# data[].attributes.headline
Life in the Ghettos- How the Jews were forced to live.

# data[].attributes.subject
Life in the Ghettos- How the Jews were forced to live.

# data[].attributes.body
The Jews that were spared from concentration camps were condemned to ghettos. Here, all Jews were stripped of their rights and starved to death.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Origin of the Term "Ghetto"

The term "ghetto" originated from the name of the Jewish quarter in Venice, Italy. Venetian authorities compelled the city's Jews to live in the quarter, which was established in 1516. In the 16th and 17th centuries, officials ranging from local authorities to the Austrian emperor ordered the creation of ghettos for Jews in Frankfurt, Rome, Prague, and other cities.

Ghettos during World War II

During World War II, the SS and other German occupation authorities concentrated urban and sometimes regional Jewish populations in ghettos. Living conditions were miserable. Ghettos were often enclosed districts that isolated Jews by separating Jewish communities from the non-Jewish population and from other Jewish communities. The Germans established at least 1,143 ghettos in the occupied eastern territories. There were three types of ghettos:

closed ghettos

open ghettos

destruction ghettos

German occupation authorities established the first ghetto in occupied Poland in Piotrków Trybunalski in October 1939. The largest ghetto in occupied Poland was the Warsaw ghetto. In Warsaw, more than 400,000 Jews were crowded into an area of 1.3 square miles. Other major ghettos were established in the cities of Lodz, Krakow, Bialystok, Lvov, Lublin, Vilna, Kovno, Czestochowa, and Minsk. Tens of thousands of western European Jews were also deported to ghettos in the east.

The Germans ordered Jews in the ghettos to wear identifying badges or armbands. They also required many Jews to carry out forced labor for the German Reich. Nazi-appointed Jewish councils ( Judenraete) administered daily life in the ghettos. A ghetto police force enforced the orders of the German authorities and the ordinances of the Jewish councils. This included facilitating deportations to killing centers. Jewish police officials, like Jewish council members, served at the whim of the German authorities. The Germans did not hesitate to kill those Jewish policemen who were perceived to have failed to carry out orders.

Ghettos and the "Final Solution"

In many places, ghettoization lasted a short time. Some ghettos existed for only a few days. Others lasted for months or years. The Germans saw the ghettos as a provisional measure to control and segregate Jews while the Nazi leadership in Berlin deliberated upon options for the removal of the Jewish population.

With the implementation of the " Final Solution" (the plan to murder all European Jews) beginning in late 1941, the Germans systematically destroyed the ghettos. The Germans and their auxiliaries either shot ghetto residents in mass graves located nearby or deported them. Jews were deported to killing centers. German SS and police authorities also deported a small minority of Jews from ghettos to forced-labor camps and concentration camps.

In August 1944, German SS and police completed the destruction of the last major ghetto, in Lodz.

Resistance in the Ghettos

Jews responded with a variety of resistance efforts. Ghetto residents frequently smuggled food, medicine, weapons, or intelligence across the ghetto walls. These and other such activities often took place without the knowledge or approval of the Jewish councils. On the other hand, some Jewish councils and some individual council members tolerated or encouraged the smuggling because the goods were necessary to keep ghetto residents alive.

The Germans generally showed little concern in principle about religious worship, attendance at cultural events, or participation in youth movements inside the ghetto walls. However, they often saw a "security threat" in any social gathering and would move ruthlessly to incarcerate or kill perceived ringleaders and participants. The Germans generally forbade any form of consistent schooling or education.

In the very beginning, my mother and several other women organized a clandestine school for children who were below the age of work, and it was a wonderful thing because we had something to look forward to
- Charlene Schiff

In some ghettos, members of Jewish resistance movements staged armed uprisings. The largest of these was the Warsaw ghetto uprising in spring 1943. There were also violent revolts in Vilna, Bialystok, Czestochowa, and several smaller ghettos.

