The Difference Between The Rwandan Genocide And The Holocaust?
In recent history, many tragedies have devastated the lives of millions of people all around the world. Some such events, like the Rwandan Genocide and the Holocaust, had people committing calculated mass murders and persecutions against others, solely based on their ethnic identity. During these heinous acts against mankind, the oppressors view their victims as inferior and unworthy. For instance, the Jewish people who experienced the violence of the Holocaust had to witness their friends and families perish at the hands of Nazi soldiers at concentration camps across Europe. The Tutsis of the Rwanda had a similar experience, in which they were forced to face the ruthless savagery of the Hutus in their own back yards. In many cases, the Tutsis
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While out in public, their oppressors used different tools but similar tactics so that their victims were sure to stand out from everyone else, and so that they could be targeted. According to the memoir, Night, at the beginning of the Holocaust, Wiesel and other Jews in his community were told by the German gestapo to wear yellow stars on their clothing. At first, most people did not see this as much of an issue, as exemplified by Wiesel’s father, who said, “The yellow star? So what? It’s not lethal…” (11). However, it was later discovered that the easily identifiable star would make the process of sending Jews to the brutal concentration camps much easier. A similar form of discrimination was used during the Rwandan Genocide. In this case, ethnicity identification cards and checkpoints were used by the Hutu extremists to pinpoint whether a person is a Hutu or a Tutsi. If someone was to arrive at one of these checkpoints and discovered to be a Tutsi, they were murdered immediately (Longman 35). Being a Jew in Nazi Germany or a Tutsi in Rwanda meant one had to constantly face the prospect of being slaughtered and monitored over everyday in their own …show more content…
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda. London, Picador, 1999.
Longman, Timothy. “The Legacy of Colonization and the Roots of the Rwandan Genocide.” 2005. Rwanda, edited by Noah Bertlasky, Greenhaven P, 2015, pp. 24-39. Genocide and Persecution.
Wiesel, Elie. Night. Translated by Marion Wiesel, New York, Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
While out in public, their oppressors used different tools but similar tactics so that their victims were sure to stand out from everyone else, and so that they could be targeted. According to the memoir, Night, at the beginning of the Holocaust, Wiesel and other Jews in his community were told by the German gestapo to wear yellow stars on their clothing. At first, most people did not see this as much of an issue, as exemplified by Wiesel’s father, who said, “The yellow star? So what? It’s not lethal…” (11). However, it was later discovered that the easily identifiable star would make the process of sending Jews to the brutal concentration camps much easier. A similar form of discrimination was used during the Rwandan Genocide. In this case, ethnicity identification cards and checkpoints were used by the Hutu extremists to pinpoint whether a person is a Hutu or a Tutsi. If someone was to arrive at one of these checkpoints and discovered to be a Tutsi, they were murdered immediately (Longman 35). Being a Jew in Nazi Germany or a Tutsi in Rwanda meant one had to constantly face the prospect of being slaughtered and monitored over everyday in their own …show more content…
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda. London, Picador, 1999.
Longman, Timothy. “The Legacy of Colonization and the Roots of the Rwandan Genocide.” 2005. Rwanda, edited by Noah Bertlasky, Greenhaven P, 2015, pp. 24-39. Genocide and Persecution.
Wiesel, Elie. Night. Translated by Marion Wiesel, New York, Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux,