The Holocaust and Genocides in Europe

✍ Scribed by Benjamin Lieberman

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2013
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 273
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Focusing on the major cases of genocide in twentieth-century Europe, including the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, and genocide in the former Yugoslavia, as well as mass killing in the Soviet Union, this book outlines the internal and external roots of genocide. Internal causes lie in the rise of radical nationalism and the breakdown of old empires, while external causes lie in the experience of mass violence in European colonial empires. Such roots did not make any case of genocide inevitable but did create models for mass destruction. The book enables students to assess the interplay between general causes of violence and the specific crises that accelerated moves towards radical genocidal policies. Chapters on the major cases of twentieth-century European genocide will each describe and analyse several key themes: acts of genocide; perpetrators, victims and bystanders; and genocide in particular regions. Using the voices of the human actors in genocide, often ignored or forgotten, provides arresting new insights. The conclusion frames European genocide in a global perspective, giving students an entry point to discussion of genocide in other continents and historical periods.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
HalfTitle
Title
Copyright
Contents
List of illustrations
Introduction: The Holocaust and the genocides in Europe
Definitions
Approaches
1 Origins of genocide and paths to genocide
Colonialism and imperialism
Conquest of the Americas
The scramble for Africa and the Congo
German Southwest Africa
Settler society and aborigines in Australia
From imperialism to genocide?
Politics and science of identity
Nationalism
Racism and anti-Semitism
Racial science
Changing political boundaries and forms of government
The First World War
The Second World War
Wars at the End of the Cold War
Making connections: The German case
Study questions
2 Armenian Genocide
Toward Genocide
Ottoman roots
The rise of the Young Turks
Radicalization
Planning: Temporary deportation law as end point or starting point
Genocide
Assault against Armenian soldiers and leaders
Deportations
From ethnic cleansing to genocide
Regions of genocide: Erzerum, Constantinople, Dersim
Perpetrators
Victims and survivors
Bystanders
Greeks and Assyrians
The end of genocide
Denial and genocide
The Armenian Genocide and European Genocide
Study questions
3 Mass killing in the Soviet Union
Terror and Famine before the Second World War
The roots of the Gulag
Collectivization and Famine
The Great Purge
Ethnic cleansing
Punished peoples during the Second World War
Perpetrators, bystanders, and victims
Mass killing in the Soviet Union
Study questions
4 The Holocaust
Paths toward the Holocaust
Hitler’s goals
The racial state
A new Europe
Toward the “Final Solution”
Pogroms
Mobile killing
Death camps
Death marches
SS and SD
Police forces and soldiers
Motives
Bystanders
Information
Gray zone
Rescue
Neutrals and Allies
Facing deportation
The possibility of escape
Resistance
Gypsies
Poles and Slavs
Communists, gay men, Jehovah’s Witnesses
The Holocaust and genocide
Study questions
5 Ethnic cleansing and acts of genocide in the former Yugoslavia
Toward ethnic cleansing
Ethnic and national tension in Yugoslavia
The breakup of Yugoslavia
War
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing begins
Methods of ethnic cleansing
Initial outcomes of ethnic cleansing
Expansion of ethnic cleansing
Kosovo
Ethnic cleansing, genocide, and acts of genocide
Camps
Acts of genocide
Gendercide and genocide in Bosnia
Study questions
Conclusion
Patterns in european genocide
Prior intent and radicalization
Perpetrators, victims, and bystanders
Cycles of violence
Aftermaths of genocide
Knowledge of genocide
Coming to terms with the past
Imperialism, decolonization, and genocide
The Cambodian Genocide
Genocide in the world and genocidein Europe
Law and prevention
Genocide and international law
Lessons from Europe—preventing genocide
Study questions
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index