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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Book Review: Kings, Conquerors, Psychopaths: From Alexander To Hitler To The Corporation, Tim Bakken Nov 2023

Book Review: Kings, Conquerors, Psychopaths: From Alexander To Hitler To The Corporation, Tim Bakken

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

The book Kings, Conquerors, Psychopaths is a survey of a vast amount of human wrongdoing. It lays bare the motivations of aggressors who wish to subjugate nations or groups of people and corporate executives and government bureaucrats who make discretionary decisions that harm people. Along with cataloging mass killings by despots and soldiers, the book includes stories about Ponzi-schemers and the deaths of automobile drivers and passengers who were killed by vehicle defects known to the manufacturer. The book posits that “[p]owerful, elite forces are trying to force us backward toward a non-democratic state, one where power, wealth, and prerogative …


Book Review: Children Of The Greek Civil War: Refugees And The Politics Of Memory, Victor Bivell Oct 2023

Book Review: Children Of The Greek Civil War: Refugees And The Politics Of Memory, Victor Bivell

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

The book ‘Children of the Greek Civil War’ makes several key steps forward in analyzing the politics and emotions surrounding the 47,000 child refugees of the Greek Civil War. Although the war was between the right-wing Greek Government and the left-wing Greek Communist Party, it drew in a large portion of the ethnic Macedonian population of northern Greece who had been promised greater freedom and ethnic recognition by the communists. Among the book’s key steps forward are its side-by-side and even-handed analysis of how the war affected both the Greek and Macedonian children, its discussion and comparison of the government-backed …


Pillage As The Political Economy Of The Kurdish Anfal Genocide, Kaziwa Salih Apr 2023

Pillage As The Political Economy Of The Kurdish Anfal Genocide, Kaziwa Salih

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Scholars are critical of how economists overlook “the questions of genocide,” and of how legislatures have not paid adequate attention to the subject of looting, except in the case of the Armenian genocide. This article, informed by interdisciplinary perspectives, uses government documents, data, and semi-structured interviews to discuss the overlooked triangle of looting, economics, and the Anfal genocide of the Kurds in Iraq. The study refuses to limit itself only to the eight stages of the Anfal genocide that started in 1988, and instead offers data on its preliminary phases which occurred earlier in the 1980s. It then discusses the …


Denying The Animosity: Understanding Narratives Of Harmony From The Nellie Massacre, 1983, Jabeen Yasmeen Sep 2020

Denying The Animosity: Understanding Narratives Of Harmony From The Nellie Massacre, 1983, Jabeen Yasmeen

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article tries to understand through oral narratives from the Nellie Massacre of 1983 to reflect on how societies in India adhere to a narrative of harmony between different communities and a familial structure before a conflict breaks out, denying the existence of any palpable enmity amongst the communities. It will see how and why the assertions of peaceful co-existence may differ in case of the majority and minority in India. While there may be genuine assertions of harmony, such assertions may also be based on different factors such as majority strength, fear of retaliation and the compulsions of co-existence.


Film Review: The Trial Of Ratko Mladić, Iva Vukušić Dec 2019

Film Review: The Trial Of Ratko Mladić, Iva Vukušić

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.


The Complicated Cases Of Soghomon Tehlirian And Sholem Schwartzbard And Their Influences On Raphaël Lemkin's Thinking About Genocide, Steven Leonard Jacobs Apr 2019

The Complicated Cases Of Soghomon Tehlirian And Sholem Schwartzbard And Their Influences On Raphaël Lemkin's Thinking About Genocide, Steven Leonard Jacobs

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

The article is an examination of the persons and trials of Soghomon Tehlirian and Sholem Schwartzbard, their political assassinations as acts of vengeance for genocide and pogroms, their trials and subsequent acquittals. It is also an examination of the influences of these two events on the evolved thinking of Raphael Lemkin on his conceptualization of the needs for an international law contra genocide. Finally, it also elaborates on what information is now available on both men and their associations, and what was known and unknown to Lemkin and whether or not these two cases remained centrally important to his understandings.


