Chapter 9Chapter 9Ultranationalism and GenocideUltranationalism and Genocide

Chapter Issue• To what extent does ultranationalism

contribute to extreme acts?

• Acts of Genocide have also been referred as:

• mass murder

• democide (form of government murder that is not covered under genocide)

• ethnic cleansing

A Tragedy of Humankind

• 4 historical examples

• Nazi ultranationalism

• Famine in Ukraine (1932-33)

• Rwanda (1994)

• 11 September 2001

Weimar Republic (1919 - 1933)

• Economic Problems

• large reparation payments (33 billion)

• Hyperinflation (mass spending before their currency lost its value)

• The Great Depression

• Political Problems

• The humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles caused discontent among soldiers and nationalist groups on the extreme right

• The myth that Weimar politician betrayed Germany (by giving away land)

• French and Belgium troops occupied the Ruhr Valley when Germany could not meet its reparation payments (1923)

• A large number of political parties did not make for effective government

• Communists and other political groups worked to overthrow the government

Brief Timeline• Nov 8 1918 - Revolution in Germany

• June 23 1919 - Versailles Treaty

• July 31 1919 - Weimar Constitution

• Sept - Hitler joins German Workers Party, later renamed the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party)

• Aug 1923 - “Great Coalition” - ends passive resistance to the government as well as inflation (new mark is introduced 1nm - 1 trillion om)

• 1926 - joins the League of Nations

Continued...• 1928 - A "Great Coalition" government (the first since 1923) is formed under

Hermann Müller (SPD), after national elections that seems to confirm the stabilization of the Republic.  This cabinet survives until March 1930.

• 1929 - The German government accepts the Young Plan, which further eases German reparations obligations.  In the ensuing nationalist campaign to force rejection of the Young Plan (unsuccessfully) Hitler gains his first national prominence.\

• the Wall Street crash, symbolic start of the Great Depression, finds the German economy already in decline, and leads to the withdrawal of American short-term loans

• 1930 - March 27 Brüning cabinet:  After the collapse of the Great Coalition government, a minority government of the center and right-wing parties is formed under Heinrich Brüning (Center).  When the Reichstag fails to cooperate with his program, Brüning resolves to rely on President von Hindenburg's powers of emergency decree.  He remains Chancellor until May 1932.

• National elections, called by Brüning to strengthen his position in the Reichstag, result in a big surge in the Nazi and Communist vote.  The "Great Coalition" loses its ability to form a majority coalition, and Brüning now has no way to legislate except by Presidential decree.

This vivid poster from the September 1930 Reichstag election summarizes Nazi ideology in a single image. A Nazi sword kills a snake, the blade passing through a red Star of David. The red words coming from the snake are: usury, Versailles, unemployment, war guilt lie, Marxism, Bolshevism, lies and betrayal, inflation, Locarno, Dawes Pact, Young Plan, corruption, Barmat, Kutistker, Sklarek [the last three Jews involved in major financial scandals], prostitution, terror, civil war.

http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/posters1.htm

Nazi National Interests

• Establishing Germany as a powerful nation and empire (The Third Reich)

• Providing new space for Germany to grow and expand (Lebensraum)

• Unifying all German peoples (including those in Austria and Denmark)

• Dealing with the “Jewish Problem”

• Rebuilding the country’s military power

Factors Leading to

Ultranationalism• National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi Party)

• Manipulated democratic laws of the fledging Weimar republic for their needs

• Fire partly destroyed the Reichstag building. The government takes the occasion to step up persecution of the opposition parties. (Feb 27)

• Capitalized on public fear of communism (Mar 5)

• Enabling Acts (March 1933)

• Allowed Hitler to pass laws without the approval of the Reichstag (German Parliament)

• It is the formal basis of Hitler’s power for the remainder of the Third Reich

• Used power to eliminate political opposition and establish a single-party state

• All political parties other than the Nazis are disbanded and all trade unions are absorbed into the Labour Front

All political parties other than the Nazis are disbanded and all trade unions are absorbed into the Labor Front.

