Chapter 11 Genocide

Question 1

Albigensian Crusade

Answer 1

Named after the city of Albi, a Cathar stronghold. The crusade was led by nobles from the north of France who saw an opportunity for land and enrichment in addition to serving their faith and the church. Characterized by numerous massacres, this crusade saw the virtual depopulation of southern France as entire communities were annihilated.

Question 2

Arkan’s Tigers

Answer 2

The Bosnian Serb paramilitary group that rampaged through Muslim-dominated towns such as Bijeljina, Brčko, and Zvornik, killing, torturing, and raping. They attacked and took Srebrenica on April 18, 1992.

Question 3

Armenian Genocide

Answer 3

The genocide beginning in 1914 in Turkey, in which over 1 million Armenians were killed

Question 4

Auschwitz

Answer 4

A World War II Nazi death camp.

Question 5

Banality of Evil

Answer 5

Hannah Arendt’s famous characterization of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi official who was responsible for much of the logistical organization and planning of the Holocaust genocide. The comment recognizes that the perpetrators of genocide tend to be ordinary folks and leads to the understanding that anyone has the potential to participate in this horrible crime.

Question 6

Bigoted Perpetrators

Answer 6

Those who have prejudices against the populations being targeted for destruction; often, these hatreds and stereotypes are long-standing and ancient, being rooted in history

Question 7

Bureaucratic Perpetrators

Answer 7

Those who participate in genocide because they work in organizations that are called upon to take part in the apparatus of killing. Their participation may be fairly small and mundane and appear fairly harmless—such as scheduling trains or compiling lists—but it is nonetheless ultimately lethal.

Question 8

Careerist Perpetrators

Answer 8

Those who become perpetrators because they can advance their careers and get promotions and choice assignments through participation. For these individuals, assisting in the persecution of the victims is simply a way to get ahead professionally.

Question 9

Cathars

Answer 9

Victims of a historical example of genocide. This prevalent and popular Christian sect in southern France during the early 13th century believed that the world was evil and that people should live a frugal and ascetic life in order to avoid being corrupted by the world. They also believed in reincarnation and treated men and women equally.

Question 10

Collective Political Violence

Answer 10

Any violence that is carried out by a state or government, including genocide

Question 11

Comradely Perpetrators

Answer 11

Take part in genocide because they don’t want to let down their comrades and friends; this kind of killer participates because his bonds to the other members of the group or unit are stronger than any prohibitions he may have against participation

Question 12

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

Answer 12

The event in which the United Nations officially defined genocide and recognized it as a crime under international law

Question 13

Cultural Genocide

Answer 13

A type of genocide in which the members of a targeted group are not subjected to physical violence; rather, their culture—language, belief, traditions, and so on—is singled out for destruction

Question 14

Despotic Genocides

Answer 14

Involve situations in which a government uses genocide as a weapon against rivals for political power

Question 15

Developmental Genocides

Answer 15

Targeted groups that are seen as an impediment to the colonization and/or exploitation of a given geographic area; this happens most often against indigenous peoples who may be perceived as being in the way of progress

Question 16

Disciplined Perpetrators

Answer 16

Those who participate in a genocide because of the need to conform within certain institutional settings where obeying orders is the norm and disobedience is punished. This is perhaps most applicable to police officers, military personnel, and militia members—all members of organizations in which obedience is very important.

Question 17

Einsatzgruppen

Answer 17

Special extermination squads that followed behind the German army in World War II and were tasked with rounding up all Soviet political figures and Jews and then executing them en masse

Question 18

Ethnic Cleansing

Answer 18

The process or policy of eliminating unwanted ethnic or religious groups by many means, including deportation, forcible displacement, mass murder, or by threats of such acts, with the intent of creating a territory inhabited by people of a homogeneous ethnicity, religion, culture, and/or history

Question 19

Fearful Perpetrators

Answer 19

Lend their help to the killing during a genocide because they genuinely fear that they will be hurt or killed if they don’t participate

Question 20

Forced Assimilation

Answer 20

The policy of taking children away from their families and educating them as a way to destroy their native cultures

Question 21

Genocide

Answer 21

First coined in 1944 by Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in his book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe; the word was originally meant to bring attention to the atrocities being perpetrated by the Nazis. The term refers to the killing of a race or tribe or population; from the Greek genos, which means race or tribe, and the Latin cide, which translates as killing.

