Holocaust and Rwanda Genocides Essay -- World History

Propaganda was an elaborate and essential tool used extensively by Hitler and the Nazi's as well as the Hutu's during their terrorizing reign of Germany and throughout Europe and the Hutu's horrific acts of genocide that happened because of a culmination of deep ethnic tensions brewing over a century and intense political corruption. Not only was it used to promote and endorse the party and its leader's extreme racist values but also to mask the horrifying truths of what was to become known as the Holocaust and the Rwanda Genocides. Anti-Jewish measures and pogroms have taken place numerous times throughout history, but never to the extent and successfulness attained by the Third Reich. A clear reason for this level of success can be attributed significantly to the abundant amounts of misinformation released by the Nazis prior to and during World War II. The degree of importance these public-swaying devices were to Hitler became particularly evident when he created the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, announcing a man by the name of Joseph Goebbels as the head. According to Doris Bergen author of War and Genocide Joseph Goebbels was responsible for and "organized public book burnings which presented intimidating spectacles of Nazi force" (Bergen, 66). In 1938 Herschel Grynszpan, 17 year old student, was thrown out of Germany. His parents were out raged and shot a German official. "This provided a perfect excuse for a violent assault against Jews within Germany" (Bergen, 87). One of the many forms of racist ideology that happened during the holocaust was the Kristallnacht. This name was also given by Joseph Goebbels. (Bergen, 90). During the Kristallnacht, Nazi's were granted "permission-and... ... living, just like the Nazi's did to the Jews. It is so sad the other countries did not intervene with the preventable genocide. When the massacres started, President Clinton did not convene a singe meeting of his senior foreign policy advisers to discuss U. S. options for Rwanda. The U. S. did not deploy its technical assets to jam Rwandan hate radio and it did not lobby to have the genocidal Rwandan government's expelled from the UN. Instead Washington demanded the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers from Rwanda and then refused to authorize the deployment of UN reinforcements. (Power, 334). Only justice can make peace and stability possible. But justice only prevails when the truth is known. So it is up to each of us to make justice prevail by spreading knowledge and making the Rwanda Genocide known, so that atrocities like this can truly "never again" occur.