• Scapegoat

• People who are blamed for a country’s ills because they are fewer in number and are often perceived as a having some advantage in the country

• Seen as removable and the rest of the country would benefit

• Nuremberg Laws (1935)

• Strict laws maintaining a ‘pure’ Aryan race

• Indoctrination - superior and subhuman definitions for certain races

• Hitler Youth - training for paramilitary organization

Another 1928 election poster. The caption reads: "Two million dead. Did they die in vain? Never! Front soldiers! Adolf Hitler is showing you the way!" The claim is that Hitler will redeem Germany from the loss of World War I. Courtesy of Dr. Robert D. Brooks.

http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/posters1.htm

Hitler and the Holocaust

• 1933 - 1945 (Nazi Dictatorship)- Vibrant economy- Militarization of Germany- Elimination of political opposition- Creation of propaganda-fed super-patriotism (ultranationalism)- Adoption of fascism- Scapegoating of the Jews

• Lead to outbreak of WWII

• Holocaust - 2 Main Goals

• Establish a Central European Empire- Lebensraum (living space)- War was deemed necessary for unification- Control of a single German state under the “Master race”

• Elimination of the Jewish population- Carried out under the guise of war- Ship to East, to Madagascar- The Final Solution

The Final Solution• Anti-Semitism was not new to Nazi Germany

• Hitler perceived it as a long tradition in parts of Europe

• The Nazi program was openly inhumane

• Rejected sympathy as a weak Christian sentiment

• Under taken in 1941 because the early plans were taking too long

• Quick disposal using concentration camps

• “Undesirables” - Soviets, Slavic people, homosexuals, religious/political dissidents, disabled peoples

Notable Quotation

• In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist; And then they came for trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist; And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew; And then ... they came for me ... And by that time there was no one left to speak up

Pastor Niemoller, survivor of Dachau extermination camp

“Work Will Set You Free”

Genocide-Famine in Ukraine (1932-

33)• Joseph Stalin (1927 - 1953)

• His aim was to build a militarily powerful and industrially strong country

• “Russification” - Stalin’s initiative under “Socialism in One State” -

• To create a single, uniform Soviet citizen regardless of linguistic, ethnic, cultural or religious distinction

Holodomor• Massive arrests of Ukraine’s intellectual,

political, and religious leaders

• Confiscation of land and forced collectivization to control the “breadbasket of Europe”

• Many landowning farmers (kulaks) resisted

• Stalin condemned them to death or exiled them to forced labour camps in Siberia (gulags)

• Stalin increased grain quotas, which were impossible to meet

• In response, Soviet troops confiscated all of Ukraine’s food sources and sealed the borders

• Created a man-made famine

• Refused any international aid

• Lost of 7 million people (25% of population)

• At the height of the famine, Ukrainian villagers were dying at 17 people a minute (p.200)

http://www.mfa.gov.ua/slovakia/en/announce/detail/508.htm

Repression against

Ukrainians

Photo

Rwanda• Small country in the heart of Africa

• Belgian colony until 1962

• Most of the population belonged to the Hutu nation - livelihood was growing crops

• Tutsis - were traditionally herdsmen from Northern Africa

• Tutsis were fewer and were the ruling nobility

Colonization• Both people groups farmed side by side for centuries

• They shared their language and cultured

• Intermarriage was common

• The Belgians favored the Tutsis (a more “European” appearance

• Privileged status for education

• Prior to 1962 (independence) - the majority (Hutus) began to assert their power with violence

• Many Tutsis retreated to neighboring countries - formed political groups - Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)

Internal Conflict• Inexperienced Hutu government began to face

internal conflicts

• Repressive measures of Tutsis led to greater resistance

• Civil War - 1990 - 1993

• UN Intervened to help create a new constitution

• many Hutus violently opposed any Tutsi involvement

Presidential Plane

• On April 6, 1994, the Hutu president’s plane was shot down

• Tutsis were immediately held responsible for the killing

• Propaganda spread by radio/word of mouth, encouraging Hutus to begin exterminating the Tutsis and sympathetic Hutus

Radio RTLM• Set-up after UN-mediated peace treaty gave

Tutsi-led RPF a share of political power in Rwanda

• Used to promote ethnic hatred of the Tutsis

• Played a major role in instigating, maintaining, and driving forward the massacre of Tutsis

• Killing by naming targeted people

• Identified places where people were hiding

• Directing Interahamwe (Hutu paramilitary) squads to likely gathering places

New Issues

• Darfur

• New Rwandan Conflicts

Video

• “Be a voice for Darfur”

Questions

• Consider the period leading up to the genocide. What signs of ultranationalism do you notice?

• How can a people, a community that lives and grow together, come to perpetrate such horrific acts of genocide?

• To what extent did ultranationalism contribute to genocide in Rwanda?