Chapter (10)- Episodes of Racism in World History
If we look at the history of the world, we find that Racism is as old as the human civilization. Humans are believed to have been existing on this planet since 200,000 years. Right from primitive stage when humans lived in caves, preyed on animals and lived savage lives racism has been there. Just like kindness, cruelty and to be a racist are inborn features of a human being. Let us look into detail about those different episodes of racism in human history, which have changed the course of things for the future or at least have been so intense that nobody is able to forget them even after passage of so many years.
(1) Adolf Hitler's racism towards the Jew community:-
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Adolf Hitler is considered to be the person responsible for initiating World War 2 and the mass killings of millions of people therein. Some people call him the worst human ever, in recorded history. Why did he deliberately murder millions? What was the cause of his hatred which made him act like a racist in the most brutal manner??
He was born in Austria in 1889 and migrated to Germany for getting employed there. There he worked in the german army as a messenger during the 1st World War (1914-1918).During this war, he felt that the german jews were acting in a manner, which could be defined as being against the German state. Most of them lived in wretched conditions but those jews who were affluent and influential were making money and property, at the cost of national interests. A young Hitler decided there and then that if in future he attained higher and powerful status, he will teach these jews a very bitter lesson. Some
historians believe that the first seeds of severe hatred towards the german jews were sown in Hitler's mind right then. However some believe that Hitler was too ashamed of his own jewish roots as one of his ancestors from his mother's side was of a jewish origin. That produced anger inside him, which resulted in the hatred for the jews. One theory is that during his participation in the 1st World War as a messsenger, the entire team of germany including soldiers and other paramilitary forces was subjected to get exposed to an attack of poisonous gas at the end of World War 1, when the german army was in Belgium. Hitler went into a traumatic condition because the exposure of this gas caused severe pain to his eyes. When he asked as to who initiated this poisonous gas attack on them, he was informed that jews were responsible for it. One more explanation given is that Hitler had got infected with a veneral disease which he caught while having sexual relations with a jewish prostitute. However, there are no concrete evidences for this particular explanation. Last but not the least is this explanation that Hitler strongly believed that Germany had helplessly lost the 1st World war not on the battlefield but due to the back-stabbing some of their own group of people, viz. jews, social democrats and the communists. The jews were held primarily responsible by the then german army, as they supposedly betrayed their own countrymen. Hitler was a hark-working young man who loved Germany and he just could not digest this fact for the rest of his life. Thus an extremely severe hatred for the entire jewish community got permanently established in his mind.
historians believe that the first seeds of severe hatred towards the german jews were sown in Hitler's mind right then. However some believe that Hitler was too ashamed of his own jewish roots as one of his ancestors from his mother's side was of a jewish origin. That produced anger inside him, which resulted in the hatred for the jews. One theory is that during his participation in the 1st World War as a messsenger, the entire team of germany including soldiers and other paramilitary forces was subjected to get exposed to an attack of poisonous gas at the end of World War 1, when the german army was in Belgium. Hitler went into a traumatic condition because the exposure of this gas caused severe pain to his eyes. When he asked as to who initiated this poisonous gas attack on them, he was informed that jews were responsible for it. One more explanation given is that Hitler had got infected with a veneral disease which he caught while having sexual relations with a jewish prostitute. However, there are no concrete evidences for this particular explanation. Last but not the least is this explanation that Hitler strongly believed that Germany had helplessly lost the 1st World war not on the battlefield but due to the back-stabbing some of their own group of people, viz. jews, social democrats and the communists. The jews were held primarily responsible by the then german army, as they supposedly betrayed their own countrymen. Hitler was a hark-working young man who loved Germany and he just could not digest this fact for the rest of his life. Thus an extremely severe hatred for the entire jewish community got permanently established in his mind.
During the war, he thought that Germany would end up on the winning side. But instead the Axis nations, including Germany lost the war. The Allied nations, which fought the war against Germany asked the germans to pay a huge sum of money - 132 billion German Marks equivalent to $31.4 billion or £6.6 billion then, now roughly equivalent to US$442 billion or UK£284 billion in 2020)
as a cost of reparation to Entente countries (those named as Allied nations above) for causing all the loss and damage to life and property, upon losing the war, under the Versailles Treaty. Germany kept on paying this humungous amount money in instalments for years after the war due to which it became poor. (The last instalment of this huge amount was paid just recently in 2010.) The great depression of 1929, further worsened the economic situation of Germany. Meanwhile, Hitler established his own NAZI party. He fought the elections in the early 1930s and eventually became the Chancellor of Germany, as well as the Chief of its military. Once he became the most powerful person of that country, the
first thing he did was to start troubling the jews living inside it. In the initial years of his rule, which started from 1933, he was not as aggressive as he was later on, say after 5 years of his rule. He did think of development and progress of Germany. But as said above, his main priority was the oppression of german jews, an evident act of racism.
