Reflections on Comparative Mass Atrocities and Genocide

As we commemorate the 20^th anniversary of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, I reflect on the June 2013 commemoration address I was invited to present at Mount Kenya University in Kigali, Rwanda during the 19^th commemoration of the genocide. My goal was to put historic cases of violence in context and identify lessons about our own healing and rebuilding processes after violence or trauma.

The genocide in Rwanda was a horrific event that shocked the world. Approximately 800,000 individuals were killed in 100 days of extreme violence. I lived in Rwanda during the 19^th commemoration period from April to July 2013 to document testimonies from survivors. This research heightened my awareness of communities which have experienced genocide and mass atrocities. My first instinct was to consider that, like Rwandans, Jews around the world live with the scars of the Holocaust. I would argue most Jews were educated about the brutality and genocidal madness that faced the Jewish people over 65 years ago. Soon we will no longer have survivors of the Holocaust to testify. We will only have memorial sites and recorded testimonies to understand the history of the Holocaust. Those of us who have documented stories of Holocaust survivors will live with the burden to keep their stories and memories alive.

As a Fulbright scholar, I had the privilege of researching Jewish children rescued in Switzerland during the Holocaust while most of their parents were deported to concentration camps. Their killing was widespread and systematic, covered by the United Nations (U.N.) definition of genocide. In my research I explored some Jewish and non-Jewish resistance to the Nazi “Final Solution,” especially in France and Poland. These movements were formed by men and women, communists and political liberals, and others persecuted by the Nazi regime. Many leaders of the resistance died clandestinely combatting the Nazi regime, which included rescuing children.

I interviewed and documented the experience of 65 survivors of the Holocaust who escaped to Switzerland. Some common

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themes presented themselves, including a lost sense of childhood, disappeared and deported family and friends, hiding their identity, sexual violence, interruption of education, and fear of the unknown, deportation, and death. Some of the survivors had never told their stories before and others had spoken many times at commemorations, for school groups, or to their families. The stories I discovered were stories of hardship and loss. These survivors live with the knowledge that they survived and others did not.

In 2013, my research took me from Europe to Rwanda. During a visit to the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda, I learned that Rwandans are discovering similarities regarding their own history and backgrounds. Agahozo-Shalom is an orphanage that began in 2008 as a high school for child survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The Village is based on a post-World War II model of community-based Israeli living for survivors and orphans from the Holocaust.

At the Village, I met a boy who traveled to New York with a group of students for outreach and fundraising. This 16-year-old boy had the privilege of meeting a Holocaust survivor during his visit to New York. As this student and I sat in the cafeteria at the Village in Rwanda, I was immediately struck by his respect, confidence yet humility, and his ability to think big. He told me about his visit with a Holocaust survivor in New York and how surprised he was by the similarities of their experiences. He was struck by the fact that the Nazis measured Jewish noses, ears, and facial features, something that was also done in Rwanda. The student was inspired by how the Holocaust survivor generation focuses on making the world a better place and working to ensure that the hate they experienced is never repeated. He did not know that there was a global movement of organizations and individuals dedicated to preventing future mass atrocities and genocide. This student’s insights and understanding show some of the similarities between the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide, which are also relevant in a broader discussion of mass violence. While there are many aspects of the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide that do not compare, the racial ideology that plagued Germany in the 1930s and the Belgian colonists in Rwanda around the same time were one root cause of the violence that came afterward in both cases.

The term “genocide” is legally defined in Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948). While genocide is clearly a significant and dis-

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tinct crime, I cannot help but question what is limiting about this definition. There have been many cases of crimes against humanity that are not labeled by the U.N. definition of genocide yet still require attention and serious examination. Imagine Srebrenica, Bosnia, July 1995, at the end of a three year civil war between Serbs and Bosnian Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Nearly 7,000 men and boys were separated from the women in their families and killed in this massacre, shot down by the gunfire of Serbian troops whose ideology was to create a greater Serbia. In total, 100,000 people were killed during the war. In addition, an estimated total of 20,000 to 50,000 women were raped and over 2.2 million people were displaced, making it the most devastating conflict in Europe since the end of World War II.

Imagine Freetown, Sierra Leone, 1990, where the Revolutionary United Front (R.U.F.) began an extreme civil war between the government of Sierra Leone and the rebel movement. The R.U.F. used tactics to gain power and control that fall into the category of mass atrocities, including mutilation, amputation, rape, conscription of child soldiers, and drugging of militia members. The conflict continued from 1990 to 1999 when civilian rule was reinstated through elections. By then, the U.N. had intervened to restore political stability. In total, over 43,010 people were killed after the insurgency began in 1991 (United States Institute of Peace, “Truth Commission: Sierra Leone Truth Commissions, Digital Collection.” Accessed March 10, 2013. http://www.usip.org/publications/truth-commission-sierra-leone).

According to the distinguished political scientist Alexander George (1920-2006), “The ‘lessons’ of history are often inconsistent, if not contradictory, and generalizations are hazardous if not carefully qualified. The lesson drawn from a particular case may be contradicted by the lesson that springs from another case.” He goes on to write that “since historians know this better than others, they are perforce the custodians of relevant historical memory” (Alexander L. George, “Case Studies and Theory Development: The Method of Structured Focused Comparisons.” Diplomacy: New Approaches in History: Theory and Policy, 1979, 43-68). Therefore, it is the historian’s job to create a workable framework to compare cases of mass violence.

This year, on April 7, 2014 I attended the 20^th Commemoration ceremonies of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Sitting in the Amahoro Stadium in Kigali with nearly 30,000 Rwandans and in-

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ternational individuals all affected in some way by the genocide allowed me consider the purpose of remembrance. In the stadium, mournful and apologetic words of politicians contrasted with the shrieks of genocide survivors traumatically recalling memories of past violence. Politicians spoke about a new Rwanda and hope for the future, yet the survivors seemed haunted by the past. This contradiction seemed clear to me, discussions of hope and rebuilding at a time dedicated to remembering and sorrow.

We cannot reverse the tragedies of the past, but we can consider how these lessons can change our actions regarding future prevention and education. At the Mount Kenya University’s 19^th commemoration, I challenged the students to make themselves stronger leaders for the future. One Rwandan survivor there told me that to know sorrow and difficulty makes an individual stronger, helping feel the pain of others, but also feel the joy of those we love. We cannot erase the past. We can, however, reenter society with a heightened awareness of what we can do to fix and repair the world. If each person does their small part, we will be able to make a significant change.

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