The most horrific genocides in history(2)

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The most horrific genocides in history

Story by Stars Insider • 6h ago

2023.06.14

The most horrific genocides in history

Few words in the world evoke such feelings of pain, loss, and suffering as "genocide." Used to describe the most horrendous and detestable violations of human life, motivated by the most revolting manifestations of hate and prejudice conceivable, genocide is a word that should never be used lightly.

It would be comforting to imagine genocide as a problem of the past that has since been solved, a barbaric habit that we as a species have evolved out of, but that is unfortunately far from the truth. Genocides continue to this day, and the future doesn't promise an end to the misery either. It's important to learn from our past, if we ever want to escape it.

Read on to remember some of modern history's darkest moments, in hopes that we'll never have to relive them.

How to define a genocide

The word "genocide" is thrown around quite often, but it does, in fact, have an exact and explicit definition. According to the United Nations, an event constitutes genocide when the aggressors are proven to act toward the total or partial elimination of a specific group or groups of people based on racial, ethnic, religious, or national grounds. Importantly, these programs of elimination don't necessarily have to be carried out through mass murder; the UN provides five methods of elimination that can be called genocide. Killing is the most obvious method, followed by causing serious bodily or mental harm, mandating living conditions with the intent of destroying a group, halting new births in a certain group, and, finally, separating the children of a group from the adults.

 The Holodomor

One of the greatest stains on the history of the Soviet Union was the Holodomor, sometimes referred to as the Terror-Famine. The Holodomor is generally considered to be a man-made famine, under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, which took the lives of as many as five million Ukrainians.

The Holodomor

Whether or not the Holodomor can be properly labeled a genocide is the topic of much debate. While it is widely agreed that the Holodomor famine was knowingly caused by a breakneck rate of industrialization across the Soviet Union, many but not all historians argue that Stalin purposefully intensified these famine-causing programs in Ukraine in order to damper resistance movements in the area.

The Holocaust

Without question, the Holocaust carried out by Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany is the most infamous and culturally impactful genocide in modern memory. This continental program of extermination continues to define a generation, a century, and perhaps the most transformative era of geopolitics as we know it.

The Holocaust

Hitler's regime carried out a horrific operation of genocide against the Jewish people of Europe before and during World War II, creating epicenters of annihilation in what are now considered the darkest places in Europe, such as Auschwitz. All in all, the Holocaust claimed the lives of about six million men, women, and children.

The Pacification of Libya

Italy's ventures into colonialism aren't talked about as often as their more prominent European colonial neighbors like France, Belgium, or Spain, but the nation under Benito Mussolini did in fact wage its own bloody war of occupation in Africa. Libya was particularly ravaged, during what is known alternately as the Second Italo-Senussi War, or the Pacification of Libya.

The Pacification of Libya

The bloody conflict between Italian colonial forces and the various local resistance groups associated with the Senussi Order went on for nearly a decade, beginning in 1923 and ending in 1932 following the capture and execution of Omar al-Mukhtar, the leader of the resistance. Innumerable war crimes were committed by colonial forces during the war, including forced labor camps, death marches, widespread torture and sexual abuse, and the indiscriminate murder of civilians of all ages and genders. All of these factors amounted to the genocide of indigenous Libyan ethnic groups, which claimed the lives of more than 80,000 people.

The Anfal campaign

The Kurdish genocide, also known as the Anfal campaign, was a horrific military campaign set into motion by the infamous dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein.

The Anfal campaign

Taking place between February and September 1988, the express purpose of the Anfal campaign was to destabilize and eliminate any signs of resistance within the Kurdish regions of northern and northeastern Iraq. As a result, Kurdish children and adults, militants and civilians, were slain by Iraqi troops. According to Human Rights Watch, as many as 100,000 Kurds lost their lives during the Anfal campaign.

East Timor genocide

The Indonesian occupation of East Timor, or Timor-Leste, began in 1976, just months after the nation gained its independence from Portugal, and lasted until 1999. Over these decades, the Indonesian occupation forces went on a number of "pacification campaigns" that ultimately amounted to war crimes, mass murder, and genocide.

East Timor genocide

The majority of the violence occurred in the first tumultuous years of occupation in the 1970s, but the terror was not fully extinguished until the end of the occupation at the turn of the century. All in all, somewhere between 100,000 and 300,000 civilians in East Timor had their lives taken from them.

The Rohingya genocide

The Rohingya genocide is still fresh in the world's collective memory as one of the 21st century's most horrific and deplorable events of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

The Rohingya genocide

Xenophobia, racism, and religious prejudice all fueled the Burmese government's 2016-2017 mass murder and expulsion of the Muslim ethnic Rohingya minority. More than 700,000 Rohingya refugees were internationally displaced in neighboring countries, including in Bangladesh, where the Kutupalong refugee camp has become the largest refugee camp in the world, housing more than half a million Rohingya refugees. At least 25,000 Rohingya civilians were murdered before being able to escape Myanmar's borders.

Bosnian genocide

The Bosnian War of 1992-1995 was arguably the most violent and convoluted European conflict of the late 20th century. Fought between numerous proto-states and ethno-religious factions that formed following the collapse of Yugoslavia, war crimes and acts of ethnic cleansing were widespread, but none were as concentrated or as destructive as the Bosnian genocide of 1995.

Bosnian genocide

In the few and fleeting hours between July 11 and July 13, 1995, more than 8,000 Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Bosnian Croats were murdered by the mostly Orthodox Bosnian-Serb forces of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS). An additional 25,000 Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats were forcibly expelled from the region by VRS forces.

California genocide

The story of the California Gold Rush, a time of opportunity and industriousness, may be familiar to many. The California genocide, however, a direct result of massive westward settler expansion, has not been preserved in collective memory in the same way. 

California genocide

Of course, the American West (and the continent in general) was inhabited by indigenous Americans far before Europeans arrived. This was perceived as a problem by the incoming settlers, who wished to occupy and exploit the gold-rich hills of California. Between 1846 and 1873, more than 100,000 Native American men, women, and children were slaughtered at the hands of American settlers, through direct mass murder, starvation campaigns, and forced labor camps.

Sources: (Britannica) (Owlcation) (Borgen Magazine)