October 19, 2006

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October 19, 2006
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Understanding the magnitude of the killing
Introduction Part III

• Two variables derived from the international
  context cynical and brute force realpolitik.
• This can explain decisions by countries external
  to the killing sites.
• Also, societal context to understand behavior.
• Later we will discuss later altruistic
  punishment, also, the inequality yielded by the
  contraction process and other factors that impact
  the magnitude of the killing.

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This section

• Will look at more than genocidal and perpetrating
  states
• Policies of European great powers during the
  Armenian genocide,
• Vatican in relation to the Nazis before and after
  WWII,
• France in its association with the Rwandan state
  in 1994.
• Failures by the U.N. in regards to Rwanda will
  also be explored.
• Finally, we will look at the U.S. and other
  Western democracies policies in regards to
  immigration during the Nazis reign.

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The Armenians

• Two phases of cynical realpolitik
• The first is the policies surrounding great
  powers prior to and during the massacres of
  1894-1896.
• The second is Germanys policies during the
  actual genocide.
• Russia was an important great power
• Ottomans had suffered many defeats by the Russian
  hands territories and control of Christian
  communal life.
• Loss was continuous.

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Russia and the Armenians

• Russians were Orthodox Christians and initially
  protected the Christian Armenians.
• Tsarist Russian policy changed in the last 20
  years of the 19th century.

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Russian policy

• Policy was influenced by the disappointments in
  the Balkans.
• Russia defended the Christian nationalists in the
  Balkans, but that did not mean those people
  supported Tsarist Russia.
• Also problems with Bulgaria and nationalism.
• Armenian groups wanted autonomy like Bulgaria.
  Russia worried its Armenians would join.

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Continued

• Russian policies were to protect their
  boundaries, especially in Anatolia Armenian
  autonomy would threaten that.
• Loss of territory would hurt Russia in the eyes
  of its own people.
• Since the Russians wanted the Armenians subdued,
  they did nothing about the massacres.
• Changed policy again before WWI.

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German policy during the Genocide

• Russia was important during the 19th century
  massacres, Germany was important during the 20th
  century genocide.
• Just 2 years after the massacres, the German put
  forward a policy stating that the Armenians are
  bad, and that they would not protect them because
  of business interests.
• In 1898 the Kaiser visited the Sultan.
• Britain and France did protest, but there was no
  military intervention.

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German influence

• The German economy had expanded greatly by the
  end of the 19th century. They increased their
  investing in the Ottoman Empire, more than
  Britain or France, thus giving them the greatest
  influence.
• Germans did not care to protect a Christian
  minority.

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German policy

• Germans believed it was best to have an
  ethnically pure Turkish Anatolia.
• Germans wanted to relocate the Armenians to
  eastern Anatolia because of the vision of
  expansion in the Middle East.
• Germans had recent experience with mass killing
  and colonialism, the Herero.
• The Herero case also had death and starvation in
  the desert.

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Did the Germans actually help?

• Two documents exist that suggest a little
  evidence of deportation.
• German officers seemed to agree with the
  deportations and extermination.
• Officers believe in the destruction of the enemy.
• German railway businessmen tried to save their
  Armenian workers.
• Construction and profit maximization led to
  humanitarian concerns.
• They didnt win.

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Conclusions

• In the Armenian case the onset and magnitude of
  the genocide was facilitated by the Germans,
  particularly the dominance of the military within
  policy-making circles.
• None of the earlier cases of the Armenian
  massacres were stopped by a great European power.

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The Holocaust

• Midlarsky claims that although Nazi ideology
  explains the mass murders, it does not completely
  explain the whole of the Holocaust.
• He claims the Vaticans policies rooted in
  cynical realpolitik as another reason.
• He focuses on Eugenio Pacelli.

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Who is Eugenio Pacelli?

• He was papal nuncio in Munich between 1917 and
  1930.
• He was the cardinal secretary of state between
  1930 and 1939.
• Was Pope Pius XII from 1939 to 1958.