Ghettos in Hungary

In Hungary, ghettoization did not begin until the spring of 1944 after the German invasion and occupation. In less than three months, the Hungarian gendarmerie, coordinating with German deportation experts from the Reich Main Office for Security, concentrated nearly 440,000 Jews from all over Hungary except for the capital city, Budapest. They forced the Jews into short-term "destruction ghettos" and then deported them into German custody at the Hungarian border. The Germans deported most of the Hungarian Jews to the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center.

In Budapest, Hungarian authorities required Jews to confine themselves to marked houses (so-called Star of David houses). On October 15, 1944, leaders of the fascist Arrow Cross movement seized power in a German-sponsored coup. A few weeks later, the Arrow Cross government formally established a ghetto in Budapest. About 63,000 Jews lived in this 0.1 square mile area. Approximately 25,000 Jews who carried certificates indicating they were under the protection of a neutral power were confined in an "international ghetto" in the city. In January 1945, Soviet forces liberated that part of Budapest in which the two ghettos were located and liberated the nearly 90,000 Jewish residents.

Last Edited: Dec 4, 2019

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The term "ghetto" originated from the name of the Jewish quarter in Venice, Italy. Venetian authorities compelled the city's Jews to live in the quarter, which was established in 1516. In the 16th and 17th centuries, officials ranging from local authorities to the Austrian emperor ordered the creation of ghettos for Jews in Frankfurt, Rome, Prague, and other cities.

# data[].attributes.body
Jakob Blankitny tells the s memories he will never forget during the Holocaust . Jakob also recounts the horrid conditions he and the other Jews faced. His mother and sister were killed while his father and him stayed together in the camp. He experienced all of this at the ripe age of 16.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Museum's Behind Every Name a Story project gives voice to the experiences of survivors during the Holocaust.

JAKOB'S STORY

I lived in a town called Maków Mazowiecki, about 80 km from Warsaw. The invasion of Poland brought with it the creation of forced labor camps and ghettos; with tremendous persecution against Jews. Consistent with its past politics, in 1941 Germany broke its pact with Russia.

In two days, the Germans were in my hometown, using the synagogue as a stable, destroying every Jewish symbol that was in their way and demanding that Jews be identified by a Star of David with the inscription, Jew, in the center that would always be easily visible.

From the labor camps, Jews were transported to ghettos and concentration camps. In the ghettos, typhus, malnutrition and other diseases ravaged the population, which caused many deaths, especially among the elderly and children. It was a miracle that I survived typhus.

After two weeks, we started moving via peasant cart to the Mlawa ghetto; finding the place empty when we arrived because the previous inhabitants had all been transferred to Auschwitz. In this place, there was a train station. We stayed for 10 days, where they made us work on construction projects until we could be transferred. First, the elderly and women with small children were transported to Treblinka.

After two days, our transfer to Auschwitz began; a terrible voyage under inhumane conditions. Among my most disturbing memories that I will never forget is when my mother gave the German soldiers her favors in exchange for half a glass of water. When we arrived at our tragic fate: Hell, I was only 16 years old and yet, even today, my ears echo the painful cries of the thousands of people there.

Upon our arrival we were separated by women and men. They took the women directly to the gas chambers and afterward to the crematoria - my mother and sister were among them!!! What pain, to see them taken to this place, never to return again. They divided the men into two groups; keeping my father and I united.

Suddenly in the midst of this Dantesque situation, we heard the familiar voice of my uncle shouting and telling us to "come to this side." Amid a whirlwind of German police with packs of angry dogs, we crossed to the other line that took us to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The other group was taken directly to the gas chambers. The crematoria smoke could be seen for kilometers around. Upon our arrival, there were approximately 6,000 people, but only 200 people were left to enter Auschwitz.

Upon entering Auschwitz, we were tattooed with numbers on our arms, which from that moment forward was our only identification; something which to this day for those who managed to survive, remind us every day of the horror which we had to pass through while the world, unfortunately, was deaf to our cries.

