The 8 Stages of Genocide - Schindler's List
Schindler’s List
According to Gregory H. Stanton, President of Genocide Watch there is 8 stages of Genocide and in his opinion Genocide is a progress that is developing in the eight stages and which is predictable and not inexorable. At each stage there are possibilities to stop or at least influence Genocide and Oskar Schindler’s deeds are one example of moral courage and active resistance to the worst Genocide in the history of humankind during the Second World War. The following text will deal with evidences of Stanton’s eight stages of Genocide in Steven Spielberg’s film “Schindler’s List” and Schindler’s attempts to stop Genocide in the different stages.
The first stage is the “Classification” of people by ethnicity and especially religion in order to create a feeling of “them and us”. The Nazis wanted to show the people that there are differences between Christians and Jewish people and they were convinced by the idea that Jewish persons are inferior. Even if these ideas are completely wrong the NSDAP tried to arouse hatred and a feeling of reluctance against Jewish people. Considering the fact that Jewish and Christian people lived together since hundreds of years it is even worse to see how the Germans started to distance themselves from people with different religions and opinions. The Nazis distinguished between Jewish people with bigger noses and longer black hair and the exemplary big blonde German Aryan. The hostile insults of a little girl against Jewish people who are deported to a ghetto with the words “Goodbye Jews” are one example of the aversion to Jewish people. The girl also throws filth in direction of Jewish people which shows how effective the propaganda of prejudices and the education of “study of race” were.
The second stage is the “Symbolization” of Jewish people as “Juden”, which means being a part of the Judaism. Therefore every Jewish person had to wear a yellow star with the label “Jude” which made it easy to realize their religion.
According to Gregory H. Stanton, President of Genocide Watch there is 8 stages of Genocide and in his opinion Genocide is a progress that is developing in the eight stages and which is predictable and not inexorable. At each stage there are possibilities to stop or at least influence Genocide and Oskar Schindler’s deeds are one example of moral courage and active resistance to the worst Genocide in the history of humankind during the Second World War. The following text will deal with evidences of Stanton’s eight stages of Genocide in Steven Spielberg’s film “Schindler’s List” and Schindler’s attempts to stop Genocide in the different stages.
The first stage is the “Classification” of people by ethnicity and especially religion in order to create a feeling of “them and us”. The Nazis wanted to show the people that there are differences between Christians and Jewish people and they were convinced by the idea that Jewish persons are inferior. Even if these ideas are completely wrong the NSDAP tried to arouse hatred and a feeling of reluctance against Jewish people. Considering the fact that Jewish and Christian people lived together since hundreds of years it is even worse to see how the Germans started to distance themselves from people with different religions and opinions. The Nazis distinguished between Jewish people with bigger noses and longer black hair and the exemplary big blonde German Aryan. The hostile insults of a little girl against Jewish people who are deported to a ghetto with the words “Goodbye Jews” are one example of the aversion to Jewish people. The girl also throws filth in direction of Jewish people which shows how effective the propaganda of prejudices and the education of “study of race” were.
The second stage is the “Symbolization” of Jewish people as “Juden”, which means being a part of the Judaism. Therefore every Jewish person had to wear a yellow star with the label “Jude” which made it easy to realize their religion.