The Holocaust and the Cambodian Genocide: Similar or different? How ab

Evil doesn’t even begin to cover it. The mass murder of millions of people. The complete obliteration of an entire society. Each and every genocide has the same core principles, but a distinct face. A dictator takes over a weak country with promises of returning it to its former glory, once he has everyone’s support, he implements extremely discriminatory laws and finds reasons to kill anyone who dares oppose him. The Holocaust and the Cambodian genocides are remarkably similar, and yet strikingly different. The Holocaust was an attempt to wipe out all Jews and other minorities such as gypsies and handicapped people. The Cambodian genocide, led by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, was in some ways a mirror image of the Holocaust, but it happened forty-two years later. On the other hand, there are many more that one distinction that sets Cambodia apart from all other genocides. Although the two genocides are quite different at a first glance, they are interestingly similar upon deeper inspection. For starters, the Holocaust is best known for it’s brutal and inhumane treatment of prisoners, such as tattooing a number on their arm against their will and feeding them food that is not even fit for dogs to consume (â€Å"Holocaust†). It may be shocking for some people to hear that in Cambodia, it was just as atrocious, maybe even worse. During the Khmer Rouge takeover in 1975 most Cambodians were forced to leave their homes on such short notice that numerous families were killed on cite for not evacuating quickly enough. Those ‘lucky’ enough to escape immediate death were forced to work, unpaid, in labor camps until the fatigue wore down their immune system and they died of some wretched disease (â€Å"Genocide†). Another intriguing similarity betw... .../www.yale.edu/cgp/chron.html>. "Eight Stages of Genocides." Genocides and Conflicts. William Mitchell College of Law, 2012. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. . "Genocide- Cambodia." Talking About Genocide - Genocides. Peace Pledge Union, n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. . â€Å"Holocaust, 1933-1945, The† World Without Genocide. William Mitchell College of Law, 2013. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. . January, Brendan. Genocide: Modern Crimes Against Humanity. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books, 2007. Print. Walker, Luke. "Cambodian Genocide." World Without Genocide. William Mitchell College of Law, 2012. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. .