Jews were considered second grade citizens once he assumed office. A total discrimination towards them could be seen everywhere inside Germany. Their german citizenship was snatched away from them with immediate effect, making them devoid of fundamental rights as a citizen of Germany. Those jews who were working with government institutions or organisations supported by the Government of Germany were asked to leave their jobs. A marriage between any christian and a jew was termed as illegal with immediate effect. A qualified jew was denied a good job. Jew kids were not admitted to well-known schools. Different laws were passed in the German Parliament
which were against the interests of the jew community. It was a well-thought out plan to keep the jews in poor conditions all the time.
The oppressive activities of Hitler and his Nazi party against German jews intensified gradually. Initially, the Nazis allowed jews to work at certain places according to their own wishes but later Hitler decided that they should not be living with the rest of the citizens of Germany. So after 1939, he started putting them inside Concentration camps. These camps were hellish for any human to live there. Jews were treated there in a manner, in which nobody would treat even stray animals like dogs etc. The places where they lived had racks. In a rack, where hardly one person can sleep, there were two or even three. The food given to them was mostly stale and rotten. It was a deliberate attempt to subject them to various diseases. Once they caught a disease, they were not cured but instead they were shot down by a Nazi soldier. Families of jews who were captured together and brought to concentration camps, were never kept together. The camps for men were different from women and children. A husband seperated from his wife and children, after his family got captured by a Nazi soldier, would never know till the end of his life, as to where his family was. Young girls of the age of 13 and above, where all raped by Nazis on a regular basis. If they became pregnant, they were allowed to bear children, which would again be put with them in the concentration camps. The work hours were very long in those camps - 12 to 13 hours. Any one who was found committing the slightest of mistakes was shot dead immediately. There was no point in raising one's voice against the Nazis because that would result in instant death of the person who tried to do so. Old people, who could not work inside the concentration camp were shot down. Any person inflicted by a disease like cough or fever and unable to work for a single day was also killed. There was no mercy for the jews living inside those camps.
After World War 2 began on 1 September, 1939, Hitler decided to kill all the jews on earth, step by step. There were millions of jews who were living in different countries back then. He systematically committed a genocide, which later became very ill-famous by the term HOLOCAUST. During this period of Holocaust, it is estimated that he killed more than 6 million jews around the world, most of them in Europe. Once he would win over a particular nation, he would make it a point that the jews in that country should either get killed or live a life full of misery. First he captured Poland in 1939. Immediately in no time, he started those treacherous concentration camps over there. Later, there were similar concentration camps in Austria too. If the proportion of jews living in a country which Hitler just won, was not so big, then he would capture them and bring them to Germany's concentration camps.
As said earlier, after 1939 Hitler became very aggressive and decided to directly kill each and every jew on the earth, slowly but certainly. He would not leave any jew unharmed, wherever his reach could extend.
So he ordered his Nazi Army soldiers to carry out house to house search operations inside Germany, Poland, Austria so as to find and capture each and every jew, hiding in his/her home. Once caught he/she was brought to a concentration camp like the Auswitz camp. After working for a few days, that person would be put inside a huge gas chamber, tightly sealed from all sides. Around 3000 men, women and children were rushed inside these chamber and then poisonous gases like Carbon Monoxide were liberated inside them. All those 3000 people inside that chamber, would die getting suffocated by the poisonous gas, unable to breathe in the most horrible manner. Such extremely horrific deaths of thousands of people together, being unable to breathe properly, have never been recorded earlier in human history. It was a crime of such massive proportions that words can not describe it. After getting suffocated to death, these naked bodies of people were collected inside vehicles and buried immediately so as to prevent any disease to spread. There are pictures of such mountains of dead bodies collected from gas chambers and kept ready for mass burials on the internet. If one looks at them, even the toughest of guys would feel depressed and totally hurt, looking at the atrocities tolerated by those jews, before they died in that manner. It is for this reason that Adolf Hitler is considered as a "the worst human ever to have lived on earth" or as a "monster". He was so cruel, so ruthless in his attitude towards all jews, that he easily becomes the most racist person to have lived on earth ever. He is an example of what this feeling of severe hatred towards a particular group of people can make a human do. He is an example of the worst results that racism can bring about from a single human being. He is an example of how harmful racism is, for each and every one of us.
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(2) Mussolini and his participation in the Holocaust:-
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Benito Mussolini was the dictator of Italy, who ruled over that country between 1922 and 1943. He was a part of the Axis forces along with Adolf Hitler during the 2nd World War. He led his country into this War although it was not as militarily equipped as Germany's Army in terms of technological advancement. The result was that in this war Italy faced defeat in each and every battle they fought, viz versus the greeks, the britishers as well as the russians.
