HY 104-01 Baun
1 November 2017
Cambodian Comparison Towards German Genocide Throughout the twentieth century the world experienced mass amounts of violence through the involvement of multiple countries in wars scattered throughout Europe its surrounding area. Both the genocide that occurred in Cambodia and the Nazi Regime’s Holocaust showed the idea of violence through similar themes of degradation of human life and conditions prisoners were placed in and motivation to expel minorities to complete their goal. By comparing the experiences of violence and war through a western and non-western example the idea surrounding violence in this era can be more closely distinguished. Through similar stories of survivors of each of these …show more content…
After arriving at a Khmer Rouge in Cambodia prisoner, Ranachith Yimsut, describes the horrendous scenes around him. Describing the prisoners already there as a “sad sight to see” because many of the people “died in front of [him] from heat stroke, sickness, exhaustion, and starvation” (Yimsut 1), this shows the relentlessness the prisoners in these “work camps” were forced to go through. Similarly, an account by a survivor of the Auschwitz death camp, Mordechai Ronen, stated that he “saw some soldiers toss a baby up and shoot it in midair for fun” (Connolly 1). This shows the lack of respect that these prisoners experienced by the guards and the ruthlessness they, even to the most defenseless of humans – infant babies. The comparison of each of these personal accounts from western and non-western examples of violence show the ruthless behavior the guards of each camp inflicted upon them, ad the idea surrounding the century of this time. The main similarity of the Cambodian Genocide and the Nazi Holocaust …show more content…
This created American connections in these areas and allowed relief efforts to grow as well. Both situations arise from structural forces of the conflicts between a greater and lesser power and the greed of one power to create a society that is perfect by their standards. This causes not only tensions to rise, but the violence to increase as seen throughout work camps and prisoner treatment. By comparing the conflicts of the Nazi Holocaust and the Cambodian Genocide the ideas surrounding violence in the twentieth century are more clearly distinguishable. By looking at personal accounts and the similarities and differences in themes between both encounters this point becomes even more clear.
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