Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity | Deception, Perpetrators

The Nazi Holocaust, the extermination of Armenians in Turkey between 1915 and 1917, and the killings in Rwanda in 1994 are prime examples of genocide during the twentieth century. In each case, the initial victim group lived within the political boundaries of the countries that carried out the genocide, thus necessitating the establishment of an extermination system that maximized willful participation from the executioners, minimized resistance from the victims, and encouraged passive complicity from external and internal bystanders.

Perhaps the greatest obstacles that instigators of genocide face are inhibitions against killing on the part of those whose participation and complicity are required. The Nazi Holocaust is perhaps unsurpassed in terms of the sheer number of killings. Yet the monstrous efficiency with which they were carried out over a long period of time cannot be explained easily by references to bloodlust on the...