It was winter and the cold burned us; all the camp was flooded and muddy. They took our winter clothes and in exchange, gave us light clothes that looked like striped pajamas. With time you could see through these clothes, the extreme state of malnutrition and weakness of our bodies. They placed us in different barracks, with three-story bunks, placing four people per bed; totaling twelve humans per bunk.

Our life in the camp started at five o'clock in the morning when they gave us coffee and a piece of bread. At the same time, we were counted like animals; making sure that nobody was missing. We were beaten and abused constantly, especially if someone unfortunately fell or moved in place because of the hard beatings. These beatings were executed at that immediate instant; making the vile SS soldiers fill with laughter to see in our faces, the horror to which we were subjected. We worked outside the camp until seven o'clock at night when we returned and they gave us a plate that contained a quarter of a liter of soup. Luckily, I was in the same barracks as my father. One of our first projects was to start digging water canals. Each evening we brought back to camp, four or five cadavers of our friends, who were taken directly to the crematoria. Constantly there were new selections; the sick were directly killed as we became increasingly more like skeletons.

In one of those fateful selections, we were asked what our professions were, and, when it was my turn to answer, I said that I was a carpenter and my father responded that he was a bricklayer. This answer would ultimately result in his demise.

One day, all those who had replied that our profession were carpenters; about ten people; were called up to transfer to another place. I was forced to say goodbye to my father and he said these last words to me: "I will not see you anymore. It may be that you are able to save yourself now that they offered you another place to go, but instead of going to another place, I prefer to stay here and pass as a sick person. Though I am abandoning you, you have an obligation to go and save yourself." This was the last conversation I ever had with my father! I never saw him again.

We were moved about 5 kilometers away, to Auschwitz 1, where there was a large woodworking shop. The commander there; upon seeing me asked, "Who are you? You are too small and weak to be a carpenter," and I responded in surprise: "I am a carpenter's assistant," which immediately resulted in my receiving a hard slap to my face and getting thrown to the ground. I was diverted to work on the railroad, which was one of the worst jobs in existence. We were forced to unload wagons. We had to carry enormous weights on our back. Today, it would be lifted by machines but not so then. ...and thus ended the year 1943.

During this time, with everything appearing to be a terrible nightmare and not reality, I became sick with a terrible intestinal infection and, as a result of the bitter cold Polish winter, I saw my feet freeze and chunks of flesh and skin fall from my fingers.

Outside the camp, I carved a wooden bathtub and as I was in such bad condition, I ventured to enter it, taking longer than usual to return. Outdoors, the capos had initiated a person count and realized that one was missing. Leaving the bathtub, I received a beating with large logs and I fell to the ground, nearly dead.

Members of the work detail transported me by stretcher to the camp; leaving me thrown against the wall of my block. I couldn't even move. I thought that it was the end for me. It was nightfall when my friends arrived and helped me into the bunk. The following morning, they transported me to the camp hospital where I was helped by the same prisoners, who then bandaged my feet.

I was left to recover for three days. Josef Mengele arrived at the hospital for an inspection; dividing some of the sick to the left and some to the right. Once again I was lucky and was able to stay with a group of psychiatric patients. The other group was told that they were to be transferred to another hospital, and were sent directly to Birkenau, where they were put to death. Those still in the hospital felt that if a second selection came, they would not be as lucky. Then I found the son of the Rebbe of my city. I almost could not recognize him but he managed to stammer a few words and said, "You were a student of my father; you're young and you are going to survive. If you see my family, tell them I did not make it." That same day he died.

After talking with one of the doctors, I managed to convince him to release me and he, knowing a new selection was coming, agreed. Still very weak from malnutrition and limping, I managed to reach my block, where my fellow workers did not seem to recognize me at all.

The first few days after my return, I worked in the same camp. One day an order was issued that called for people who could carve wood. Having learned some of these skills at school, I dared to go and presented myself at seven in the morning at the meeting point, that was at the front of the main watchtower of the camp.

