Opus 2023-013: The Habit of Holocaust

How would we rank the Holocausts or attempts at genocide of history?

I am not thinking of the common movements of tribes and peoples who pushed weaker cultures off their land.  The group pushed off tends to move a bit and push another bunch off.  That has been going on around the world since God pushed Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden.  I am talking about the organized, systematic annihilation of a weaker group by the dominant culture.

Most people who know which end of straw to drink out of have heard of the Jewish Holocaust.  They may be deniers.  They may have been in the cheering section.  They still know about it.  If we were going to rank these tragedies the Jewish Holocaust is mainly useful in setting a standard for the others since it is the best known.

The Noble Savages of North America were participants.  The Iroquois destroyed at least eight other tribes in their area.  I think it is possible that the Cherokee ended up in Georgia to escape the depredations of their indigenous brothers.  Then came the Trail of Tears.  Some groups face repeated problems but it is not genocide.  

We have the Armenian holocaust of the early 20th century.  According to the Turks who did the honors, it didn’t happen, or, if pushed, will say it wasn’t as bad as portrayed.  I think the methodical murder of over a million people qualifies as more than just a misunderstanding.  

When you think of mass murder don’t leave the Communist party out.  Which one?  It doesn’t really matter.  It could be the kulaks of Ukraine, the peasants of China or the middle class in Cambodia.  Dead is dead.  In shear numbers the Communist version of socialism dwarfs the efforts of the Nazi version.  Both tried hard.  If you show up on their radar at the wrong time it is the end of the road.

The October 7 slaughter is fresh in our minds.  Compared to other atrocities in history the numbers are a bit small.  It comes into this discussion only because it is one step in the historic jihad holocaust.  If you go back in history this has been a 1400 year effort to eradicate the Jews.  We ignore it at our peril because it isn’t really just the Jews.  Everyone who is not a Muslim is on their list.  

How many other holocaust can we think about if we range through history?  My guess is that the list would be long and most we would not even know about because the receiving group of genocide does not write the history books.

Stay alert and pay attention.

homo unius libri