Oheneba Boateng

Mr. Prouty

Honors English 10A

10-20-2015

Reacting to Genocide

Imagine a long-term massacre of a group of people due to the views of another. The

massacre at hand was the killing of the Jewish people- the holocaust. German Nazis were

responsible for the massacre of eleven million people. A race was deprived of six million people

while a whole world watched. If an instance such as genocide were to occur again, the world as a

whole has a responsibility to protect the suffering group.

My basis of judgement is reason. It takes common sense and sympathy to realize that

someone needs help. For example, a friend of your is being bullied (pushed around maybe) and

you have the tools to stop it; why not stop it? Humans have the right to protect the rights of

others. People do not go to court without a lawyer and therefore should not have to fight their

own battles.

In ​Night​ by Eliezer Wiesel, the pain and experiences of the Jewish people are thoroughly

explained in through the eyes of a 15-year old boy. An example of one of his experiences would

be during the deportation of his town. He said, ”Night. No one prayed, so that the night would

pass quickly...Should that fire die out one day, there would be nothing left but dead stars, dead

eyes.” (Page 18). The first half of the quote expresses the extent of what the people had to go

through in order to abandon even their religious practices. Elie also uses the stars in this quote

allowing the fire to symbolize the Jewish fighting spirit. At this point the Jews were fighting
their own battle. Elie was near the point of abandoning religion and beliefs when he said, “What

are You, my God?,...What does Your greatness mean, Lord of the universe, in the face of all this

weakness, this decomposition and this decay? Why do You still trouble their sick minds, their

bodies?” (Page 63). Elie questions God Himself in this quote with why people still look to Him

for guidance in all of this despair. Like my previous quote, people (like Elie) were on the brink

of abandoning their religion. My last quote refers to the libration of the Jewish people. Elie said,

”Our first act as free men was to throw ourselves on the provisions. We thought only of that. Not

of revenge, not of our families. Nothing but bread.” (Page 109). As a result of others helping, the

people were able to receive what they have been deprived of for many years. When the Russian

soldiers came to liberate the camp, it was not only one step closer to winning the war but also the

freedom of Elie and the prisoners. It was a win-win situation.

In 1994, a similar event happened in ​Rwanda. Rwanda is a country with three ethnic

groups, the Hutus, Tutsis and the Twa. The genocide involved the Hutus and the Tutsis. Hutus

were the regulators of the genocide against the Tutsis. The Rwandan genocide was based on

ethnic beliefs during the Rwandan civil war. During the genocide, very few measures were taken

to ensure the safety of the Tutsis. The United Nations and peacekeeping forces stationed there

did little to suppress the genocide due to the ongoing civil war. Nearly one million Tutsis were

killed; this could have been easily prevented if the United Nations and other countries took an

extra measure to stop the massacre.

Genocides and other occurrences, such as the Holocaust, can occur due to

misinterpretations of hatred and action. Countries must react in a way similar to stopping

bullying. If actions like this were taken, the oppressed people will be safe whilst the saviors earn
prestige and faculty of justice. Elie Wiesel asserts that human beings have- and the world

community has- a responsibility to protect one another when acts such as genocide occur; and I

strongly agree.