Dictionary of Genocide - D Ank Unlimited

RESCUERS DURING THE HOLOCAUST
instances individuals, including Government officials, may commit acts with genocidal
intent. Whether this was the case in Darfur, however, is a determinant that only a competent
court can make on a case by case basis.”
Republika Srpska. Republika Srpska (Serbian for Republic of Srpska, or Serb
Republic) is one of two political entities composing the state of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
(The other is the Muslim-Croat Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, or BiH.) This
arrangement was brought into formal effect at the Dayton Peace Accords, signed in Dayton,
Ohio, on December 14, 1995. It was not, however, instrumental in creating Republika
Srpska. As the former state of Yugoslavia began to disintegrate in 1991, an Assembly
of Bosnian Serbs was established on October 24 of that year, claiming to speak on behalf
of the Serbian population of Bosnia-Herzegovina. In early November 1991, a plebiscite
was conducted among the Bosnian Serbs on the question of whether they wished to
remain in Yugoslavia or join with the Bosnian Muslims and Croats in an independent
Bosnia. The vote resulted in the decision not to join with the others in independence. On
January 9, 1992, the Bosnian Serb Assembly proclaimed the Serbian Republic of Bosnia-
Herzegovina; on February 28 it voted to remain part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
When Bosnia-Herzegovina declared itself an independent state on April 6, 1992, the Serbian
Republic seceded the next day, becoming known to all thereafter simply as Republika
Srpska. Backed by the full weight of what was left of Yugoslavia (essentially Serbia
and Montenegro, including the powerful JNA, or Yugoslav National Army), the state
expanded its borders through conquest and the practice of “ethnic cleansing” of Muslims
and Croats from regions that were then added to Republika Srpska for the purpose of
enhancing contiguity. The president of the republic, Radovan Karadzic (b. 1945), originally
from Montenegro, set up a capital in Pale, just outside Sarajevo, and appointed
Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic (b. 1942) to the overall command of Republika Srpska
forces. The crimes committed in their names and that of the republic will forever be
remembered for their viciousness and inhumanity. The tragedy is that in the West’s desperation
to end the war—seemingly, at any price—Republika Srpska was actually
rewarded at Dayton with territorial acquisitions bought with the blood of its victims.
Republika Srpska still exists, with Banja Luka now its de facto capital city. The republic
has a government, president, parliament, and all the other trappings of full independence.
It is not, however, recognized internationally by any other state save Serbia-Montenegro
and does not have membership in the United Nations. It is, in reality, a fully autonomous
republic within the state of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Rescuers during the Holocaust. The rescue of Jews (and others) during the Holocaust
is an enormously complicated discussion. Victims of the Nazis were variously rescued by
nations (even some that were initially reluctant and resistant to doing so), organizations,
religious groups, partisans, underground networks, individuals, and even antisemitic persons.
The overwhelming majority of those who rescued Jews were non-Jews, and such
activities cannot be separated from the larger scenarios of both military responses and
resistance efforts.
The psychological and spiritual motivations of those who engaged in such behaviors,
as well as their specific circumstances and geographic locales, must, likewise, be taken
into consideration. Why some chose to rescue those in need (and, often at the expense
of their very lives and the lives of their families) while others did not is complex. Oskar
Schindler (1908–1974), for example, saved more than a thousand Jews in Poland, yet
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