Dictionary of Genocide - D Ank Unlimited

experienced by Germany’s Jews under the Third Reich. Told through thinly veiled code
language—Adolf Hitler as “Adenoid Hynkel,” Benito Mussolini as “Benzino Napaloni,”
Der Führer as “The Phooey,” Hermann Göring as “Marshal Herring,” and so forth—the
movie was an enormous gamble for Chaplin, who not only bankrolled its production using
his own money, but departed from his career-defining silent movie technique in order to
make this his first “talkie.” Not only that, it was the first time his signature character, the
Tramp—in this case known simply as “a Jewish Barber”—spoke dialogue from a prepared
script. The film was well received by U.S. audiences, and was undoubtedly Chaplin’s most
successful film commercially. Critics were more qualified in their acclaim, some pointing
out that Hollywood should refrain from foreign political comment at a time of U.S.
isolationism. Others saw Chaplin’s comedic portrayal of anti-Jewish persecution as unacceptable
bad taste; Chaplin himself was later to write that if in 1940 he had known the
full extent of Nazi antisemitic measures (something that could not even be guessed at in
1940) he would never have made the film. However, Chaplin, who was not Jewish, was
determined to make Hitler an object of ridicule and he did so in the most effective way
he could—through his comic art. The Great Dictator was nominated for a number of
Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Chaplin), and Best Supporting
Actor (Jack Oakie, in his role of Benzino Napaloni). The movie has been selected for permanent
inclusion in the U.S. National Film Registry.
Great Purges. A succession of major purges of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
took place at the direction of Josef Stalin (1879–1953), principally between 1934 and 1938.
During this period, Stalin’s secret police, the NKVD, eliminated hundreds of thousands of
opponents, or presumed opponents, of Stalin, cloaked in the necessity to rid the party of dissenters,
supposed class traitors or revolutionary “backsliders.” The pretext for all the killing
was the murder in December 1934 of Sergei Kirov (1886–1934), party secretary for
Leningrad. Major trials took place in January 1935, August 1936, January 1937, and March
1938, during which Stalin effectively removed the senior echelons of the Communist Party
and the armed forces. It is uncertain whether those executed were killed because of their disloyalty,
in Stalin’s search for a scapegoat, or to appease Stalin’s sense of political paranoia.
Apart from the public trials, it has been estimated that at least half a million people were
killed owing to lesser prosecutions resulting from denunciation and petty or personal reasons.
Over 6 million were sent to Soviet concentration camps, where unknown numbers perished.
With regard to genocide, such enormous destruction presents a paradox; when the 1948
United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
was originally drafted, the Soviet Union argued successfully against including “political
groups” as one of the specific groups protected under the UNCG. The reason, though
unstated at the time, is that the leaders of the USSR feared they would be held responsible,
under the UNCG, for the past and ongoing persecution of such groups.
Be that as it may, the deaths during the period of the Great Purges must be accounted
for in some way. At present, they can best be described as crimes against humanity committed
by a regime that was brutal, paranoid, and more concerned about power than the
people over whom it ruled. This period established the gulag (a widespread network of
forced labor and prison camps in the Soviet Union) as a major characteristic of Soviet
society throughout a large part of the twentieth century.
Great Terror, The. The name given to a period of massive turmoil and political violence
in the USSR between 1934 and 1938, during which the Soviet secret police, the
GREAT TERROR, THE
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