The Daily Apple

           On November 9^th, 2010 I attended a lecture by Claudia Koonz called “Genocide and the Moral Order in a Globalized World.”  Looking at the title my gut instinct automatically presumed this was going to be another lecture about the terrible atrocities committed by the Nazis under the Third Reich.  This would prove only partially true—even though Koonz’s background was foremost in the history of the Third Reich she ventured out of her renowned expertise and touched on other subjects such as the definition of a genocide, mass killings that took place during the 20^th century and “salvage” anthropology.  Through attending this lecture I feel I personally possess a greater understanding of what constitutes for a genocide and of other genocides besides the Holocaust that occurred throughout history; some even under the name of democracy.

           Koonz opened her lecture citing the significance of the date.  Seventy-two years ago on November 9^th – 10^th, 1938 the Nazis displayed the first mass attack on Jews in would later be called The Night of Broken Glass.  During The Night of Broken Glass over 260 synagogues were burnt down and 30,000 Jewish men were sent to concentration camps.  After telling the background on this tragic night Koontz went into defining what constitutes for genocide by citing Raphael Lemkin.¹ After giving the definition Koontz was able to go into the topic.  Genocide, according to Koontz, was relatively modern (from the times the European settlers set out to colonize the world) due to factors such as technology.  In the modern era the 20^th Century stood out as “the century of death” and marked a turning point in which more civilians began to be killed that soldiers at a much greater ratio.

            At the last point I was astounded.  Although having casually studied history, as a bit of a history buff it never occurred to me that the ratio of civilian casualties was increasing as time progressed.  Thinking on this notion I came to an even more shocking conclusion.  Although the world has more democratic state actors than ever the wars fought currently have a greater ratio of civilian casualties to soldiers than ever before.

Footnotes:

1.  Genocide- “a mass killing of all members of a nation, that is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves”