Essay on Could the Holocaust Have Been Avoided

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Essay on Could the Holocaust Have Been Avoided

Genocides have been around since the dawn of time. One of the earliest genocides happened in Carthage around 146 BCE (Matthews 2). Genocides can not be prevented. The United Nations has been ineffective in making policies to put an end to genocides for decades. A good education does not have all the power people think it does when it comes to putting an end to mass killings. Additionally, genocides have been linked to other worldwide problems; factors that have also been around for centuries and are only nonexistent in an ideal world.

The UN has been unsuccessful in preventing genocides despite numerous attempts. The United Nations established the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948 to try and prevent another Holocaust. However, it had some flaws to it. As stated by Paul Hiebert, “Although the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, established in 1948, was designed to avoid another Holocaust, the international community has a sad history of arguing over semantics and hesitating to act if a genocidal crisis isn’t deemed Holocaust-like enough, as backward as that may sound” (Hiebert 2). With this policy, genocides are only considered “genocides” if the death toll meets or surpasses that of the Holocaust. The amount of people who died during the Holocaust was around one million. Therefore, unless over a million people are being slaughtered, the UN will not intervene. Additionally, in 2005, the UN adopted the principle of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). “The basis of R2P (responsibility for protection) is that all humans should be protected from the four mass atrocity crimes – genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity” (Adams 4). Under this principle, genocides should not occur because all people are supposed to be protected from them. However, this has not been the case. Since 2005, genocides have continued to happen. These policies mean nothing if there are no repercussions for people who violate them. According to Paul Hiebert, “Many of those who participated in the 1994 genocide remain unpunished in the Democratic Republic of the Congo”(Hiebert 3). Not only does this scenario show that there truly is no price to pay for partaking in a genocide, but it also shows how the UN’s policy to prevent another Holocaust-like genocide, put in place forty-six years ago, was ineffective. Time and time again, after countless attempts, the United Nations has not been successful in stopping or preventing genocides.

Many people will argue that educating people and building schools will help in preventing genocides. There is evidence to prove this claim is not true. Ellen Kennedy makes a strong point in “Here’s Why Genocide Keeps Happening.” She said, “Although we can teach people to accept one another, this won’t change large-scale malnutrition, economic despair, and political instability” (Kennedy 6). Educating people and teaching them respect and tolerance is great. However, that is not enough to stop a genocide from happening. One could even argue that genocide leaders are already smart because they gain control and power over a large area. Education does not play as big of a role in genocide prevention as people think. There are so many other factors that go into causing a genocide and whether or not people are educated is not one of them. There have been times when highly educated people had the opportunity to intervene and stop a genocide, but they chose not to. In 2001, author Samantha Power and the current U.S. ambassador to the UN reported that “The Clinton Administration knew what was happening in Rwanda back in 1994, and therefore both could have and should have done something to help. ‘Any failure to fully appreciate the genocide,’ she writes, ‘stemmed from political, moral, and imaginative weakness, not informational ones’” (Hiebert 2). In this case, education had nothing to do with preventing genocide. It just came down to morale and character. Those aren’t things that others can impose on people. Those things are decisions and ultimately, people have to decide what type of person they want to be, no one else can do it for them. Education is not a major factor in preventing genocide.

Genocides are caused by far too many outside factors making them impossible to prevent. Mass killings are caused by many different things. According to Ernesto Verdeja, “Significant social crises may create the context for genocidal violence. Revolution, massive, economic upheaval, and especially war increase collective fear and acculturate a society to violence” (Verdeja 8). Similarly, Charles J. Brown said, “Scholars have identified certain external factors – particularly war, impunity for past crimes and regime fragility – that can influence or accelerate the decision to kill” (Brown 9). It is quite obvious that all genocides have many similar factors that played a role in the formation of the genocide. However, there is one factor that is always mentioned without fail, war. Just like genocides, war has also been around since the dawn of time. Nobody knows a world without war. According to the New York Times, humans have only been entirely at peace for eight percent of recorded history (Hedges 1). As for the other ninety-two percent of history, humans were at war. And with war, comes genocides. Genocides are caused by too many factors that are only nonexistent in an ideal world.

Although it is unlikely genocides will ever be prevented, there is a chance that they might be preventable someday. In Elie Wiesel’s speech Hope, Despair And Memory, he said, “(It is the wise men who will bring about peace.). Perhaps, because wise men remember best” (Weisel 3). Perhaps, if people learned from past errors that led them to such tragedy, then they would be able to make sure they did not repeat the same actions to lead themselves into another genocide. Therefore, genocides could potentially be prevented. However, sometimes not even wise, powerful people, like members of the United Nations, can control and put an end to genocides.

The world does not know a world without tragedy, war, death, and genocide. As dark as that may sound, it is the truth. Genocides have yet to be prevented and never will be. The UN has been unsuccessful in intervening and making laws to prevent mass killings for decades. Education is not a factor in preventing genocides. Both educated and uneducated people have the same capability of preventing genocide. Additionally, there are so many outside factors that are linked to genocides that have also been around since the beginning of time. Genocides can not be prevented.

Works Cited

Hedges, Chris. ‘What Every Person Should Know About War.’ The New York Times, 6 July 2003. The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/books/chapters/ what-every-person-should-know-about-war.html. Accessed 31 Mar. 2020.
Hiebert, Paul. ’20 Years After Rwanda, Why Is It Still So Hard To Stop Genocide?’ PacificStandard, 3 May 2017, pp. 1-3. PacificStandard, psmag.com/ news/20-years-rwanda-still-hard-stop-genocide-77540. Accessed 5 Mar. 2020.
Matthews, Rupert. ‘Battle Of Carthage.’ Britannica, www.britannica.com/event/ Battle-of-Carthage-146-BCE. Accessed 13 Mar. 2020.
Murekatete, Jacqueline, et al. ‘Here’s Why Genocide Keeps Happening.’ Zocalo, 1 May 2015, www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2015/05/01/heres-why-genocide-keeps-happening/ideas/up-for-discussion/. Accessed 5 Mar. 2020.
Wiesel, Elie. ‘Hope, Despair And Memory.’ Nobel Lecture, 11 Dec. 1986. Speech.

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