Nationalism in the Holocaust and Cambodian Genocides

Matthew Slaughter
SSO 306 Genocide in Comparative Perspectives
Dr. O’Dell
2/23/2019
 The term “genocide” refers to a deliberate, mass killing of a large group of people,
ranging from thousands to even millions. The group that is killed is usually part of a similar
ethnic group, religion, or race. The Holocaust and the Cambodian Genocides both targeted a
specific group to murder, being the Jews and the “new people”, respectively. My main argument
for this paper is that both the Holocaust and Cambodian Genocide occurred due to the negative
type of nationalism. First, I will compare how both genocide leaders found an opportunity to
take control and how they both used the principle of state apparatus to ensure power and that
control. Also, I will demonstrate how both governments differed in political systems and how
these differences both resulted in similar outcomes. I will further present how the concept of
nationalism was used to cause the genocides, due to the aid of state apparatus and the specific
political systems used. Lastly, I will compare how both leaders implemented their systematic
killings. Finally, I will explain what present societies and future societies should be concerned
with in preventing potential genocides from occurring, based on what I learned through my
research on these two genocides.
The Holocaust and the Cambodian Genocides did not just randomly occur one day.
Events led up to leaders having to take charge to reform their countries after horrific losses.
Hitler wanted to gain power to reform Germany after World War I and Pol Pot wanted to gain
power to reform Cambodia after the US bombed them. On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz
Ferdinand was assassinated and this event is what stirred up the start of WWI. About six months
after WWI ended, the Treaty of Versailles was presented to the German delegation, consisting of
many articles. The main article (231) was known as the “War Guilt Clause”. This article forced
Germany to accept full responsibility for initiating WWI and Germany had an extremely large
amount of reparations to fulfill. Also, not only did their military have to be very limited in
numbers, but their country was limited in numbers due to deaths in the war. This took an
economic toll on Germany and they were struggling as a country to function. This then gave
Hitler an opportunity to come in and take control and to reform Germany (United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d.).
From around 1955-1975, the US and Russia fought in what we know as the Vietnam
War. The US wanted to win the war by any means and this resulted in them bombing the
Russian supply routes. Cambodia happened to be a territory that was part of this route and they
were bombed by the U.S., even though they were neutral in this war. In 1969-1970,
approximately 110,000 bombs were dropped on Cambodia and this displaced and murdered
thousands of Cambodians (History.com editors, 2018). Many surviving Cambodians fled to
other parts of the area, such as the jungle, where recruits to the Khmer Rouge guerilla army were
located. This bombing devastated the Cambodian people and disrupted the area economically,
due to the deaths and those who were mourning the deaths. To reform Cambodian society, the
Khmer Rouge was formed and their leader, Pol Pot, ran the party and state in hopes to bring back
what Cambodia was before the bombing (Weitz, pg. 148-149). Regarding both of these
genocides, Hitler and Pol Pot both found an opportunity to take control and reform their
respective territories due to having their countries devastated from wars.
Next, the term “state apparatus” was practiced by both Hitler and Pol Pot. State
apparatus refers to all government institutions can be used by government leaders and in control
by those leaders. Hitler used state apparatus to have complete control over the military, allowing
him to have an immense amount of power. Since he had this control, anyone that went against
what he thought was best for Germany were deemed inferior and were killed. This power and
control allowed him to eliminate people that would not help his perceived Germany flourish into
the utopian country he wanted (Weitz, pg. 135). Pol Pot also used state apparatus to have
complete control of everything occurring in Cambodia. He was in charge of the military (Khmer
Rouge) and used that power to ensure that everyone following his regime wanted the same thing
as him. Anyone going against his plan were tortured and/or executed to ensure all people in the
new Cambodian society were “pure” in his eyes. Also, the use of state apparatus gave him the
power to change schools into interrogation centers. Thousands of prisoners were housed there
and most did not survive (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d.). By using
government institutions and educational institutions, Hitler and Pol Pot were both able to
increase their power and control over people in Germany and Cambodia, respectively.
