Genocide and the 3rd Reich?

Question:

Genocide and the 3rd Reich?

Why do you suppose genocide by government gets such a narrow focus from the media, from historians, from educators?

Certainly Nazi Germany was bad, but it wasn't the worst of the 20th Century. Not even the worst of the 1940s.

Joe Stalin had his camps, and he killed a lot more of his citizens during his tenure than Hitler could ever manage, during those same years.

The French had a concentration camp in the Carib operating until well after the German invasion. Hitler had nothing on them for cruelty and death.

Cambodia, Biafra, the UK during the prison settlement of Australia, the Chinese, the Spanish Inquisition by the Catholic Church. Each indulged in genocide and cruelty to maximum extent they were able.

And except in scale none need take second place to Nazi Germany. In many cases, not even in scale.

So, why all the focus on Germany?

Genocide's the problem. Not Germans, not Jews, not personalities.

Why's the focus on the German manifestation genocide?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: The main reason: We were fighting the Germans. We weren't fighting the French or the Russians. We know more about Stalin and his death camps becuase they were our nemesis in the Cold War, but we never got into any organized pitched effort against the Soviets. It was diplomatic. The whole nation was behind the war effort in WW2, and the media tried to portray the Nazi Germans as omni-evil.

In each case you listed, the USA was not in war against said oppressor, or happened before the USA was even formed, so the media gives them thier "free pass."

As for your "historians and educators" go, each individual tends to have a specified field. What does the Cambodian Khemer Rouge have to do with American History? Very little, so historians and educators who focus more on US History do not spend much time on that subject. Now, if you take a class on the History of Indochina, you probably will go into greater detail about Pol Pot's regime.