After researching many genocides I had seen a repetative pattern of dehumanization and denail, and had come to the conclusion that only a detached mind could fathom this state of mind.
Holocaust denial, (referred to by its supporters as Holocaust revisionism), is the belief that the Holocaust did not occur, or, more specifically: that far fewer than around six million Jews were killed by the Nazis (numbers below one million, most often around 30,000 are typically cited); that there never was a centrally-planned Nazi attempt to exterminate the Jews; and/or that there were not mass killings at the extermination camps. Those who hold this position often further claim that Jews and/or Zionists know that the Holocaust never occurred, yet that they are engaged in a massive conspiracy to maintain the illusion of a Holocaust to further their political agenda. As the Holocaust is generally considered by historians to be one of the most documented events in recent history, these views are not accepted as credible by scholars, with organizations such as the American Historical Association, the largest society of historians in the United States, stating that Holocaust denial is "at best, a form of academic fraud."[48]
Holocaust deniers almost always prefer to be called Holocaust revisionists. Most scholars contend that the latter term is misleading. Historical revisionism, in the original sense of the word, is a well-accepted and mainstream part of the study of history; it is the reexamination of accepted history, with an eye towards updating it with newly discovered, more accurate, and/or less biased information, or viewing known information from a new perspective. In contrast, negationists typically willfully misuse or ignore historical records in order to attempt to prove their conclusions, as Gordon McFee writes:
'Revisionists' depart from the conclusion that the Holocaust did not occur and work backwards through the facts to adapt them to that preordained conclusion. Put another way, they reverse the proper methodology [...], thus turning the proper historical method of investigation and analysis on its head.[49] (www.wikipedia.com)
Entrenched Rwandan Racism
Some argue that the violence in the region is a result of the theories of race developed in Europe that also led to the Holocaust perpetrated by Nazi Germany. These ideas were started by John Hanning Speke's initial speculations on African races. Unlike the other African states' mixed ethnic groups, Rwandans were considered by Speke and later racial theorists to be divided between sub-Saharan "Blacks" and the favored Hamites. Ostensibly the Tutsi were assigned the role of the "more noble" Hamites and Hutu as inferior Bantu.[citations needed]
During the colonial period, the dominant Tutsis encouraged the racial speculations that justified their rule, but that policy poisoned Rwandan culture with racism that became a danger for the Tutsis once they lost power. The ingrained Rwandan racism was reversed when Rwanda gained independence and majority rule gave political power to the Hutus. The majority Hutus who had previously been oppressed by the Tutsis retained the same ingrained racist beliefs, but now came to view the Tutsis as "foreign invaders" rather than "true Rwandans". Similar ethnic and racial divisions in other parts of Northeastern Africa have led to similar violence.[2]
Many Rwandans claim that there was little inter-ethnic rivalry until it was deliberately encouraged by the Juvénal Habyarimana government as a ploy to counter Paul Kagame and the Rwandan Patriotic Front's (RPF) largely Tutsi invasion on October 1, 1990.[citations needed]
[edit]Psychology
Psychologists have also attempted to explain the genocide that occurred in Rwanda. They have done this by using the available theories. Firstly, the agency theory proposed by Milgram could explain this with strong evidence of the experiments conducted by Milgram. The Charismatic Leadership Theory, Social Identity Theory and Authoritarianism Theory could also be used to explain it. (www.wikipedia.com)
Armenian Dehumanization
In May 1915, Talaat requested that government's cabinet and grand vizier pass and enact a law which would legitimize the deportations of Armenians living both near the Russian front and interior. On May 29, 1915, the CUP Central Committee passed the Temporary Law of Deportation, giving the Ottoman government and military authorization to deport anyone it "sensed" as a threat to national security.[9] Several months later, the Temporary Law of Expropriation and Confiscation was passed, stating that all property, including land, livestock and homes, belonging to Armenians was to be confiscated by the authorities. Only one politician in the Ottoman parliament, Senator Ahmed Riza, an initial member of the Liberal Union, protested against the legislation:
It is unlawful to designate the Armenian assets as “abandoned goods” for the Armenians, the proprietors, did not abandon their properties voluntarily; they were forcibly, compulsively removed from their domiciles and exiled. Now the government through its efforts is selling their goods...Nobody can sell my property if I am unwilling to sell it....If we are a constitutional regime functioning in accordance with constitutional law we can’t do this. This is atrocious. Grab my arm, eject me from my village, then sell my goods and properties, such a thing can never be permissible. Neither the conscience of the Ottomans nor the law can allow it.[10]
At the same time, Enver ordered that all Armenians in the Ottoman forces, some as old as forty-five to sixty, to be disarmed, demobilized and assigned to labor battalion units (in Turkish, amele taburlari). Many of the Armenian recruits were taken and executed by Turkish soldiers and armed squads known as chetes (groups whose roles were similar to Nazi Germany's Einsatzgruppen) in remote areas.[11] Those who initially survived were turned into road laborers (hamals) and construction mules but were eventually killed thereafter.[12] The Ottoman government also created a bureaucratic administration divided into three levels that were permitted to act freely from the governing establishment, similar to the Sonderkommandos formed by the Nazis during World War II. They were the Katibi Mesul, "Responsible Secretaries", Murrahas, "Delegates" and Umumi Müfettish, "General Inspectors". The administration's purpose was to ensure that the orders by the government were "implemented strictly." [13] (www.wikipedia.com)
As seen above most genocides require the perpetrators to have a detached mind set. This total aloofness is only possible through the complete dehumanization of the victims; they are not seen as human, only objects. I had also seen a pattern of frequent denial. The denial is often so outrageous that it makes me wonder how contorted the minds of those committing the genocide really are, for guilt always previals in the mind of a concious man.
"Do not become an empty mind, overwhelmed by the ease of apathy."