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4 elements of to the realpolitik of Eugenio
Pacelli

• A virulent anti-communism that demanded the
  subordination even of national Catholic interests
  for purposes of defeating the larger threat to
  the Church of Soviet-inspired communism,
• expansion of Catholic belief especially among
  Eastern Orthodox schismatics,
• expansion of the Holy Sees international
  political influence, and
• physical preservation of the Vatican as the
  institutional seat of Roman Catholicism.

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Pacelli

• Had an extreme fear and hatred of communism.
• Identified Jews with communism, was anti-Semitic.
• As cardinal secretary of state he helped
  formulate Vatican foreign policy.
• From this he was able to silence the German
  Catholic Center Party that could have opposed the
  Nazis.

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German Catholic Center Party

• Had potential support of 27 million German
  Catholics.
• Recently 5 ruling chancellors out of 10 came
  from that party.
• Pacelli felt Hitler could fend off Communist
  expansion to the west.

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Continued

• Party opposed totalitarian regimes.
• Chancellor Bruning opposed centralized papal
  ecclesiastical authority, instead of local needs
  and desires.
• Ludwig Kaas, intimate of Pacelli, helped with Act
  that delegated authority to Hitler dictatorial
  powers.
• On July 20, 1933 the Reich concordat was signed
  the Center Party was disbanded, paving the way
  for the killing of Jews.

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Expansion of ecclesiastic Roman Catholicism

• Croatia was carved out of Yugoslavia in 1941 it
  was heavily Catholic.
• Once this area and others were carved out of
  Yugoslavia the persecution began.
• Both Serbs and Jews were targeted.
• Although no evidence exists that the Pope had
  knowledge of the massacres, he clearly knew that
  Pavelic (leader of Croatia) was a totalitarian
  dictator, and that repression the Orthodox Serbs.

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What the Vatican knew

• The Vatican knew something about what was
  happening to the Jews and Serbs.
• In Croatia 487,000 Orthodox Serbs, 30,000 Jews,
  and 27,000 Roma were murdered by the end of the
  war.
• After the war the Vatican forbad the
  reunification of many Jewish families with
  children sheltered from the Holocaust in Catholic
  institutions.

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Others who knew

• Many of the Italian forces stationed in
  Yugoslavia saved many people.
• By 1943 they saved 33,464 civilians, over 2,000
  were Jews.

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Peacemaker

• The Pope did not want to break neutrality by
  condemning the Nazis, because he wanted to broker
  a peace deal between the factions.

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Magnitude

• If the pope had an open declaration against the
  Nazis more Jews might have fled, more Catholics
  might have helped to shelter and save Jews.
• Hitler even considered the passiveness of the
  Vatican as a major obstacle being removed.

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The Tutsi

• More closely resembles the Armenian case than the
  Holocaust.
• France is the European country on the hot seat.
• France did have a some what positive relationship
  with the governing elites in Africa.

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France and Rwanda

• Rwanda was a part of the French-dominated African
  community
• Problems between the Francophones and the
  Anglophones.
• Rwanda was seen as geopolitically pivotal in
  affecting events in Zaire.

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Continued

• There was a large French military presence in
  Rwanda, this discouraged the RPF in 1993 from
  entering Kigali.
• France supplied arms and ammunition and training
  to Rwandan army.
• They trained the Interahamwe.
• French military knew of genocidal intent.

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Rwanda continued

• UNAMIR commander stated that world withdrew from
  Rwanda.
• Once Rwandan government knew that no one would
  oppose them, moderates were removed from office
  and the genocide spread.
• France was in the best position to help.

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Magnitude

• This was affected because the France had created
  a permissive atmosphere.
• Had French army not prevented RPF from entering
  capital in 1993 genocide might have been avoided.
• French did help save 10,000-13,000 Tutsis in
  southwest Rwanda but they provided cover for Hutu
  perpetrators to flee later.

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Conclusion

• Midlarsky suggest for genocide prevention,
  instead of targeting the perpetrator, target the
  supporter.
• Diplomatic approaches work better the earlier
  they are used.

