Genocide remains part of our heritage

After World War II, high ranking Nazis were put on trial for participating in the Holocaust. Hannah Arendt coined the phrase 'the banality of evil” to describe Adolf Eichmann, the man responsible for sending many Jews to concentration camps. During Eichmann's trial, Arendt experienced Eichmann as an average person following orders, not a sociopathic murderer. Arendt argued ordinary people can carry out great evil. Exhibit A: Rwanda, 1994.

The movie Hotel Rwanda introduced the world to the horrors of the Rwandan genocide. Hutus killed Tutsis. The Hutus and the Tutsis of Rwanda share the same language and culture. Hutu/Tutsi intermarriage was common. But hatred between the majority Hutus and the minority ruling Tutsis had simmered for years occasionally flaring up in revolution and civil war. Extremist Hutus laid the kindling through secretly trained militias and underground radio broadcasts. The airborne assassination of the Hutu Rwandan president lit the kindling. Hutu militias quickly murdered all Tutsis who remained in power and anyone they believed would object to the killings. These militias killed hundreds of thousands of people, but many ordinary Hutus joined in to kill or assist in killing every known Tutsi or Tutsi sympathizer.

In the space of three months 800,000 people were killed. This level of efficiency would make Hitler envious. Men, women, and children joined in the killings. Ordinary people killed their friends, their neighbors, their co-workers. Those whose children grew up playing together turned on one another. Priests and pastors welcomed fleeing Tutsis into their sanctuaries, then barred the doors and slaughtered those seeking refuge within. Slaughter is not a metaphor or hyperbole. These Tutsis and Tutsi-sympathizers were dismembered with machetes. Any Tutsi found - man, woman, elder, child, infant - was killed. Many women were killed only after they had been raped. What would cause 200,000 people to rise up as one and slaughter their fellow countrymen?

Genocide - violence against a group with intention to destroy - runs in our human veins. Genocide remains part of our heritage. We cannot escape it. But we must confront it. Don't delude yourself into thinking it could not happen here. 1930s Germany was one of the most technologically advanced civilizations of its generation. Yet in 10 years, Germany oversaw the murder of 30 million people. Don't ignore history and say it will never happen again. This violence continues in Syria, Central African Republic, South Sudan, and Iraq. History may look back on them as genocides.

What can we do to confront and prevent genocide? To this end, the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library is hosting a Confronting Genocide and Cultural Differences forum in Coe College's Sinclair Auditorium on Nov. 15 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Gideon Frieder, a Holocaust survivor, will speak. A panel of scholars and professionals with interest in this topic will confront these questions and seek answers. For more information go to the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library website and search under Events. Please RSVP for this event. We invite the public to join us as we seek to confront and prevent genocide.

' Caleb Gates is a refugee resettlement case manager for Catholic Charities based out of Cedar Rapids. Comments: c.gates@dbqarch.org