Question 22

Genocide by Attrition

Answer 22

A slower and less direct form of genocide that seeks to destroy a population not through direct violence but through creating conditions that bring about malnutrition, starvation, and disease

Question 23

Genocide in the Darfur Region

Answer 23

Darfur is a region in Sudan that is home to about 6 million people from almost 100 tribes, but all are Muslims. After people in this region took up arms against the government, the Sudanese government unleashed Arab militias known as the Janjaweed, who killed over 400,000 people and displaced over 2,500,000 more.

Question 24

Hereros

Answer 24

Natives of German South-West Africa in what is present-day Namibia; the first genocide of the 20th century was in this region

Question 25

Holocaust

Answer 25

The preeminent example of genocide, in which the Nazis killed 21 million people

Question 26

Human Rights Violation

Answer 26

Any act that violates the inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is entitled

Question 27

Hutu

Answer 27

The population that controlled the government in Rwanda and instigated the genocide in the 1990s

Question 28

Ideological Genocide

Answer 28

The attempted destruction of a population because of a belief system

Question 29

Ideological Perpetrators

Answer 29

True believers who find their justification for participation in a genocide in a belief system that demands the destruction of a group; this kind of killer is most typically drawn from among the social elites

Question 30

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)

Answer 30

First international court to convict someone for the crime of genocide. This international court convicted Jean Paul Akayesu. In this verdict, the court underscored the fact that rape and sexual violence constitute genocide in the same way as any other act that is committed with the intent to destroy a particular group. The court defined rape as “the physical invasion of a sexual nature, committed on a person under circumstances which are coercive.”

Question 31

Khmer Rouge

Answer 31

Also called the Red Khmers. This was a Cambodian communist group who overthrew the government in 1975 and established Democratic Kampuchea, which was anything but democratic. The Khmer Rouge had decided it wanted to create a utopian communist Khmer nation, free from what they saw as corrupting and foreign influences. Over a four-year period, the Khmer Rouge systematically starved, beat, worked to death, tortured, and murdered between 1 and 2 million of its own citizens.

Question 32

Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass)

Answer 32

November 9, 1938; after a Jewish man shot and killed a Nazi diplomatic aide in Paris, the Nazis orchestrated a series of attacks over the next few days that resulted in an estimated 7,500 Jewish businesses being looted, over 1,000 synagogues destroyed, just under 100 murders, and some 30,000 Jews being sent to concentration camps

Question 33

Materialist Perpetrators

Answer 33

Those who try to profit from a genocide

Question 34

Middleman Minority Groups

Answer 34

Serve as intermediaries between producers and consumers in a society; their role alienates them from the mainstream society

Question 35

Nazis

Answer 35

Adolf Hitler’s government responsible for the Holocaust in World War II

Question 36

Netherlands Institute of War Documentation

Answer 36

Commissioned by the Dutch government in 1996 in response to a public outcry to investigate the Srebrenica massacre

Question 37

Retributive Genocides

Answer 37

Perpetrated by one group against another engaged in a struggle for political and social power

Question 38

Rwandan Genocide

Answer 38

Retributive genocide in which the Hutu government instigated a genocide against the Tutsi population, partially because the Hutus were trying to maintain power during a civil war

Question 39

Sobibor

Answer 39

One of the most notorious death camps built by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland

Question 40

Srebrenica

Answer 40

A town in Bosnia and Herzegovina where more than 8,000 Bosnia Muslims, mainly men and boys, were murdered in July 1995

Question 41

Totalitarian

Answer 41

Refers to governments in which all power is centralized in the state and its leaders, who demand absolute obedience

Question 42

Treblinka

Answer 42

One of the most notorious death camps built by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland

Question 43

Tutsi

Answer 43

Rwandan minority; nearly 1 million Tutsi were murdered during the genocide in 1994

Question 44

United Nations (UN)

Answer 44

An international organization founded in 1945 after World War II by 51 countries committed to maintaining international peace and security; developing friendly relations among nations; and promoting social progress, better living standards, and human rights

Question 45

Universe of Obligation

Answer 45

Feelings of segregation and marginalization that are heightened during wartime, when a government and population may feel under threat and therefore more inclined to scapegoat a group that can be blamed for the problems and misfortunes of the larger community

Question 46

Utopia

Answer 46

Any vision of a perfect and unattainable society

Question 47

Violent Perpetrators

Answer 47

Those individuals who enjoy perpetrating violence. While clearly in the minority, some who participate in genocide can clearly be classified as sadistic or psychopathic.

Question 48

War Crimes

Answer 48

Defined by international law, it is often difficult to determine the classification of war crimes because of overlap; generally, torture and medical experimentation are considered war crimes