The Mass Murder Of The European Jews And The Concept Of ‘Genocide’ In The Nuremberg Trials: Reassessing Raphaël Lemkin’S Impact, Alexa Stiller Apr 2019

The Mass Murder Of The European Jews And The Concept Of ‘Genocide’ In The Nuremberg Trials: Reassessing Raphaël Lemkin’S Impact, Alexa Stiller

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Nuremberg’s prosecutors prominently used Lemkin’s genocide concept. They also dealt in detail with the mass murder of Europe’s Jews. However, for them ‘genocide’ and the Holocaust were not congruent. They used different definitions of Lemkin’s concept and interpreted the relationship between the mass murder of the European Jews and the entire mass violence of the Nazis differently. Lemkin had little influence on the application of his concept in the Nuremberg trials between 1945 and 1949. The implementation of the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention put an end to the broad use of the original concept from 1944. Although both Lemkin …


Denial: David Irving, And The Complexities Of Representing A Holocaust Denier, Kirril Shields, Ted Nannicelli, Henry Theriault Dec 2018

Denial: David Irving, And The Complexities Of Representing A Holocaust Denier, Kirril Shields, Ted Nannicelli, Henry Theriault

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Mick Jackson’s 2016 film Denial, based on the libel case brought against Deborah Lipstatd’s publisher by David Irving, was discussed as a panel event at the 13th International Association of Genocide Scholars conference, held at the University of Queensland on the evening of July 12, 2017. Dr. Kirril Shields presented on the difficulty of representation, addressing the film’s portrayal of David Irving. Dr. Ted Nannicelli followed with a discussion centered on the film’s use of cinematic rhetoric as positioned in various examples throughout Denial. Dr. Henry Theriault gave the final paper, examining the philosophy of the act of …


Judicializing History: Mass Crimes Trials And The Historian As Expert Witness In West Germany, Cambodia, And Bangladesh, Rebecca Gidley, Mathew Turner Dec 2018

Judicializing History: Mass Crimes Trials And The Historian As Expert Witness In West Germany, Cambodia, And Bangladesh, Rebecca Gidley, Mathew Turner

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Henry Rousso warned that the engagement of historians as expert witnesses in trials, particularly highly politicized proceedings of mass crimes, risks a judicialization of history. This article tests Rousso’s argument through analysis of three quite different case studies: the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial; the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia; and the International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh. It argues that Rousso’s objections misrepresent the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial, while failing to account for the engagement of historical expertise in mass atrocity trials beyond Europe. Paradoxically, Rousso’s criticisms are less suited to the European context that represents his purview, and apply more …


Bonding Images: Photography And Film As Acts Of Perpetration, Christophe Busch Oct 2018

Bonding Images: Photography And Film As Acts Of Perpetration, Christophe Busch

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Historical and contemporary cases of collective violence show an incremental use of photography and film to capture and disseminate violent acts. Recording cruelty during conflict seems to be a highly ritualised practice that urges the question what communicative and psychological functions these acts have? Why and how does perpetrator photography shape a binding moral world that divides 'us' versus 'them'? These visualising acts are commonly seen as proof of power that desensitises the perpetrators and dehumanises the victims. This contribution focuses on the imagery of the Holocaust, looks into the functions that capturing and sharing cruelty has on the evolution …


Nineteen Minutes Of Horror: Insights From The Scorpions Execution Video, Iva Vukušić Oct 2018

Nineteen Minutes Of Horror: Insights From The Scorpions Execution Video, Iva Vukušić

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

After the fall of Srebrenica in summer of 1995, the Scorpions unit, dispatched to support the Bosnian Serb Army as it took over the enclave, shot six men in Trnovo. The men, three of whom were underage, were some of thousands of Bosnian Muslims that fell into the hands of Bosnian Serb troops, and that were executed in the days and weeks following July 11th. A member of the unit filmed the execution. Fragments of the video were first shown during the Slobodan Milosevic trial, and multiple times in the years after, in the courtrooms in The Hague and Belgrade. …


The Gardening States: Comparing State Repression Of Ethnic Minorities In The Soviet Union And Turkey, 1908-1945, Duco Heijs Jun 2018

The Gardening States: Comparing State Repression Of Ethnic Minorities In The Soviet Union And Turkey, 1908-1945, Duco Heijs

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

The concept of demographic engineering has been of great importance to the understanding of state violence towards ethnic minority groups. The application of this concept to understand the similarities and differences of repressive policies towards ethnic minorities in the Soviet Union and (Ottoman) Turkey, however, is so far lacking in the debate. This article tackles this issue by investigating the similarities and differences of the origin, formation, and implementation of state violence towards ethnic minority groups in the form of mass internal resettlement programs launched by these two regimes in the first half of the twentieth century. This comparative survey …


Book Review: Violence As A Generative Force: Identity, Memory, And Nationalism In A Balkan Community, Kjell Anderson Jun 2018

Book Review: Violence As A Generative Force: Identity, Memory, And Nationalism In A Balkan Community, Kjell Anderson

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.