Mussolini was of a dictator who had those evil ideas of expansion of the Roman Empire (Italy is the country from where the great Roman Empire flourished a lot) under his leadership. He visualized himself to be the Great Emperor of the 20th century, just like what Hitler did. Hitler was a racist from his very young age, whereas Mussolini became a racist after he came into close contact with Hitler.
He was highly influenced by the very strong progress made by Germany under the Nazi rule when he visited Germany on September 27, 1938. Mussolini loved showmanship and Hitler wanted to impress him. So the German leader tried his level best to do so during Mussolini's visit. The Italian dictator was so impressed by Hitler that he became ready to follow Hitler's drastic steps of Holocaust, when he returned back to Italy. As soon as he got back to Rome, he passed new decrees in the Italian Parliament that proved to be a disaster for all the jews which were living in that country for a long time. These new decrees banned italian jews from all citizens' rights with immediate effect from September 29, 1938. Their right of voting was snatched away. They were banned from working with any government institution or any organisation which had the backing of Italian government. Marriages between christians and jews of that country started getting considered as illegal. Italian jews were subjected to follow many harsh laws apart from this in their daily lives. This major shift in policy towards the jews in Italy proved to be a shocker for the jew community in that country. Before they could overcome that shock, Hitler asked Mussolini in 1939, to hand over all the 6000 jews to him so that he can send them to the Auswitz Concentration Camps in Germany. Mussolini agreed and these 6000 innocent jews were sent immediately from Italy to Germany. In a week's time Hitler had all these 6000 jews killed inside gas chambers. Thus Mussolini became an accomplice with Hitler in a disgusting racist crime, which was totally unforgivable by any judicial standards.
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(3) Killing of Rohingya Muslims by the Myanmar Army:-
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Between 2016 to 2019, the Rohingya muslims of Myanmar (erstwhile Burma) were targeted, asked to leave the country and if they did not do that then face death, by the military and the government of that country. This poor community had no answer to the atrocities committed by the army and they started migrating to neighboring countries like Bangladesh,India, Thailand and Cambodia. But during this migration, thousands got killed while facing extremely difficult conditions of survival. However the bigger figure was that of tens of thousands of them getting literally butchered in their homes and the streets of Myanmar by their army. It is estimated that in this genocide, whose roots lied in racism, an estimated 10 million Rohingya muslims got killed (unofficial estimate). Let us see how this hatred for those muslims arose amongst the government officials, the ruling party and the army men of Myanmar at that time.
which were against the interests of the jew community. It was a well-thought out plan to keep the jews in poor conditions all the time.
The oppressive activities of Hitler and his Nazi party against German jews intensified gradually. Initially, the Nazis allowed jews to work at certain places according to their own wishes but later Hitler decided that they should not be living with the rest of the citizens of Germany. So after 1939, he started putting them inside Concentration camps. These camps were hellish for any human to live there. Jews were treated there in a manner, in which nobody would treat even stray animals like dogs etc. The places where they lived had racks. In a rack, where hardly one person can sleep, there were two or even three. The food given to them was mostly stale and rotten. It was a deliberate attempt to subject them to various diseases. Once they caught a disease, they were not cured but instead they were shot down by a Nazi soldier. Families of jews who were captured together and brought to concentration camps, were never kept together. The camps for men were different from women and children. A husband seperated from his wife and children, after his family got captured by a Nazi soldier, would never know till the end of his life, as to where his family was. Young girls of the age of 13 and above, where all raped by Nazis on a regular basis. If they became pregnant, they were allowed to bear children, which would again be put with them in the concentration camps. The work hours were very long in those camps - 12 to 13 hours. Any one who was found committing the slightest of mistakes was shot dead immediately. There was no point in raising one's voice against the Nazis because that would result in instant death of the person who tried to do so. Old people, who could not work inside the concentration camp were shot down. Any person inflicted by a disease like cough or fever and unable to work for a single day was also killed. There was no mercy for the jews living inside those camps.
After World War 2 began on 1 September, 1939, Hitler decided to kill all the jews on earth, step by step. There were millions of jews who were living in different countries back then. He systematically committed a genocide, which later became very ill-famous by the term HOLOCAUST. During this period of Holocaust, it is estimated that he killed more than 6 million jews around the world, most of them in Europe. Once he would win over a particular nation, he would make it a point that the jews in that country should either get killed or live a life full of misery. First he captured Poland in 1939. Immediately in no time, he started those treacherous concentration camps over there. Later, there were similar concentration camps in Austria too. If the proportion of jews living in a country which Hitler just won, was not so big, then he would capture them and bring them to Germany's concentration camps.
