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The Holocaust and apartheid

The Holocaust and apartheid are just two examples of how new technologies and ancient prejudices can combine in oppressive regimes.

Holocaust

Adolf Hitler believed that the Jews were racially inferior to himself and other 'Aryans', and were the cause of Germany's economic problems. After his rise to power in the 1930s, he was able to do something about this. First, the Nuremberg Laws that discriminated against the Jews were passed in 1935. Then Jewish businesses were attacked by Hitler's Nazi thugs (such as during Kristallnacht).

Finally, during World War II – when German troops occupied most of Europe – a systematic attempt was made to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe using modern technology: trains for mass transportation; gas for killing; industrial crematoria to dispose of the corpses. Ghettos were formed to receive Jews who had been expelled from towns and villages.

Concentration camps were set up, some (such as Auschwitz and Treblinka) designed to kill people systematically by gassing and then burning the bodies, others (such as Dachau and Bergen-Belsen) for slave labour.

This extermination – euphemistically called the 'final solution' by the Nazis – ultimately resulted in the deaths of some six million Jews. A further 10 million were also murdered: Ukrainian, Polish and Russian civilians and prisoners-of-war, Romanies (gypsies), socialists, homosexuals and others labelled 'defective'.

The word 'Holocaust' (meaning a victim who has been completely burnt) was first used to describe this genocide by the Liberal politician Viscount Samuel in the British House of Lords on 23 March 1943.

The Nazi crimes against humanity were only the most notorious of the many genocides – deliberate attempts to exterminate a nationality or ethnic group because of its race, colour, tribe or religion – inflicted on people throughout the century. Others include the Turkish genocide of Armenians (1909, 1915), Hindu and Muslim massacres in India (1947), Arab and Israeli massacres (1948), Tutsi and Hutu massacres in Rwanda (1994-7) and the Serbian 'ethnic cleansing' of Bosnian Muslims (1990s).

See also Holocaust on Trial

Apartheid

This Afrikaans word literally means 'apart hood' – that is, a state of apartness – and is, quite aptly, pronounced 'apart hate'. It was used as a slogan by the Afrikaner National Party, led by Dr Daniel Malan, in the South African general election of May 1948 to stress the need for 'separation' between whites and non-whites.

The party's victory led to the passing of laws that created a system of racial segregation. Non-whites could be deported from areas where white people wanted to live (1952), their education was segregated (1953) and they were not allowed to strike (1953-57) or vote (1956). A previous Immorality Act was tightened to prevent mixed marriages and sexual relations between blacks and whites.

Criticisms of these policies by activists such as Nelson Mandela were countered with the Suppression of Communism Act (1950). This forced accused individuals to prove their innocence rather than obliging the state to prove their guilt.

Condemnation of South African apartheid resulted in international boycotts and sanctions by nations throughout the world, and riots and revolts by people living in black townships such as Sharpeville (1960) and Soweto (1975). Eventually, pressure from both inside and outside South Africa became so great that President F W de Klerk announced the abolition of apartheid on 17 June 1991.

Sharpeville Massacre, South Africa: 21 March 1960

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