Comparing Holocaust And The Rwandan Genocide

Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary School Education
History

School-based Assessment Task One
Presentation of study outline

Name of student: Hugo Wong
Class:
6A
Class no.: 36

Selected elective (please put in the appropriate box):
Comparative studies

Issue-based studies
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Local heritage studies
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Title
Compare the characteristics and impacts of the two genocides - the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide

Study outline Genocide is a specific term that refers to the violent crimes committed against groups with the intent to destroy the existence of the group. The reasons of genocide can be classified as religious, national, ethnical or racial factors. Various kinds of violent crimes, such as, killing, deliberating, inflicting, imposing
The emergence of Holocaust was the expansion of anti-Semitism. First, Judaism, the religion which the Jews believed in, has long history of conflict with Christianity and Catholicism of persecution and massacre, for example, the founder of Christian, Jesus Christ, was sentenced to death by the Roma government due to the libel of the Jews priest, meanwhile, there were countless anti-Jews pogroms during 19th- and 20th century. These caused a vicious cycle between the inter-relationship between the Christian, Catholics and Jews. In addition, in 1933, 67% and 33% of the German population was Protestant (one of the schools of Christianity) and Catholics respectively (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). Thus, most of the German held hostility towards the Jews. Second, after WWI, Germany was suffering from economic hardship as she has to pay a total of USD $33billion as reparation. This gave financial burden to the German economy and people’s living condition was then deplorable, however, at the same time; the Jews were enjoying their wealth as they are good at commerce. Consequently, a feeling of jealousy was widespread in the German society. As a result, the Nazis made good use with the feeling of hatred and jealousy as a political method to gain popular support and shaped the Jews as a common enemy in an attempt to unite the nation. Thus, the Holocaust was launched and the Jews
During the genocide, an estimated 500 thousands to 1 million Rwandan were killed, covering 20% of the population of Rwanda and 75% of the Tutsi population (Melvern, 2009). The underlying cause is the uneven allocation of power in the colony era and the Rwandan Civil War, between the Hutu and Tutsi in 1990. When Rwanda was still a French and Belgian colony, Tutsi-supremacy has been advocated by the suzerain. Thus, the seed of racial conflict has been sowed. Also, after WWII, Rwanda started to gain independence, meanwhile, the tension between the Tutsi, who favored early independence, and the Hutu emancipation movement has escalated to the mass slaughter of opposing race by themselves. The Rwandan Civil War (1990) further deepened the hostility between the Hutus and the Tutsis. These caused the two races to simmer with anger, causing more significant racial conflict and led the genocide inevitable after the death of Habyarimana. Under the international pressure, the Hutu-led government of Habyarimana resulted in a ceasefire in 1993, with a plan to share power and form a power-equally-shared government with the Tutsi. However, this act caused more oppositions from the Hutus and an idea of ‘Hutu Power’ was widespread. It portrayed the Tutsi as a force intented on reinstating the Tutsis and enslaving the Hutu. Also,