Genocide

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Eliminationism

Eliminationism is a political ideology that includes actions such as repression, destruction of a group’s identity, expulsion of a group, measures to prevent the group from reproducing, and genocide. This is a relatively new concept that attempts to explain the political decisions and actions that can eventually lead to genocide. While genocide is a physical action, eliminationism is the political willpower that drives genocides, mass atrocities, and excessive human right’s violations. Genocide is the most extreme form of eliminationism.

The term was coined by American political scientist Daniel Goldhagen in his book Hitler’s Willing Executioners. In the book, Goldhagen posits that ordinary Germans supported the Holocaust because of a unique “eliminationist antisemitism,” which had developed in the preceding centuries within the German nation.

Eliminationism, according to Goldhagen’s newest book Worse Than War, has five principal forms:

1. Transformation is the destruction of a group’s essential and defining political, social, or cultural identities, in order to neuter its members’ al leged noxious qualities. (Eliminationist transformation—which is often accompanied by violence or its threat—differs from the ordinary processes of education or acculturation because it is directed at sup pressing others rather than giving them new skills or expanding their possibilities.)
2. Repression entails keeping the hated, deprecated, or feared people within territorial reach and reducing, with violent domination, their ability to inflict real or imagined harm upon others. Such repression has been a regular feature of human societies. Its most extreme form is enslavement, which does have sources besides the desire to reduce a threat. Though few do today, most human societies have had slavery. Other violent forms are at least as common.
3. Expulsion, often called deportation, is a third eliminationist option. It removes unwanted people more thoroughly, by driving them beyond a country’s borders, or from one region of a country to another, or com­pelling them en masse into camps. From antiquity to today, expulsions, often by imperial conquerors, have been common.
4. Prevention of reproduction is a fourth eliminationist act. It is the least frequently used, and when employed, it is usually in conjunction with oth ers. For varying reasons, those wishing to eliminate a group in whole or in part can seek to diminish its numbers by interrupting normal biologi cal reproduction. They prevent its members from becoming pregnant or giving birth. They sterilize them. They systematically rape women so men will not want to marry or father children with them, or in order to themselves impregnate them so they bear children not “purely” of their group, thereby weakening the group biologically and socially. Pre venting reproduction is an eliminationist act with the longer time horizon of future generations, while the perpetrators simultaneously employ different eliminationist means for those currently living, or sometimes none at all.
5. Extermination is the fifth eliminationist act. Radical as it is, killing often logically follows beliefs deeming others to be a great, even mor tal threat. It promises not an interim, not a piecemeal, not only a prob able, but a “final solution” to the putative problem. Often times this act is called genocide.

Genocide

Genocide is a very descriptive term that refers to extremely violent crimes committed against groups of people with the intent to annihilate. Genocide is the most extreme form of eliminationism.

The word “genocide” was created by Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959) who in 1944 attempted to describe the Nazi’s attempts to systematically murder all European Jews. Mr. Lemkin, who was a Polish-Jewish lawyer, created the word “genocide” by using the Greek word for tribe and race, ”geno-,” with the Latin word for killing, ”-cide.”

On December 9, 1948, only a few years after the Holocaust, the United Nations issued the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which was greeted with international applause. Under the Convention, “genocide” is listed as an international crime, which all signed nations must “undertake to prevent and punish.” The Convention also defines genocide as the following:

Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

• Killing members of the group;
• Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
• Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
• Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
• Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

In the past decades since the Convention was issued, the United Nations has had significant trouble, if not near complete failure, with executing the aims of “prevent and punish” when it comes to genocide. Many human rights groups have called the Convention a failure, and in so doing have labeled the 20th century as the “genocide century;” a title which, disturbingly, has spilled over into the 21st century as well.

Genocide is always committed for political reasons and is led by an individual or small group of people.

8 Stages of Genocide:

Genocide is the most extreme for eliminationism and has eight operational stages. Sometimes, these stages occur over time and the defining lines between them are blurred together. The first stages continue throughout all of the other stages, reinforcing each one.