Furthermore, both of the governments have different political systems that further led to
the genocides occurring. Hitler used the authoritarian movement known as Fascism and Pol Pot
used the system of communism. Fascism is totalitarian form of government where a single
leader is in control of everything. Hitler clearly utilized this when running the Nazi regime,
since everything he said, went. This eventually led to the term Nazism, which refers to the
Fascist ideology practiced by only Hitler and his National Socialist German Worker’s Party
(Grobman, 1990). Since this was the form of government, Hitler had absolute control over
Germany, allowing him to construct the population how he wanted. Nazism supported the
superiority of the desired Aryan race, since this is what Hitler wanted. This eventually led to
discrimination of other races not see as the ideal Aryan race, such as the Jews. The Jews were
seen as hindrance to Hitler’s Nazi regime, due to the fact that he believed their existence
prevented the proper reformation of Germany. With his power in Germany and the use of the
Fascist system, he was able to get exactly what he wanted, which led to murdering the Jewish
population (Grobman, 1990).
The leader of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, used the political system of Communism to run
his government. Communism is a political ideology that seeks to create a classless society in
which the major means of production are controlled by the public. Property is also publicly
owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities. To utilize this political
system, Pol Pot transformed Cambodia into a rural society (Chhang & Scheffer, n.d.). There
were no rich people and no poor people, which was different than what the Cambodian society
was used to because it was previously an urban society with classes. Also, private property, free
markets, and schooling was abolished, along with churches, universities, and government
buildings being turned into prisons, stables, and reeducation camps. Overall, traditional
Cambodian culture was gone. The regime would not let people hold discussions or have leisure
time and people were deprived of their basic rights. Family relationships were not preferred to
be existent or shown, along with emotions (Chhang & Scheffer, n.d.).
Once people were removed from their individuality, the Khmer Rouge determined there
were two groups of people in their communistic society known as the “base people” and the
“new people”. The “base people” were people that joined this communistic movement from the
start and remained loyal to the Khmer Rouge and the “new people” were people who came from
cities and were not working effectively in this rural, communistic movement. The “new people”
were then deemed to be an inferior group and were forced to work and live under harsh
conditions. Pol Pot eventually saw this group as a complete hindrance to his new Cambodian
society and wanted to wipe them out to establish a homogenous Khmer society (United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d.). Although Hitler and Pol Pot used two completely different
political systems, both systems eventually led to the segregation of a group of people, which
influenced the beginning of both genocides.
 Both Hitler and Pol Pot used the state apparatus to gain extreme power to ensure they
could run their country how they wanted without anyone standing in their way. Also, they both
used different political systems to run their reforming country. In Hitler’s case, Fascism gave
him the power to segregate an inferior group that he believed prevented Germany from
reformation. In Pol Pot’s case, Communism overtime allowed him to seek out and segregate a
group of people that were preventing his communistic Khmer society from flourishing. This
essentially leads to the concept of nationalism, which is defined as identifying with one’s own
nation even if it means the exclusion of other groups or nations. Hitler presented he wanted
Germany to have the Aryan race, and the Jews did not fit that Aryan group. As stated before,
Fascism (eventually becoming Nazism) was the political system used by Hitler, making him the
absolute dictator of Germany. Anything he wanted could happen, due to his power. He gained a
lot of this power from state apparatus, giving him control of government institutions, especially
the military. Since he was in complete control of Germany, he used the concept of nationalism
to exclude Jews from Germany, since he believed they prevented the ideal reformation of the
country. The most efficient and quickest way he saw to eliminate the Jews was through a
genocide because he knew nobody had the power to prevent it from happening (Grobman, 1990).
