broken Glass" refers to the condition of the streets the next morning, which were all covered in the shattered glass of Jewish shop windows (Holocaust Center).

Most people didn't have so hard a time looting Jewish homes and shops because the Jews had been isolated from them for so long. Also, the German government had ordered the attack, and encouraged everyone to get involved. This lack of personal responsibility made it easier for some to quiet their consciences, because it wasn't really directly their fault. We also see examples of this behavior in Stanley Milgram's study in authority. In 1961, with hundreds of high-ranking Nazi officials on trial for committing war crimes, was it possible that they could use "just following orders" as an excuse for killing thousands, perhaps millions of people? Milgram found that 65% of the people in his study administered what they thought was a lethal shock to another human, when they were told by an authoritative figure to do so. In several cases, they would be nervous about getting sued for shocking a person so severely, but when the man in charge reassured them that he would assume all responsibility for any harm, they would continue, assured that hey were doing no wrong. Besides Nazis being put on trial for war crimes, however, other things were also going on in 19961. Many American solders were still recovering from the shock of participating in WWII, and even the Korean War. It is interesting to note that most of the men who took part in Milgram's experiment had a strong military background, and thus were conditioned to follow orders. Another interesting tidbit that we did not cover in class (and that I haven't heard about in any class so far even though we studied Milgram in several I have been in so far) is that Milgram conducted several follow-up experiments to find out what would make people less likely to deliver the 150 volt shock. In one, the teacher had to hold the hand of the learner on a shock plate thus literally having a personal "hand" in the fate of he learner. Still, 32% of the teachers delivered the shock.

Milgram's experiment was replicated by others from 1961 until 1985 in Germany, South Africa, Australia and other European countries. It is interesting to note that subjects in Germany administered what they thought was a lethal shock 85% of the time. Perhaps this says something about the way the German people are raised to view authority (Milgram).

This experiment definitely applies to those involved in the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda. With so many high-powered officials assuring you that killing your neighbors is the right thing to do, and that you aren't a bad person, and you're not going to go to hell (because these people are no more human than a cockroach anyway), it would be very easy, or at least manageable, to quiet your conscience. And when you are being forced to commit such gruesome atrocities on your fellow man, perhaps the only way you can keep your sanity is to purposely quiet your conscience.

Many Nazis found the group-dynamic very powerful in persuading them to follow Hitler. Albert Speer describes the Nazi rallies as social events that hundreds of students from his college would go to for fun. This bandwagon principle is very effective because when so many peers are going along with something, it is very easy to be swept away. This is illustrated in the article by high school history teacher Ron Jones, Take as Directed, when a small classroom experiment soon swept away almost an entire high school. In his experiment, Jones recreated the atmosphere of discipline and community that was prevalent in Nazi Germany, to prove a point to his students about how easy it is to be overtaken by a group. Soon, students were acting just as the S.S. Police did, reporting students who disagreed with "The Wave"'s policies, making banners, and saluting each other in the hallways. Some have criticized Jones's experiment as being unethical, but one can't argue that it has served as a very insightful study into how easy it is to manipulate a community. And Jones didn't even have a fraction of the money, resources, or confidants that Hitler did, or that the Anti-Tutsi movement did.

One more factor that might induce a genocide is Jealousy. Both in Rwanda and in Germany, the victims were doing better financially than their killers. The Tutsi's were hailed by early French settlers as the more beautiful of the two races, with taller bodies, lighter skin and thinner noses than their dark, squat, wide-nosed Hutu counterparts (of course, however, there are Tutsis who look like Hutus and Hutus who look like Tutsis). Tutsis also were traditionally the raisers of livestock, which has always been more expensive than agriculture, which the Hutus tended to. Hence, the Tutsi's were generally better off. In Germany, many Jews worked in banks as tellers (although most Jews did not own the banks they worked in, they were still making a good living), as diamond cutters and jewel setters, and other occupations which involved money. That is not to say, however, that Jews are money-hungry misers as the Nazi's liked to portray them.

Throughout the Genocide in Rwanda, other African nations were also affected. Tutsis were murdered throughout Burundi, where they make up 14% of the population. Regardless of heritage, more than 150,000 Burundians have been killed. It is estimated that in Rwanda alone, over 800,000 Tutsis were killed. So many, in fact, that there is a severe dip in 1994 in this population bar graph of Rwanda that I found:

In order to avoid a genocide, all of the factors I have discussed must be avoided, or if they cannot be avoided, people must be aware of them so that they don't let themselves get swept away in the excitement of killing. In order to prevent future genocide's, above all, people must be aware of the tricks that governments will play in order to get them to kill. With that awareness will come a greater capacity to dictate one's own actions, and therein is our ability to prevent history from repeating itself.