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Discussion questions

• 1) Which country, Germany or Russia, is more
  guilty in the Armenian case?
• 2) Was the pope right to try to maintain
  neutrality? Isnt being a peacemaker a good
  thing? What should he have done differently?
• 3) Were the French wrong to provide arms,
  ammunition, and training to the government of
  Rwanda?

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Cynical realpolitik and other nations

• Cynical realpolitik was used by many nations
  during the Holocaust, not just the perpetrators
  and genocidal states.
• United States and Great Britain could have saved
  many more lives if their immigration policies
  were better.

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The U.S.

• Reasons for public resistance to immigration
  unemployment, nativistic nationalism, and
  anti-Semitism.
• In the 1930s Hoover used a provision in the
  Immigration Act of 1917 to limit immigration
  immigrants had to be able to support themselves
  or their relatives had to.

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Continued

• This continued under Roosevelt. A large amount
  of evidence was required to receive a visa, up to
  50 pages worth.
• It took at least 9 months to get entry into the
  United States.
• The United States worked with foreign counsels to
  keep people out.

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Continued

• After the attack on Pearl Harbor, spies were a
  real concern for the United States.
• Still, many people died because of the U.S.s
  policies.
• Immigration quotas were not filled.
• Between 1933 and 1943 only 280,000 were filled
  out of a possible 2,154,306.

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Henry Ford

• Henry Ford was extremely anti-Semitic. His
  personal newspaper, the Dearborn Independent,
  reported the supposed misdeeds of the Jews and
  their threat to the country.
• Fords picture hung in Hitlers office.
• He was very influential in America.

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Father Coughlin

• A Catholic priest with a very popular and
  influential radio show.
• Became more anti-Semitic over time.
• Claimed Jews were alien to American life and a
  danger to the country.
• Made connections between communism and Jews.
• Not curtailed until 1942.

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The American Public

• Many sympathized with the Nazis.
• Many saw the Jews as the main enemy.
• Only 30 actively opposed Hitlers policies.

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The Evian conference

• The Evian conference (July 1938) was called to
  resolve the refugee crisis.
• The U.S. tried to make everyone responsible for
  the refugee crisis, so no one in particular was
  responsible.
• Only the Dominican Republic increased immigration
  quotas.
• The Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees was
  formed but it was ineffetive.

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Continued

• Open rejection of increased Jewish immigration by
  most countries.
• Belgium, the Netherlands, and France claimed they
  had to much already.
• Others claimed unemployment as a problem.
• Cynical realpolitik the sense of a perceived
  national self-interest placed over and above the
  human rights of a persecuted people.

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Continued

• Conference was for German-Austrian Jewish
  problem, not Poland and Romania, their presence
  was not allowed.
• Germans were happy that other countries were not
  taking the Jews in.
• The St. Louis and Struma were examples of how
  countries turned their backs.

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Great Britain and Commonwealth countries

• 80,000 Jews escaped from Germany to Great
  Britain, this is on par with the U.S.
• Britains immigration policies also based in
  nativist and strong anti-communist feelings.
• Immigrants from Russia and Germany during wars
  were interned.
• Even those who opposed Hitler were often
  anti-Semitic in Britain and other countries.

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Cynical realpolitik and Britain

• CR drove Britains immigration policies.
• Britain helped 140,000 Jews relocate to
  Palestine, but even then they limited the amount
  allowed because of Arab opposition.

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Commonwealths

• New Zealand would not help Lord Bledisloe.
• Canada was especially hostile the prime minister
  believed Jewish immigrants would destroy the
  countrys unity.

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Impact on the Holocaust

• Hitler wanted to get rid of every Jew.
• 2 conclusions 1) by limiting emigration Germans
  could not get rid of Jews that way, another way
  had to be found, and 2) immigration policies
  dehumanized the Jews.
• Roosevelt could have bombed Auschwitz, but was
  worried about his reputation.
• The worlds reaction to the Jews validated Nazi
  anti-Semitism.

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Discussion questions

• How did the United States immigration policies
  reflect cynical realpolitik?
• What should have the United States and Great
  Britain done?
• Are they just as guilty as the Nazis for Jewish
  deaths during WWII?
• Should the U.S. have bombed Auschwitz?