Can we compare the deaths in colonial America to the Nazi holocaust?

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   Vegas Eliasposted 11 years ago

   Can we compare the deaths in colonial America to the Nazi holocaust?
   
   I feel it is not fare to compare both these events. The deaths in colonial America were not monitored by a despot like Hitler. Both the red Indians and the colonizing powers have incurred casualties. It was war and not a holocaust. It is high time that informed people do not intentionally mislead the masses.
   The Europeans who had gone to the Americas were themselves victims of atrocities incurred upon them by the aristocracy of Europe. What they did was necessary for their survival.
   At best what happened could be termed as a clash of civilizations who were centuries apart in development.

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2. 93

   ziyenaposted 11 years ago

   As an American, I see no comparison to the Holocaust.  Yes, the Native Americans died from European disease and were eventually pushed out of homelands, but they were not literally put into concentration camps to await there death as the Jews.  Yes, in the end Native americans were displaced to reservations, but they were given free will and their own laws to abide.  The Jews had no rights, and the only option was extermination.

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   1. 61

      Vegas Eliasposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I agree with you Ziena. No single ruler like Hitler carried out the killings. At best it the American Disaster can be termed as a confrontation of civilizations who were centuries apart.

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3. 60

   veritorogueposted 11 years ago

   There were many atrocities carried out by colonists and Indians alike though an objective analysis shows that the colonists were the trespassers and original aggressors. It is during the expansionist period of the 19th century under the doctrine of Manifest Destiny that a true genocide was perpetrated under the official sanction of the U.S. government. Like slavery this was a shameful period of U.S. history that negatively impacts Native Americans to this day. In the modern era a genocide of benevolent intent continues as the federal government inhibits the prosperity and dignity of Native Americans with policies that incentivize segregation, isolation, and personal and social dysfunction in these suffering communities that were originally established as concentration camps. The comparisons between the Holocaust and the atrocities committed by the U.S. against Native Americans are not directly equivalent but the similarities are unsettling.

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   1. 61

      Vegas Eliasposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Verito I agree with the exceptions you mentioned. Human rights were not viewed with seriousness those days. All said and done I feel something should be done to alleviate the sufferings of Native Americans by a country like the U.S.

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   Druid Dudeposted 11 years ago

   Call it what you will... the reservation system was an early form of Apartheid. Intentionally infecting whole populations with fatal disease is Genocide. Using military force against unarmed old men, women and children is a war crime.

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