- The response of the United States to the Holocaust was very weak. By 1941, the United States had definitely received reports of the mass killings of hundreds of thousands of Jews. Even in 1942, when the United States had received reliable information about the mass killings, the U.S. did little more than make idle threats without any direct action. The United States did not truly get involved in the war until they were attacked by the Japanese, and because of this, the United States was more focused on defeating them than stopping the Nazis from committing genocide. The United States did not coordinate a real attack effort to stop the Nazis until 1944 with D-Day. It is unclear what took the United States so long to finally attempt to end the genocide, but by the time they had tried, a lot of the major damage had already been done. The United States was an advocate of punishment for the war criminals after the war and the American public didn�t know the magnitude of the situation until after the war as well.
Other Genocides
- The crisis in Rwanda escalated over time from a political and ethnic struggle between the Hutus and the Tutsis to a genocide in 1994 when the Hutu leader�s plane was shot down and the Tutsis were blamed. The genocide was a 100 day killing spree during which about 800,000 people were killed. Out of the most recent genocides, this was the one that could have been stopped the most easily. The attackers were merely machete-wielding men on foot. Had the U.N. or the United States tried, their troops could have ended the genocide within days. Instead, their only major move was to evacuate all foreigners and then they basically let the massacre wear itself out.
- The Sudan genocide was sparked when rebel groups from Sudan�s Darfur region demanded a share of power and economy with the Arab-ruled Sudanese government in 2003. The government responded by sponsoring the janjaweed, and Arab group, with weapons and support and ordering attacks on the villages where the rebel groups came from. But instead of only targeting the rebels, the janjaweed also attacked civilians by bombing and burning their villages in order to drive them out. Although over 50,000 people have already died, this situation has only been called a great humanitarian crisis, not a genocide. The United States has not done anything militarily to stop this because its troops are busy in Iraq and are spread too thin. A ceasefire was agreed upon very recently, but it is unsure if it will hold up.
- The Bosnian crisis began due to ethnic conflicts between the Serbs, Croats, and Muslims. In the early 1990s, each of these ethnic groups declared independence from each other and the bickering escalated into a war. In this crisis, the United States actually led the negotiations between the three groups and the Dayton Peace Accords were signed in 1995. After the agreement, the U.S. kept peacekeeping forces there and gradually reduced them until ending involvement in 2004.
The Morality of People and Nations
- People and nations tend to be solely focused on their own interests. Their goals, positions, and agendas come first no matter what the situation. It is obvious, from this research, that people are capable of almost anything. People can slaughter others in cold blood just because they feel that their way is the right way. Sometimes conscience and morality are forgotten when people are caught up in their moment of rage and irrational thought, which keeps people from using reason to make decisions about actions. Overall, people care too much about themselves. If people thought more about others, most of these disasters could have been avoided.
3 Conclusions from the Research
- People will only get involved in a matter if they are personally affected by it.
- People in a group do things they would never do individually.
- Humans are constantly in competition to be the most dominant or the best.
3 Questions from the Experience
- How can nations with the power to stop these genocides stand by and watch?
- Why are nations so hesitant to use the term �genocide� when a commitment was made to stop these situations after the Holocaust?
- How is it possible for the perpetrators of genocide to justify their actions to themselves?
