Describe what genocide is and how it has been used in the past.

Answer:

Genocide is extermination aimed at the intentional destruction of the entire targeted population. This kind of extermination has been attempted many times, and sometimes achieved, throughout history. Anti-Semitism, or hatred of Jews, has led to several attempts at Jewish extermination. After the assassination of Czar Alexander II in 1881, Jews in Russia came under attack. During that year some 200 pogroms were carried out against Jewish residents. A pogrom—a Russian word meaning devastation—usually involved mob attacks on Jews and their businesses or homes. Millions of European Jews were killed in the Holocaust during World War II. The Holocaust also claimed the lives of many Slavs, Roma (Gypsies), Jehovah’s Witnesses, Communists and other groups the Nazis hated. Other examples of genocide include the British extermination of the Tasmanians and the South African destruction of the Khoikhoi during the 1800s.