Has the World learnt anything from the Holocaust?

Introduction

The holocaust was a genocide which led to the mass killing of six million Jews from Europe. The genocide was mainly influenced by Nazi’s Party leader Adolf Hitler. Hitler was determine to clear all Jews from Europe, and he therefore came up with laws which allowed him to kill all Jews living in Germany between the periods of 1941-1945. It was estimated that nearly 200,000 Nazi sympathizers took part in killing the Jews. The German government used its resources in order to be able to achieve the goals of its leader Adolf Hitler. This paper is therefore going to look at the lessons learnt from the holocaust, and to also provide recent events of genocides in the world, in a bid to explain if the world has really learnt any lesson from the holocaust.

The world has learnt a lot of things from the holocaust, and it is therefore the role of the international community to take charge of avoiding genocides in the world (Rupprecht, Nancy, & Wendy, 30). The holocaust was a very sad act, which left most people shocked, since they could not believe what had become of Germany (Jacobs & Zev, 55). The world seems to learn very quickly, and at the same time to forget very quickly. Whenever an act of genocide takes place in the world, the international community is usually in the first line to condemn such actions, however little or no efforts are put in place in order to contain such an issue.

The holocaust was supposed to prepare the world in order to make people understand the effects of a genocide. Moreover, the international community had been given an insight of what may happen in case of a genocide (Bauman, 81). However, the international community seems not to pay much attention to such issues, even as there are still a number of genocides which are currently taking place in the world. The world has done a lot of things in order to deal with the issues of genocides, but the body’s mandated with that responsibility seem to be weak (Rupprecht, Nancy, & Wendy, 31).

During the period when the holocaust was being conducted, there were no international bodies which could be able to deal with the issues of genocides (Jacobs & Zev, 57). This therefore allowed Adolf Hitler to be able to undertake such atrocities without any problems at all. However, the current world is very different with international bodies such as the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) (Moeschberger & Rebekah, 21). The ICC acts as a toothless dog, and it is therefore controlled by the dictates of the wealthier and stronger countries in the world.

Many atrocities have been committed by different leaders in the world, but the ICC has done little in order to deal with such issues. For instance, in the year 1997, there was a mass killing of nearly 5 million people who lost their lives in Congo after the country was invaded by Uganda. The main cause of Uganda’s invasion into the country was in such of copper, since the country is very rich in copper. The international community did nothing in order to deal with the issue (Bauman, 81).

The ICC is given the right to arrest and convince the main perpetrators of such actions, thus making them to suffer because of their actions (Jacobs & Zev, 59). However, it is unclear on what the ICC did to the main perpetrators of the killings, since the court did not arrest and convict anyone concerning the invasion of Uganda into Congo. This therefore explains the reasons as to why the ICC is usually termed as a toothless dog. This is mainly because the court only talks but it never acts, a thing which encourages mass killings in the world (Rupprecht, Nancy, & Wendy, 31).

In Libya, civil wars led to the death of hundreds of thousands of people, and the war had been financed by the western powers. This was a move which was undertaken in order to oust the then president of Libya the late Muammar Gadhafi (Moeschberger & Rebekah 21). Gadhafi as a leader, stood by his word and he would not therefore allow any country to control his actions, however strong the country was. He therefore posed a threat to the developed countries, since he was on a mission of uniting African countries thus coming up with a common currency of trade. This was a move which would have really impacted the economies of most African countries positively, on the other hand the move would have negatively impacted the trade between developed and developing countries (Jacobs & Zev, 59).

Conclusion

Developed countries therefore plotted to murder President Muammar Gadhafi in order to continue exploiting African nations which are developing countries. Developed countries therefore financed rebels who then overthrew the government of Libya. The ICC was then after the Libyan president, and it therefore wanted to prosecute him as the main cause of the war. The ICC is therefore a court which usually operates under the influence of the developed countries. It cannot therefore be able to undertake its tasks effectively due to being bias. This therefore explains why the world seems to have learnt totally nothing from the holocaust.

Work Cited

Rupprecht, Nancy, and Wendy Koenig. The Holocaust and World War Ii: In History and in Memory. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Pub, 2012. Internet resource.

Moeschberger, Scott L, and Rebekah A. P. DeZalia. Symbols That Bind, Symbols That Divide: The Semiotics of Peace and Conflict. , 2014. Internet resource.

Jacobs, Steven L, and Zev Garber. Maven in Blue Jeans: A Festschrift in Honor of Zev Garber. West Lafayette, Ind: Purdue University Press, 2009. Print.

Bauman, Zygmunt. Modernity and the Holocaust. Hoboken: Wiley, 2013. Internet resource.