As said earlier, after 1939 Hitler became very aggressive and decided to directly kill each and every jew on the earth, slowly but certainly. He would not leave any jew unharmed, wherever his reach could extend.
So he ordered his Nazi Army soldiers to carry out house to house search operations inside Germany, Poland, Austria so as to find and capture each and every jew, hiding in his/her home. Once caught he/she was brought to a concentration camp like the Auswitz camp. After working for a few days, that person would be put inside a huge gas chamber, tightly sealed from all sides. Around 3000 men, women and children were rushed inside these chamber and then poisonous gases like Carbon Monoxide were liberated inside them. All those 3000 people inside that chamber, would die getting suffocated by the poisonous gas, unable to breathe in the most horrible manner. Such extremely horrific deaths of thousands of people together, being unable to breathe properly, have never been recorded earlier in human history. It was a crime of such massive proportions that words can not describe it. After getting suffocated to death, these naked bodies of people were collected inside vehicles and buried immediately so as to prevent any disease to spread. There are pictures of such mountains of dead bodies collected from gas chambers and kept ready for mass burials on the internet. If one looks at them, even the toughest of guys would feel depressed and totally hurt, looking at the atrocities tolerated by those jews, before they died in that manner. It is for this reason that Adolf Hitler is considered as a "the worst human ever to have lived on earth" or as a "monster". He was so cruel, so ruthless in his attitude towards all jews, that he easily becomes the most racist person to have lived on earth ever. He is an example of what this feeling of severe hatred towards a particular group of people can make a human do. He is an example of the worst results that racism can bring about from a single human being. He is an example of how harmful racism is, for each and every one of us.
---------------------------------------------------
(2) Mussolini and his participation in the Holocaust:-
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Benito Mussolini was the dictator of Italy, who ruled over that country between 1922 and 1943. He was a part of the Axis forces along with Adolf Hitler during the 2nd World War. He led his country into this War although it was not as militarily equipped as Germany's Army in terms of technological advancement. The result was that in this war Italy faced defeat in each and every battle they fought, viz versus the greeks, the britishers as well as the russians.
Mussolini was of a dictator who had those evil ideas of expansion of the Roman Empire (Italy is the country from where the great Roman Empire flourished a lot) under his leadership. He visualized himself to be the Great Emperor of the 20th century, just like what Hitler did. Hitler was a racist from his very young age, whereas Mussolini became a racist after he came into close contact with Hitler.
He was highly influenced by the very strong progress made by Germany under the Nazi rule when he visited Germany on September 27, 1938. Mussolini loved showmanship and Hitler wanted to impress him. So the German leader tried his level best to do so during Mussolini's visit. The Italian dictator was so impressed by Hitler that he became ready to follow Hitler's drastic steps of Holocaust, when he returned back to Italy. As soon as he got back to Rome, he passed new decrees in the Italian Parliament that proved to be a disaster for all the jews which were living in that country for a long time. These new decrees banned italian jews from all citizens' rights with immediate effect from September 29, 1938. Their right of voting was snatched away. They were banned from working with any government institution or any organisation which had the backing of Italian government. Marriages between christians and jews of that country started getting considered as illegal. Italian jews were subjected to follow many harsh laws apart from this in their daily lives. This major shift in policy towards the jews in Italy proved to be a shocker for the jew community in that country. Before they could overcome that shock, Hitler asked Mussolini in 1939, to hand over all the 6000 jews to him so that he can send them to the Auswitz Concentration Camps in Germany. Mussolini agreed and these 6000 innocent jews were sent immediately from Italy to Germany. In a week's time Hitler had all these 6000 jews killed inside gas chambers. Thus Mussolini became an accomplice with Hitler in a disgusting racist crime, which was totally unforgivable by any judicial standards.
----------------------------------------------------
(3) Killing of Rohingya Muslims by the Myanmar Army:-
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Between 2016 to 2019, the Rohingya muslims of Myanmar (erstwhile Burma) were targeted, asked to leave the country and if they did not do that then face death, by the military and the government of that country. This poor community had no answer to the atrocities committed by the army and they started migrating to neighboring countries like Bangladesh,India, Thailand and Cambodia. But during this migration, thousands got killed while facing extremely difficult conditions of survival. However the bigger figure was that of tens of thousands of them getting literally butchered in their homes and the streets of Myanmar by their army. It is estimated that in this genocide, whose roots lied in racism, an estimated 10 million Rohingya muslims got killed (unofficial estimate). Let us see how this hatred for those muslims arose amongst the government officials, the ruling party and the army men of Myanmar at that time.
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