Pol Pot presented he wanted a new Cambodian society through the political system of
Communism. He also used state apparatus to gain extreme power, allowing him to murder
anyone that went against his ideas, ensuring he had the followers he wanted. Since he and the
Khmer Rouge were in control of this new Cambodian society, they were able to eliminate social
classes and strip the individuality from people. Once this occurred, the Khmer Rouge developed
groups of people, previously stated as the “base people” and the “new people”, based upon who
were loyal from the start and benefited Pol Pot’s communistic movement. This great amount of
power allowed the Khmer Rouge to use the negative type of nationalism to get rid of the “new
people”, because they were preventing the ideal, communistic society that the Khmer Rouge
wanted. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge also knew the quickest way to eliminate this group of
people was through a genocide and with their power in that region, they could effectively
perform this elimination (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d.). Overall, Both
Hitler and Pol Pot achieved power through state apparatus and were able to isolate a population
between their different forms of government. This aided them in their opportunity to easily use
the negative type of nationalism to segregate a group that was preventing their ideal new society
from being reformed. This resulted in the Holocaust Genocide and the Cambodian Genocide,
since genocide was the most efficient way for them to achieve their desired nation-state.
Lastly, both Hitler and Pol Pot had similarities in their systematic killings, such as harsh
working conditions, starvation, torturing, and executions. Hitler established multiple camps,
such as concentration and forced-labor. In concentration camps, the Jews were basically
incarcerated and forced to work. They were extremely starved with very poor living situations.
Jews would sleep in unsanitary bunks and some would even die in there overnight (Wiesenthal,
pg. 78-79). Once prisoners were too weak to work from being starved or from not being able to
sleep, gas chambers were installed to kill them off. Forced labor camps were also established,
which had the main goal of working Jews to their death through pointless jobs. Thousands of
prisoners died due to malnourishment, improper equipment, and lack of rest (United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d.). A Holocaust survivor, Blanka Rothschild describes her
experience in the forced labor camp known as the Ravensbruck camp. She explained how she
had a fever and could not work to her fullest and a guard threw her to the ground and stomped on
her for not working enough. Her ribs were broken and she got further infections due to open
wounds not being treated (Bradley, 1994). Hitler also established killing centers, where this was
exclusively to murder large numbers of people right as they arrived. Thousands of Jews were
gassed each day, eventually having roughly six million dead by the end of the genocide (United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d.).
Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge drove the urban population of Cambodians into the rural
areas, to form the communistic system. These people were forced to march for weeks to villages
where they would perform harsh labor in the fields. Eventually this led to executing hundreds to
thousands of these civilians for many reasons, including not working hard enough or being sick.
A significant number of people died from hunger and disease (Bowman, 2006). Also, Khmer
Rouge imprisonment was one of the most gruesome scenes of the genocide. Any undesirable
person was sent to imprisonments and some were randomly selected to be executed each day.
The prisons were categorized, having only children in one, only females in one, and only males
in one. People there were barely fed and tortured and were forced obey to everything that they
were told to do or they would be killed. About 2.2 million people were killed by the end of this
genocide (Masciari, 2010). Hitler and Pol Pot both had their specific methodology in murdering
millions of people, but overall they both starved, tortured, imprisoned, overworked, and
murdered people each day.
Genocides are one of the most horrific actions that can occur in this world. As terrible
as they are and as powerful as the leaders are that construct them, they can be prevented. The
main aspect societies should be looking for when they have a leader is whether or not he/she
segregates a group of people. Based on these two genocides researched, after the leaders gained
power and changed the political systems in their respective territories, they were able to separate
an undesirable group by using nationalism. Nationalism was the main reason for these genocides
occurring and this was due to the segregation of a deemed inferior group in the region. Societies
should be educating people about these genocides through school districts and other facilities, so
people can get a full understanding of the terrible outcomes that can occur due to specific
actions, such as segregation. People can learn from these genocides that negative behavioral
actions that keep reoccurring and reoccurring will eventually lead to a major problem (Haugland
& Zapalska, 2016). People every day, directly or not, segregate others, whether it’s not letting
someone be on their football team on the playground or avoiding talking to someone because of
their skin color. Education of genocides and how they are started, through segregation and
eventually nationalism, need to be taught to society so changes can be made by each person each
day to potentially prevent a future atrocity, such as a genocide.
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