What Is So Special About The Holocaust?

[Deleted]

There have been numerous genocides in history and recent times too, but we seem to only concentrate on the Jewish holocaust. Why is this? What makes the holocaust so remarkable?

[Darsithis]

Because of the scope and general level of horror and inhuman acts. On top of that, some 40,000,000+ people died during the corresponding war, the highest war death toll...ever.

[Deleted]

Another factor is that the holocaust is still a relatively recent event, there are still people alive who witnessed the events, in a hundred years people will treat it differently.

And then there is the fact that people tend to remember the "last big thing" as a sort of milestone or bar to set for comparison of future events, which is a bit of a macabre metaphor to use but i couldn't think of a better one.

[Ornerybear]

systematic and organized extermination of multiple groups of people perpetrated by a major world power European regime that was also hell bent on taking over the world.

eddie izzard said it well in reference to mass genocide,

"They got away with it
because they killed their own people...

"We've been trying to kill you

for ages, so kill your own people."

Hitler killed people next door.

Ohhh. Stupid man."

[Exception]

It was not the biggest, nor the most horrendous genocide. The reason is because of how industrialized it was. It has been the most well planned-out genocide in history. I do, however, agree that it is in some occasions given disproportionate amounts of attention.

[Darsithis]

systematic and organized extermination of multiple groups of people perpetrated by a major world power European regime that was also hell bent on taking over the world.

Pretty much. Look at most genocides recently. Most of them deal with internal religious strife. In this case, Germany invaded multiple countries purposely to kill "undesirables", whom they shipped back to gas chambers. The scope of it is beyond pretty much any genocide that I've ever heard of.

(I realize my post is pretty simplistic and there were more reasons for the invasions than just Jews)

[Deleted]

it's still, historically speaking, a rather recent event

in a couple of decades it will be all but forgotten, it kinda is already

[Deleted]

It was not the biggest, nor the most horrendous genocide. The reason is because of how industrialized it was. It has been the most well planned-out genocide in history. I do, however, agree that it is in some occasions given disproportionate amounts of attention.

Which ones were bigger (especially in a similar time frame?) Something in asia sometime in the middle ages?

[primalmatter]

Because its easier to get recruits to fight a army they perceive as monsters.

That and admitting our largest ally did quite a bit worse puts our moral justification of why we intervened into question.

[Darsithis]

it's still, historically speaking, a rather recent event

in a couple of decades it will be all but forgotten, it kinda is already

We haven't forgotten all of the genocides in history. I doubt we'll forget one of the most infamous.

[Deleted]

We haven't forgotten all of the genocides in history. I doubt we'll forget one of the most infamous.

I mean the average person will not be as aware of it as they are now the more time passes

I'd wager the average person is already pretty unaware of it compared to your average Joe in the 50's

[Deleted]

It was a hugely violent, evil but also disturbing genocide, and the culmination of centuries of latent widespread antisemitism in Europe.

World War 2 was also an incredibly violent war, the number of deaths is staggering, the scope of the destruction and dehumanisation has no equal in human history.

[Exception]

Which ones were bigger (especially in a similar time frame?) Something in asia sometime in the middle ages?

If you want to stay in Asia in recent times, China's Great Leap Forward killed ~30 million people. Imperial Japan killed ~10 million people.

[Elim Garak]

It was the first holographic caust!

[Exception]

We haven't forgotten all of the genocides in history. I doubt we'll forget one of the most infamous.

I'd say most people know nothing about the Armenian genocide, for example.

[ShimmerSwirl]

One large distinction is that there is actually visual recordings of it, I think if past genocides had that they would be remembered more.

[Darsithis]

I'd say most people know nothing about the Armenian genocide, for example.

That was prior to WWI, right? I think it was around that time.

However, today I think it has less to do with time passing and more to do with the Internet. People can just google anything these days without needing to memorize it. We won't forget the Holocaust but it's more likely people won't memorize it like we did.

[Eldar45]

The big thing was percentages of population. 90% of the Jews in Poland were murdered. In all about 66% of all the Jews in Europe. Thats 33% of the entire population of all the Jews in the world (At that time, obviously).

Add onto that Gypsies, Blacks, Homosexuals and so on.

[Thepersona]

There have been numerous genocides in history and recent times too, but we seem to only concentrate on the Jewish holocaust. Why is this? What makes the holocaust so remarkable?

it's because the level of organization of said genocide, with industrial level death camps
naver before we saw as humanity that

[Revi]

The death toll is not unparalleled, but in addition to being very, very interesting and scary in the way it came to be, it was also fairly recent and by a western country.