User:Sophialily78/Armenian genocide and the Holocaust

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Background The Armenian Genocide was the “first non-colonial genocide of the twentieth century” (Armenian Genocide). It happened during World War I, and was carried out by the Turkish Regime and the Committee of Union and Progress; CUP, which included the Ottoman Empire and The Republic of Turkey. After CUP faced military defeats, in the Balkan Wars, against the Armenian army. During the start of World War I and the Ottoman Empire began to invade most of Europe, the Special organization began massacring the people of Armenia. The Ottoman paramilitaries invaded because of the isolated acts of resistance, as a sign of mass revolution and feared Armenia would attempt to claim independence. The start of the genocide occurred when the “Young Turk regime rounded up hundreds of Armenians and hanged them in the streets of Istanbul.”  (Armenian Genocide). The deportation and mass murdering of around one million Armenians happened while en route of the death marches to the Syrian Desert.

The Holocaust was the genocide of six million Jews by the National Social Party Nazi regime, soon after Adolf Hitler and the National Social Party came into power. The targeting of the Jewish community was due to the economic, and political crisis that arose after Germany lost World War I (Intro to the Holocaust). The mass murder did not occur right away, however with the amount of anti-semitic laws that were implemented, like the Nuremberg Laws which ensured that the Jewish people were discriminated against and pushed out of German life. Between 1941 and 1945 Germany and its allied territories began the mass murder of Jewish people. The main methods of killing were through mass shootings and gassing operations. The genocide was known as the final solution to the Jewish Question.

The Aftermath

In 2001 France passed a state law that publicly recognized the Armenian Genocide of 1915 (France Law). Additionally in 2006 France legislature drafted a law (Proposition de Loi tendant à réprimer la contestation de l’existence du genocide arménien) that would add on to the pervious 2001 law. This new law would make denying the Armenian Genocide a criminal offense. The person who is denying would be “subject to up to one year of imprisonment and or have to pay a fine of €45,000” (France’s Draft Law on the Armenian Genocide:). Additionally, the Entente powers of Great Britain, France, and Russia deemed in May of 1915, during World War I “condemned the Ottoman Turkish government’s mass killing of its Armenian population in eastern Anatolia by referring to “new crimes… against humanity and civilization.” (Crimes Against Humanity and the Development of International Law | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans).

There are a lot more conversations, laws, and even holidays all over the world in regard to the Holocaust. The United States declared the 27th of January as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. (International Holocaust Remembrance Day). In an effort to overcome its actions, Germany, after World War II, banned and deemed the National Socialist Party (Nazi Party) a criminal organization. Germany also “...criminalized the denial of the holocaust, banned the use of insignia related to Hitler’s regime and all written material and images promoting the Nazi party” (Holocaust Denial Laws and Other Legislation Criminalizing Promotion of Nazism).

The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg in 1946, also referred to as the Nuremberg Trials, “24 of the most important military and political leaders of the Third Reich were tried…” Nineteen out of the twenty-four were convicted, while three were acquitted. Twelve of the nineteen were sentenced to death three were sentenced to life in prison and four were sentenced to jail time ranging from ten to twenty years. (The Nuremberg Trials | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans.).