Dictionary of Genocide - D Ank Unlimited

Darwin’s scientific concept of evolution centered on long, gradual development from a
lower to a higher form of life, in which the stronger always prevailed over the weaker in the
ongoing quest for species survival. Theorists of human behavior, identifying parallels in the
way human societies operated, developed, over time, a theory of social Darwinism, in which
societies also evolved from weaker to stronger positions, via a process in which the fittest
survived and the weaker fell away. Spencer, being one such theorist, suggested that Darwin’s
concept of the “survival of the fittest” could also be applied to the human species, and that
the arena of history itself was where the conflict took place among human communities.
Commensurate with the discussion of “races” in anthropological and other circles in
Europe during the same period, groups of people were thus classified into different races
based upon physical (and other) characteristics, and then categorized along a spectrum
ranging from superior to inferior status (e.g., white Protestants being “superior;” Jews and
blacks being “inferior”). Paralleling these discussions were those regarding the so-called
improvement of the human species in both European and U.S. contexts and the rise of
the eugenics movements on both continents. Taking part in such discussions were such
figures as Sir Francis Galton (1922–1991), the “Father of Eugenics,” and German physician
Ernest Haeckel (1834–1919).
The most perverse twentieth century use of this thinking was the thought and work of
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) and the Nazis, who viewed themselves as representative of the
superior “Aryan” race and who perceived their biological enemies as being “International
Jewry,” those—the Nazis asserted—responsible for all of civilization’s ills and who must
be destroyed in toto. Hitler based his racial doctrines firmly on social Darwinist notions of
natural selection, the victory of the strong over the weak, the impartiality of nature (and
hence the irrelevance of humanitarian concerns), and the naturalness of physical struggle
(translated, in a political sense, into war). From such thoughts, which he held to be unalterable
givens of human existence, Hitler (and others in the National Socialist movement
such as Alfred Rosenberg [1893–1946] and Heinrich Himmler [1900–1945], who shared
his thinking and took it into new directions), built a theory that had the singular outcome
of genocide. For Hitler, race hierarchy was the factor that determined the strength and
weakness of nations, and only the strong could survive. This was why the Jews—whom
Hitler identified as being the evil antithesis of the Aryan ideal—had to be eliminated
from the world community. Every one of Hitler’s racist thoughts that became translated
into policies or action stemmed from this core belief in the social Darwinist doctrine of
the innate superiority or inferiority of nations and led directly to the Holocaust of
European Jewry at the hands of the Nazis.
Social Engineering. Not all genocidal projects aim simply for the removal of a group
from the broader body of the nation, even though by definition this is what genocide
comprises. In some cases, perpetrator regimes employ genocidal means in order to reorder
society according to a defined scheme whereby the removal of the marked group will,
according the perpetrators’ logic, “improve” what remains. This planned rearrangement
can be referred to as social engineering. Examples abound. The Nazis sought to make a
“better” society through the elimination of those they considered “impure” (e.g., racial
“enemies” such as Jews, Slavs, and Roma) or a drain on the resources of the nation (e.g.,
the so-called useless mouths, such as those with physical or psychological disabilities, or
those with incurable diseases). In Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia) between 1975 and
1979, perhaps the most radical attempt to reorder society ever seen took place when Pol
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