Genocide Literature
The Holocaust was not the first genocide in modern history, nor was it the last. The Nazis seemed rather certain that they could get away with exterminating their enemies, particularly in Poland, to make living space (Lebensraum) for Germany. They knew the world would fail to object to their planned genocide. Hitler himself said, "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" After World War Two ended and people learned the full extent of the Holocaust, the world cried "never again." However, many countries have perpetrated and suffered genocide throughout the rest of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century.
Armenian (1915-1923)During World War One, the Turkish government deported, starved, and murdered over a million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. Many Armenian people were sent into the dessert to die. After the genocide and the war ended, the Turkish government consistently denied that a genocide took place. This continues still today.
The Armenian Genocide: Context and Legacy by Rouben Paul Adalian Armenia: The Survival of a Nation by Christopher J. Walker Children of Armenia: A Forgotten Genocide and the Century-long Struggle for Justice by Michael Bobelian The Armenian Genocide: A Complete History by Raymond H. Kévorkian The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response by Peter Balakian The Knock at the Door: A Journey through the Darkness of the Armenian Genocide by Margaret Ahnert Survivors: An Oral History of The Armenian Genocide by Donald E. Miller and Lourna Touryan Miller Germany and the Ottoman Empire 1914-1918 by Ulrich Trumpener ChechenChechnya is a small mountainous region in the Russian Federation. In 1944 Joseph Stalin deported the entire Chechen nation to Kazakhstan and Siberia, killing between a quarter and a half of the population. The nation was resettled in 1957. Then in the '90's the region suffered further conflict. In 1994, Russian troops invaded the region as the Chechen people worked to declare independence. Though that conflict ended in 1996, another began in 1999. Things calmed in 2000, but the region has still not fully recovered.
Kazakhstan and Siberia by Norman M. Naimark Terror in Chechnya: Russia and the Tragedy of Civilians in War by Emma Gilligan Stalin and His Hangmen: The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him by Donald Rayfield Chechnya: Life in a War-Torn Society by Valery Tishkov A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya by Anna Politkoyskaya Cambodia (1975-1979)In 1970, a civil war began in Cambodia. In 1975, the Khmer Rouge party seized power of the government and launched a plan to nationalize and centralize the farming society (based on the Chinese communist agricultural model). They believed that Cambodia needed to function as one laborer, and anyone who opposed the concept was eliminated. In three years, the Khmer Rouge murdered more than 25% of a population of 7 million.
Why Did They Kill?: Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide by Alexander Laban HInton and Rober Jay Lifton The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79 by Ben Kiernan When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up under the Khmer Rouge by Chanrithy Him Facing Death in Cambodia by Peter Maguire Alive in the Killing Fields: Surviving the Khmer Rouge Genocide by Nawuth Keat and Martha Kendall |
Bosnia (1992-1995)In 1991, Yugoslavia's republic of Bosnia was populated by 4 million people: 44% Bosnian Muslim, 31% Serb, 17% Croat, and 8% Yugoslav. After the Bosnian declaration of independence from Yugoslavia in 1992, Bosnian Serb leaders sought to create a separate state through war. They began a process of "ethnic cleansing" by targeting Bosniak and Croatian civilians. Approximately 100,000 people were murdered.
The Bone Woman by Clea Koff Other Side of War: Women's Stories of Survival and Hope by Zainab Salbi Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo by Zlata Filipovic Srebrenica: Record of a War Crime by Jan Willem Honig and Norbert Both Stone Fields: Love and Death in the Balkans by Courtney Angela Brkic Rwanda (1994)In the spring and summer of 1994, the Hutu majority launched a plan to murder the entire Tutsi population and anyone who opposed government policy. In the course of 100 days, the Hutu government murdered 800,000 people.
Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda by Romeo Dallaire and Brent Beardsley The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda by Scott Straus The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide by Gerard Prunier The Shallow Graves of Rwanda by Shaharyar Khan I'm Not Leaving by Carl Wilkens DR Congo (1996-2003)In the Democratic Republic of Congo, numerous groups operating in the North Kivu, South Kivu and Orientale committed severe torture and rape against civilian populations. As a result of this combined with lack of resources, an estimated 5.4 million people died.
King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild Genocide in the Congo (Zaire) by Yaa-Lengi Ngemi Forgotten Genocides: Oblivion, Denial, and Memory edited by Rene Lemarchand Darfur (2004-present )In 2003, two Darfur rebel movements launched attacks against Sudanese government military installations in an effort to fight the political and economic marginalization of Darfur. Subsequently, the Sudanese military targeted the ethnic groups who supported the rebel movements. This government action and the north/south civil war has resulted in about 2 million deaths and 4 million displaced persons.
Darfur’s Sorrow: A History of Destruction and Genocide by MW Daly A Long Day’s Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide by Eric Reeves Darfur: The Long Road to Disaster by J. Millard Burr and Robert O. Collins A History of the Sudan: From the Coming of Islam to the Present Day by PM Holt and MW Daly Darfur: African Genocide by John Xavier |