1. Classification- Specific groups of people are moved into certain classifications by extremist political leader(s) within the country or area of concern. Many times, the extremists hold high government positions or hold a great deal of power within the country. These groups are treated differently, some with great respect, others with dehumanizing results.
2. Symbolization- Symbols are used to further classify people into groups. This could include anything from physical characteristics, religious beliefs, or past experiences with the “lesser group(s). This allows extremists and other groups to single out members of the “lesser group(s).”
3. Dehumanization- While classification and symbolism play vital roles in all cultures, they only become eliminationist when dehumanization comes into effect. The Dehumanization stage pushes for a widespread belief that a certain group or groups is not even “human.” This paves a pathway for extremists and members of the “higher groups” to eventually implement an eliminationist assault against the “lesser group or groups.” The universal abhorrence of murder is considerably lessened when the “lesser groups” are considered to be sub-human, making it easier in the future for massacres to be carried out. Many times, mass culture may not even realize that the Dehumanization phase is underway until it is nearly complete. This is due to certain prejudices and hatreds growing over time, and dehumanization is only completed when a political leader uses the already existing prejudices for political purposes.
4. Organization- Genocide is always well planned and well organized. Whether it is the government, militias, or hate groups doing the organizing, planning is done at this point. This stage may take a long or short period of time depending on who and where the organizing is taking place. For example, the planning stage in Nazi-Germany occurred over several years, while in Rwanda only months. At this point, those that will carry out the massacres and other atrocities are trained and mobilized. Whether they be death squads, militias, or national armies, extremists train their followers on how the massacres will unfold and what instruments will be used to carry these atrocities out. The Organization Stage is almost always done in secret; however, due to the large size of the operation, there is usually physical evidence to point towards the growing ability of the soon-to-be attackers to carry out an eliminationist assault.
5. Polarization- At this stage, planning is complete, and the “moderates,” those that can stop the genocide from occurring are murdered or forced to flee the area of concern. Some massacres may occur at this stage, as mass hatred starts to become harder to contain. Some of the first that are killed are usually the “moderates” from the killing group who oppose the extremist views. The extremists take over or strengthen their position, and the conflict is then polarized until negotiation is no longer an option.
6. Preparation- By Stage 6, the killing group or groups begin to write down lists of victims. Maps are made, homes and businesses are marked, and identification of the so-called “sub-humans” becomes complete. Sometimes, items that make the “lesser group” stand out are forced upon the group or groups to be killed. In many scenarios, this has involved the use of ID cards. In the most extreme of forms, such as in Nazi-Germany, extermination camps are built. It is also here that rape, murders, and other eliminationist actions begin to be committed.
7. Extermination/Intervention- It is at this stage that eliminationism reaches the apex as genocide begins. Widespread massacres become commonplace, whole villages, cities, and neighborhoods are destroyed. Annihilation is the ultimate goal. Hundreds, sometimes thousands are killed daily, and the “lesser group” goes into hiding as armed elements of the “lesser group” will sometimes strike back. It is also at this stage that the international community, neighboring countries, or other militias not participating in the genocide begin plans for some form of immediate intervention, whether it be through diplomacy, sanctions, or military invasion. Sadly, by the time intervention begins, if it even begins, it is already too late. Hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions are already dead.
8. Denial- The eighth stage, also known as the Cover-Up Stage, occurs during and after the genocide’s lifetime. Mass graves are used, and if a successful intervention is mounting, the killers will dig up up the remains of the victims and burn them. Investigations of the crimes are blocked, and a huge cover-up is attempted. The Denial Stage always fails in the long run although it may successful at first. But the killers cannot destroy all of the evidence of their crimes. Once found out, the killers are either captured and tried, flee into exile, or remain in power until they are removed by force. Some are killed by survivors of genocide out of revenge, while others simply vanish. In recent decades, many of the killers do not even attempt to fully cover-up the genocide and other eliminationist actions because they know the world will not mount a serious effort for justice.

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