Js 211 – the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide Comparison
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Jeremy Klif
JS 211: The Holocaust
Research Paper: Comparison of Two Genocides
Catholicism is the most prominent branch of Christianity whose power is centralized in
the Vatican under the authority of the Pope. Catholics, as most Christians, believe in Jesus Christ, following the principles of the Holy Bible which extols the virtues of forgiveness, salvation and love of your neighbor. Together, Catholics believe that Christians have free will. People can either do good or evil things; they have responsibility upon their actions. Withal, some principles of the Bible seem to advocate violence as well, even though they constitute a minority of statements. Interestingly enough, the perpetuation of crimes against humanity in the 20th century has raised the question of the role of the Roman Catholic Church in several genocides. The question of the involvement of Catholics and religious authorities has caused disputes and confusion among scholars. Determining and examining the role of religion is but one of the more recent studies of the Catholic Church in Nazi Germany. Thanks to those researches that have been developed for more than forty years, scholars are able to learn more about recent genocides such as the 1994 mass massacre that took place in Rwanda. It is essential to ask the correct questions, to study the right arguments, statistics or testimonies as well as to avoid disputes not relevant in determining what actually happened or what could have happened. Furthermore, it is fundamental to also take into consideration the degree of culpability, weighting acts of omission and acts of commission. One pertinent remaining question among scholars is whether or not the Catholic participants in the slaughter reveal a religious complicity or were solely an exceptional cluster. Nevertheless, it is consequential to incorporate the exact nature of that participation which also remains undetermined. The examples of the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide are appropriate to attempt to respond to this question.
The dreadful events that occurred in Rwanda between April and June 1994 are facts that cannot be disputed. However, a background in the history of the relationships between the ethnic groups as well as what factually occurred is necessary in order to study this question more in depth. Rwanda is located in East Africa. Prior to those events, most of the country belonged to the ethnic group–the Hutu. However, the state was controlled by the Tutsi. Before it became a Belgian colony, Tutsi tended to be more landowners whereas Hutu were the one working on the land. When the country became a Belgian colony after World War I, a wedge between the two groups was formed as the Tutsi were put in power. The selection of a group to be privileged and educated in order to have a go-between governor and governed was recurrent in colonized countries. The wedge gradually increased between 1919 until the countrys independence in 1962 as Tutsis were perceived as believing that they were the better ethnic group, the aristocrats of the country whereas Hutus represented the peasantry. In 1962, the governments control was shifted to the Hutus which was the start of deeper internal conflicts between the two groups. Measures against the Tutsi were imposed continuously such as the interdiction for them to enter secondary schools and the University. Tensions kept growing and a civil war began in 1990. After negotiating a multi-party constitution, the civil war was paused even though Hutu leaders were up against it. As tensions grew Rwanda attracted greater international attention with the outbreak of bloodroot atrocities on April 6th, 1994. On this date, President Juvenal Habyarimana was killed in a plane crash. This event served as a pretext for members of the government and the army to start a long-planned attack against opponents of the regime. A few hours after the catalyst, Presidential guard and troops took over the capital, Kigali, carrying a list of critics of the regime to be eliminated such as journalists, human rights activists or progressive priests. Additionally, in the next few weeks, government officials, soldiers and civilian militia expanded their search to the rest of the country but this time focusing on one particular ethnic group–the Tutsi. The terrible massacre lasted until perpetrators fled into exile in July. Unfortunately, the genocide of the Tutsi population is outstanding for its intensity; 800,000 out of more than 1.1 million Tutsis were killed and overall one million people died in three months which would mean that on average 11,000 people were murdered everyday. Despite the reluctance of both the U.S. and the U.N. to label the killings as a genocide, those events completely fit the definition. First, it was an intentional destruction as soldiers, troops and others had the aim to kill Tutsis and any opponents. Second, it was a destruction of an ethnical group–the Tutsis. Finally, the intent was turned into physical actions, by actually killing members of the group not on an individual basis but on a group one in a systematic way.
Therefore, one must ask what was the role of the Catholic Church in the creation of the
wedge between the Tutsis and the Hutu that led to such terrible slaughters. Rwanda was a
predominantly Catholic country in which 62.6 percent declared themselves Catholics in
1991. Timothy Longman argues that missionaries strategically stayed closed to the state
meaning with the Tutsis until the 1950s and then with the Hutus. The goal was to win converts and this strategy appeared to be successful looking at the 1991 survey. In Germany, prior to the Nazi regime, the Roman Catholic Church party always constituted an important player in the state, influencing many parts of life. Yet, with a majority of Protestants, a struggle to reinforce Catholic influence remained. In this sense, the Catholic Church was pressured to keep a close relationship with the government. However, other scholars argue that this strategy was recurrent in many countries in which the church attempted to preach catholic beliefs. For example,… Yet, in many of those countries, this alliance did not lead to genocidal events. Therefore, it is inconclusive to determine that due to a close relationship between Church and State, the Catholic Church
institution is responsible for a Genocide.
On the other hand, one must look at the actual teachings of Catholic missionaries to
the majority of