Film Review: First They Killed My Father: A Daughter Of Cambodia Remembers, Timothy Williams Jun 2018

Film Review: First They Killed My Father: A Daughter Of Cambodia Remembers, Timothy Williams

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.


Book Review: The Failures Of Ethics: Confronting The Holocaust, Genocide, And Other Mass Atrocities, James J. Snow 4995784 Mar 2018

Book Review: The Failures Of Ethics: Confronting The Holocaust, Genocide, And Other Mass Atrocities, James J. Snow 4995784

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Review: John K. Roth, The Failures of Ethics: Confronting the Holocaust, Genocide, and Other Mass Atrocities


Remembering To Prevent: The Preventive Capacity Of Public Memory, Kerry E. Whigham Oct 2017

Remembering To Prevent: The Preventive Capacity Of Public Memory, Kerry E. Whigham

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

It is without doubt the case that memory of the past has been and is being used in certain places to justify radical intolerance and unspeakable violence. But for every instance where that is the case, a dozen alternative cases exist where memory creates cohesion, positive change, and a less violent society. This article focuses on the instances where memory does the latter. It first discusses why and how the formation of a public memory culture can be preventive of future violence. Next, it introduces several categories of memory practices, each of which exemplifies the embodied nature of public memory, …


Book Review: Justifying Genocide: Germany And The Armenians From Bismarck To Hitler, Vahram Ter-Matevosyan Oct 2017

Book Review: Justifying Genocide: Germany And The Armenians From Bismarck To Hitler, Vahram Ter-Matevosyan

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.


Book Review: From War To Genocide: Criminal Politics In Rwanda, 1990-1994, Erin Jessee Oct 2017

Book Review: From War To Genocide: Criminal Politics In Rwanda, 1990-1994, Erin Jessee

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.


Book Review: The History Of A Forgotten German Camp: Nazi Ideology And Genocide In Szmalcówka, Darren J. O'Brien May 2017

Book Review: The History Of A Forgotten German Camp: Nazi Ideology And Genocide In Szmalcówka, Darren J. O'Brien

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.


Book Review: Genocide On The Drina River, Iva Vukušić Oct 2016

Book Review: Genocide On The Drina River, Iva Vukušić

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.


Towards A Theory Of Displacement Atrocities: The Cherokee Trail Of Tears, The Herero Genocide, And The Pontic Greek Genocide, Andrew R. Basso Jun 2016

Towards A Theory Of Displacement Atrocities: The Cherokee Trail Of Tears, The Herero Genocide, And The Pontic Greek Genocide, Andrew R. Basso

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article examines how displacement is used as a tool of atrocity perpetration and offers initial observations that will be used to create a future typology of Displacement Atrocities. Perpetrators' uses of forced population displacement coupled with systematic deprivations of vital daily needs (i.e., food, water, clothing, shelter, and medical care) combine to kill targeted victims through primarily indirect methods. A preliminary theoretical framework of Displacement Atrocities is offered and the critical elements that comprise this crime are explored. I argue that the Displacement Atrocity crime is a new way of understanding lethal forced population displacement. This theoretical framework is …


Book Review: Remembering Genocide, Tony Barta Jun 2016

Book Review: Remembering Genocide, Tony Barta

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.


"Liberat[Ing] Mankind From Such An Odious Scourge": The Genocide Convention And The Continued Failure To Prevent Or Halt Genocide In The Twenty-First Century, Kelly Maddox May 2015

"Liberat[Ing] Mankind From Such An Odious Scourge": The Genocide Convention And The Continued Failure To Prevent Or Halt Genocide In The Twenty-First Century, Kelly Maddox

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Since it came into force in 1951, the United Nations’ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, a document created with the explicit purpose of "liberat[ing] mankind from such an odious scourge," has largely failed to deliver on the promises it enshrined. The twentieth century bore witness to an increasing frequency of genocides, a pattern which is continuing into the twenty-first century with the outbreak of arguably genocidal violence in Darfur in 2003, and more recently, the Central African Republic (CAR) in 2014. This article analyses the failure of the Genocide Convention by exploring its deficiencies …