Alexander Lourenco

Professor Hawkins

POLI SCI 150

9 November 2012

Political Violence

            As we study the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Old Testament, New Testament, and other scriptures we read of prophecies for telling that in the latter-days (of which we live in) there will be wars and rumors of wars. Violent acts occur worldwide everyday; people are hurt physically and mentally while some are even killed. Political violence as defined by David J. Samuels is “the use of force by state or non-state actors to achieve political gain” (Samuels). There are many forms of political violence such as civil wars, revolutions, terrorist acts, and genocides. All the forms have specific characteristics that set them apart from each other

            Samuels defines genocide as “a coordinated plan seeking to eliminate all members of particular ethnic, religious, or national groups, through mass murder” (Samuels). In order for genocides to occur it is likely that there are ethnic divisions with in the state. In Nazi Germany there was an ethnic division between German citizens and people of the Jewish race. Both cultures lived amongst each other for years without quarrel while living next door to each other, attending school together, and even working together. However this quickly changed when the government began to use the Jewish population as a scapegoat for their state’s economic problems. They were no longer seen as equal and people were pressured to believe that the Jewish people were evil and needed to be taken care of.

            A second factor of genocide is ongoing warfare. Germany, at the time was involved at war with several other states. With war raging on occurring on German soil and in far off lands, the Holocaust (destruction of the Jews) was hidden from much of the general public. Many people were unaware that the Jewish people were being murdered by the millions. Much of the German people was aware and did nothing of it because they were scared of the government. The government instilled fear into the people and even widespread believe that the Jews were in fact needed to be exterminated. The Nazis were very powerful and used fear as a means of accomplishing their work. For many people it was a kill or be killed scenario so much of the violence was committed because of fear of the government.

            A third factor of genocide is the international environment. This describing how the rest of the world reacts to the killings. Samuels writes that it is unlikely that the Allied Forces would have been unlikely to prevent the murders of millions of Jews (and other minorities). Genocides happen when the international community is unable or unwilling to step in and intervene. Gleason wrote that, “The Allied response to the sporadic accounts of mass killings was conditioned mainly on intelligence data” (Gleason). Since they were not able to obtain enough intelligence of the killing that were occurring they were unable to act sufficiently enough, quickly enough. Once they did know for sure what was happening by the hand of the Germans, the Allied Forces intervened and began to liberate concentration camps. They also held trial for the German officials and soldiers to hold them accountable for what they did.

            Genocides are not necessarily just people having a hatred for another people and resultantly killing them systematically. It is the killing on behalf of the actor’s belief that the groups of people being targeted are the cause of a problem affecting the state. It is a way of obtaining political gain. Genocides do not need the support of the society; all that is needed is fear. Fear drives the killings. The German state was heavily involved in an ongoing world war, had strong ethnic divisions, and the international environment was permissive for a long time (in regards to the Holocaust).

Works Cited

"British Intelligence and the Holocaust." Baltimore Jewish Week, April 15, 1983, "News" section,              p. 30.

Gilbert, Martin. Auschwitz and the Allies. New York: Holt, Reinhart and Winston, 1981.

Gleason, K. C. "INSTITUTE FOR HISTORICAL REVIEW." The 'Holocaust' and the Failure of Allied and Jewish Responses. N.p., 2012. Web. 08 Nov. 2012 <http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v05/v05p2- 15_Gleason.html>.

Samuels, David J. Comparative Politics. New York: Pearson Education, 2013. Print.