Syria Genocide or not?

By definition the conflict in Syria is not a genocide because the killings are political not ethnic, or religious. However, personally I feel that killing people for their polictal beliefs should be added to the definition of genocide because it exactly the same thing as killing people for their ethnicity, or religion. So in my opinion what is happening in Syria should be considered a genocide. 

Placing Blame: Rwandan Genocide

Personally I believe that humanity is responsible for the Rwandan Genocide. It would be easy to blame the Hutu for killing  the Tutsi, the Belgium for creating the racial tension between the Hutu and the Tutsi, the international community for not doing more to prevent it, or even the Tutsi for not wanting international help. Honestly though it took all of those groups for the situation in Rwanda to reach the point it did. Genocide is never cause just by the perpetrators of the murders, it is caused by many things, and lots of people. However, it is easy to blame a few for what happened then realizing that we has humans are all partially responsible for the deaths of thousands by just sitting back and doing nothing.

Assessing Blame

The proper response of the Pope during the Holocaust would have been to make a public statement against the Nazis and to have encouraged people to stand up against the Nazi regime. The proper response of the U.S. during the Holocaust would have been to publicize what was happening more, and actually tried to step in and stop it. Today it’s also the international community job to try to do everything they can to stop genocides that are accruing because if we see something happening, and do nothing about it then we’re just as responsible as the people who are actually carrying out the genocide.   

Defiance Post 3

If I were the director of Defiance I would choose to portray the scene where the partisans are beating the scout spying on their location as A the group kills the scout and gets on with their lives afterwards. I would choose to portray it this way because I feel like that is what would most likely happen. The partisans are angry for what has happened to them and in the heat of the moment it is extremely hard to control angry groups of people. Plus in a way the Nazi have probably lost some of their humanity in the eyes of the partisans for what they have done to the Jewish people so afterwards  I can’t really see them regretting what they did. This choice connects to my personal sense of ethics not because I believe that that is right is some way, but because if I were the director I would want to use this scene has a way to send a message to the audience. I personally don’t think that option is ethically right,  in fact I think it makes the partisans just as bad as the Nazis, but also think that option A raises a lot of good questions on morality, so that’s really way I choose it. Not because I think it is ethically correct, but because I think it causes you to examine the ethics of the whole situation.

Defiance Post 2

The tactics of the Russian and Jewish partisans are justifiable in a way and in a way it’s not. While they do need supplies and survival is important it doesn’t make everything they did morally right. Taking milk from the milk man and leaving some for him to take to the Germans was alright, but it was completely unnecessary, and wrong. Doing something because they have to in order to survive is different than doing something because they can.  The guerrilla war tactics used are also justifiable because there really are no set rules or moral codes in war. 

Defiance Post 1

In the movie Defiance the actions of Zus and Tuvia are not justifiable. They killed other people not as a form of defense, but for revenge of the death of their loved one. Revenge only leads to a cycle of hate. Stealing also isn’t justifiable. The war however does make it a little understandable. It’s hard to not empathize with them after having lost so much, and still being forced to face more hardships just so that they can live like human beings. Still that doesn’t make what they did okay, but it does make it understandable. 

Field Trip Reflections

One of the stages of genocide I saw at the museum was the eight stage denial.  Our tour guide mentioned numerous times that there are still some people who deny that the Holocaust ever happened despite the large amount of evidence.  Near the end of the war the Nazis also tried to destroy the death camps to hide their existence.  Another one of the stages of genocide I saw at the museum was dehumanization  the speaker mentioned a many examples of things Jewish people were not allowed to buy, store says that would say no Jews allowed, and a sign at a pool he use to go to that read no dogs, or Jews. 

Photo Comparison

First Photo: 

 Personal Photo:

Evidence that suggest life was normal for Jews prior to German occupation is the norms photos of them doing everyday ordinary things, from sitting in a class room, to talking with people on the street. There were also pictures of them celebrating important events, such as getting married.

While looking through family photos I found even more evidence to support that. Many of the pictures I found of Jews prior to the German occupation were similar to the photos in my family’s photo albums. The picture I choose to share was of my aunt’s third grade class. The reason I choose to share this photo is because it is relatively similar to the other picture I choose. They both are a class of kids posing for a picture with their teacher. Differences being the age of the children, and the time the picture was taken.

Photograph Project

This is a picture of a Jewish school in Cologne Germany. Cologne is the fourth largest city in Germany, and before the war it had a Jewish population of around 15,000. Before German invasion Jews in this town lived relatively normal towns, they went to school, work, and carried on with their lives like everyone else. When the Nazi part came to power in 1933 Jewish people is this down were faced discrimination, and the strict rule of the Nazi party.  This town came under Nazi rule in 1933 when the Nazi party came to power in Germany. Many Jews living in this town immigrated to other countries with the raise of Nazi power.  The majority of those who stayed would die in Nazi death camps. 

Changing Views

After studying the stages of genocide I realize there is more than just the killing of lots of people. It is a process of sorts that involves systematically killing a group of people based on their religion, or ethnic group. Genocide is also much more than just killing that group of people it involves classifying the members of that group, and dehumanizing them, and then denying that those killings ever even accrued. Now I realize there is much more to genocide than just mass killings, which is something I wasn’t aware of before.  Before learning about the Armenian genocide I didn’t even know who the Armenians were. I wasn’t aware before that people could commit mass killings and get away with it. 

What causes Genocide

I think that there can be lots of different causes for genocide. I think the main cause of genocide is one party feeling that they are for whatever reason better then another, or other parties.

Questions I have about genocide is what is genocide, and what causes something to be defined a genocide? How does someone justify genocide?