It is said that genocide has had its place in some form in a few nations that consider themselves modern western and civil. International law has brought definition to what it means to have genocide carried out. This distinction allows the world to better understand the act of genocide, and better prosecute the perpetrators on the world stage for the atrocity. Although some nations who practice modern civilization have had a genocidal incident in their history, the act of genocide does progress or facilitated modern western civilization because these acts are not based on values are morals which play a part in making a nation modern and civilized. Regardless of the cruelty and punishment that is brought on a detainee, if the person can ultimately survive the pain and suffering and they will be able to maintain their humanity which makes them more civilized in their oppressive.
I believe the seeds that were sown to foster the idea of genocide came from writings such as Kitchener’s piece on Sudan. Kitchener insistence that the people of Sudan are” not the east” like the Egyptians; this takes away any political statues these people may have had. Kitchener detailed description of the lack culture and historical context the Sudanese have as a nation. The “monotone” history of the Sudanese coupled with their barbarism, and backwardness makes them the unfit for the civilizing mission used in Egypt.
Kitchener also makes the claim that region the Sudanese region is uninhabitable and deemed as the wilderness. He says this space may lead civilized men to lose their humanity, and the natives who call this land home to be beyond becoming civilized like the Egyptians were. Since the area of Sudan is deemed as the wilderness and the people within the region are seen as a sub-culture of humans, they are more susceptible to becoming victims of genocide. The reason for this is the lack of neither political standing of the region and the fact that it is not a nation because it has no constitution based on a language of rights. The Sudanese, who the English consider far from the Egyptians in terms of being of the east, make this region undesirable for expansion of the English empire.
In the 20th century, the emergence of fascism has led to a dynamic where genocide became a part of an ideological foundation. Fascism is based on “homogeneity,” which is imperative because the ideology preaches racial purity of the nation’s entire stock. The implementation of consecration camps such as described in Primo Levi’s book “Survival in Auschwitz” is founded on the fascist principle that if need be a fascist nation must obliterate the “heterogeneity,” this will sufficiently rid the nation of the undesirables as they see it. The fundamentals of this purifying of races are built upon the science of eugenics which started in nations that practice liberal democracy such as England and the United States.
Various imperialistic empires have used colonization and to wage mass murders on indigenous populations they have deemed Savage and outside Rousseau social contract theory in a quest to expand the empire, modern western civilization. Nations deemed us civilized cannot draw moral relationships to killing a nation’s entire stock regardless of their ideology, if Rousseau states that man has no “natural authority” over another man in terms of slavery then the same can be said for genocide as well.
The suffering and pain the Jews endured while contained in Nazi concentration camps is inconceivable by human standards. Although these views hold true today and throughout the international community during the time of World War II, the government of Nazi Germany and its people, however, felt the eradication of the Jews was indeed necessary to maintain the purity of German blood. The Germans took a very different position than the one used by the English in dealing with the people of Sudan. Sudan was a wilderness and its people didn’t adhere to any social contract. The Jews, on the other hand, were citizens of Germany and productive members of the third estate in association with Sieyès’s theory.
The Germans had to legally take political rights from the Jewish people; this properly facilitated them to be forced into concentration camps from a legal standpoint, and later led to them being selected for the gas chamber. Author Primo Levi’s eyewitness account states that the dehumanizing conditions of the concentration camp, particularly in the winter, leaves one in a state of constant “weakness, hunger, and knowledge of the end drawing nearer.” The author states that the constant waiting to be selected to be sent to the gas chamber with the state of nothingness and the prolonged suffering exhausts and man’s mind and stripped him of his humanity is no longer civilized and becomes “a man without inhibitions.” This lack of inhibitions allows the detainee the ability to survive and focus his energy and mind on finding ways to stay alive on daily bases.
Once the Germans completely stripped a man of his humanistic essence and soul, the concentration camp becomes a social experiment of natural selection. The preeminent objective of all prisoners of the concentration camp is sustaining life on a daily basis, and avoiding selection to the gas chamber using “savage patients and cunning.” Those who did not fully accommodate themselves to the contradiction camp found little success in survival. The existence of living in the concentration camp of the prisoners is so entrenched in their mind that their life as a free man is such a distant memory is like trying to recall “a previous incarnation” of a past life.
The act of genocide has not progress modern Western civilization for the better, but rather it has led to some of the worst atrocities in human history. These acts of genocide in Nazi Germany did not go unpunished, and they were not a benefit in the end to those German citizens that were in favor of the Nazi party. Fascist Nazi Germany ideology was based on racial purity, and the citizens of Germany had the makeup of any modern western civilization based on intellect and progress. The act of genocide made the Germans barbarians, for the lack of conscience and moral values which contribute to a civilized nation. A nation that bases their ideology of racial purity and a mindset that finds genocide as an end to justify the means would extend this aim outside their borders keeping them in constant war. This would circumvent the principles modern Western civilizations and perpetual peace nationally and internationally would be unattainable.
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