“The Nazis first came for the communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. . . . Then they came for the Catholics.. . . Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak for me.” These words, spoken by Lutheran Pastor Martin Niemöller, a Holocaust survivor, contemplate why people are willing to watch silently as entire populations are systematically destroyed. During World War II, millions of people became the victims of genocide - the deliberate killing of a racial, political, or cultural group of people. Genocide, although not defined until after World War II, has occurred repeatedly throughout history. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, whites in the United States decimated Native Americans through starvation and the spread of disease. Throughout the 1970s, millions of Cambodians were hacked to death in the “killing fields.” People have been dying by the thousands every day in Rwanda and Somalia. Why does this destruction continue?
In Genocide: The Systematic Killing of a People, author Linda Jacobs Altman explores the meaning of genocide, and depicts some of the most brutal examples found in history. The author offers insight into the psychology of genocide, from victims and witnesses to torturers and leaders. By presenting facts as well as recollections of survivors, Altman stresses the need for tolerance and acceptance of differences among people.” BOOK JACKET