Modern World History Genocides Review 2024-2025

The Armenian

Occurred in the Ottoman Empire during WWl (1915-16); forcible deportation and massacring of 1.5 million out of fear they would collaborate with the Russians

The Great Purge

Occurred in the Soviet Union in the 1930’s; targeted political opponents, intellectuals, and the Ukrainians; millions were either shot or sent to concentration camps

Joseph Stalin

Ruthless leader who killed many of his own people and soldiers in order to keep power

Ukraine

Farming area known as the “breadbasket of Europe“

Darfur Genocide

Mass slaughter of native men, women, and children in Western Sudan (2003-present); carried out by the Janjaweed by burning villages, looting, polluting water, murder, and torture

Janjaweed

Arab militias/ “devil on horseback“

The Holocaust

The “Shoah“ or mass murder of 6 million Jews (and “others“ such as Poles, Soviets, Gypsies, homosexuals, etc.) during WWll by Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler involving over 40,000 concentration camps

Kristallnacht

“Night of Broken Glass“ in November 1938; coordinated series of attacks against Jewish businesses, houses, synagogues, and people in Germany

Nuremberg Laws

Passed in 1935 to remove Jews from civil society (lost German citizenship, surrender businesses, can’t marry non-Jews, etc.)

Einsatzgruppen

Mobile killing squads that murdered Jews and political opponents in Eastern Europe in mass shootings

Nuremberg Trials

First time perpetrators of a genocide were tried for their crimes and given the death penalty or prison terms; most claimed to be “just following orders“

The Cambodian Genocide

Began in 1975 under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge army; attempted to purify society by getting rid of all foreign influence, especially Western culture and intellectuals through purges that resulted in almost 2 million deaths

Pol Pot

Communist leader of Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge

Vietnam

Launched a full-scale invasion of Cambodia seeking to end the reign of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge

The Rwandan Genocide

800,000 Tutsis were killed by Hutu militia using clubs and machetes in 1994 in Central Africa

Hutu

Account for 90% of the population in Rwanda; seized power and engaged in discrimination and acts of violence vs. minority group in Central Africa

Juvenal Habyarimana

Rwandan President who was killed when his jet was shot down by missiles; led to a civil war in which at least 800,000 died

Rwanda

Former colony of Belgium (until 1962)

Aryan

Considered a pure race and superior to other people; Hitler’s “master race“ of blonde hair and blue eyes

Anti- Semitism

Prejudice against Jews…Hitler made it the official policy of Germany

Dr. Joseph Goebbels

Head of Nazi Propaganda Ministry, controlled all communications, and encouraged book burnings to eliminate other ideas

Heinrich Himmler

Led the SS (Nazi secret police), formed the mobile death squads, and was one of the architects of the Holocaust

Adolf Eichmann

Helped organize the Holocaust and was in charge of transporting Jews from ghettos to concentration camps

Final Solution

Plan developed in 1942 to eliminate all Jews from Europe through extermination camps

Auschwitz

Extermination camp in Poland where 1.5 million were killed; Dr. Joseph Mengele carried out experiments, especially on twins

Warsaw Ghetto

Jews sealed off by a wall topped with barbed wire… started an uprising on April 19,1943 against German soldiers…lasted 28 days

White Rose

Resistance group that distributed anti-Nazi pamphlets openly denouncing the persecution and murder of Jews; led by students from the University of Munich

Star of David

On the badge Jews had to wear everywhere they went… exposed to public attacks and police harassment