We were taken to a camp called D.A.V. where they had big carpentry and locksmithing workshops. Some two hundred prisoners worked there. In the furnace heat, I saw the opportunity to recover and heal my feet. My job was to make wooden spoons that were to be sent to the Russian camps. They did not permit these spoons to be made of metal, so that they could not be used as weapons. We had to meet a large quota every two weeks and I could not do it. Thus I was expelled from the factory and sent to the camp where we had to carry heavy wooden planks and transport them to various workshops, and then return with boxes of sawdust; which were very hard to carry because of their excessive weight The entire time we needed to keep in mind that we would be brutally punished by caning if we did not work fast enough.

From the place where the woodworking machinery was located, they took all the Polish workers and reassigned them to other camps. Thus the factory had no workers to run the machines. The capo of the factory, a young Pole, suddenly looked at me and said, "Come here! What's your name?" to which I replied, "Jakob Blankitny." He took me to the wood-saw, showing me only one time how it functioned and then said to me that, if I worked the saw well enough, I could stay working there. I was able to stay there until 1945; I am still convinced that this was my salvation.

On January 18, 1945, the Russians began to close in on Auschwitz, and the Germans made us walk about 90 km to the Leslau Station. Upon leaving the camp, there were a few thousand people but upon arriving at the station, only half had survived. Many were killed on the road; others did not make it because they could not keep up with the pace of marching in the snow.

Upon reaching the station, the Germans put us in open wagons bound for Mauthausen. Half the people traveling in these railcars could not withstand the cold and died freezing. All of us who managed to survive were again transported and this time to Melk, where we worked in mines for the munitions factories until March 1945 when we were clandestinely informed that the Americans were closing in on us. For this reason, the Germans decided to move us to Upper Austria, into a camp called Ebensee. Along the way some prisoners managed to escape. When we arrived, our small group consisted of about twenty people. We were taken to the camp and lined up to be shot. At that time, a German commander approached and said, "It's not worth killing these people; they are not even worth the bullet. No matter - they will die in the camp."

We ate one meal a day and it consisted of a soup with potato peels; scraps of food from the SS. Every day we watched as between 400 to 500 prisoners died in the camp.

On May 4, 1945, the Americans were very close to the camp. It was possible to hear gunshots in the distance. All of the survivors were gathered and it was announced that the following day, we would go into the mines where we worked for protection because the Americans were nearby. Someone informed us that there was a massive scheme to burn us en masse, as the mine was filled with explosives.

At that time, there were about 10,000 people left in the camp. People rose up and decided not to comply, so the SS, rushed for time and trying to escape, decided to lock the camp with the prisoners inside and they, themselves, left.

Civilian guards arrived to take care of us and, finally, the next morning, American soldiers and tanks arrived and liberated us.

To be able to describe all the facets of horror and pain that I lived through would take me many hours of remembrance and bitterness.

Of all the people in my city, Maków Mazowiecki, where 4,000 Jews originally lived before the start of World War II, only 42 survived. Of all my family in Poland, I was the only survivor.

From the daughter of Jakob Blankitny:

Fifty-four years after our father's liberation, my sister and I joined him, as we returned to every one of those places where the horror, tragedy, and fateful destiny that happened to millions of people occurred. Even after so many years of feeling the negative, indescribable feelings, it simply cannot be expressed in words what my father and his daughters felt. In passing through the concentration camps or in that far away stetl, Maków; nowhere can you find today any of the vestiges that at a moment in the not too distant past, there existed a vigorous Jewish life, formed by customs and warm traditions.
Related Links
Survivors Registry
Holocaust Survivors and Victims Resource Center

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Museum's Behind Every Name a Story project gives voice to the experiences of survivors during the Holocaust. I lived in a town called Maków Mazowiecki, about 80 km from Warsaw. The invasion of Poland brought with it the creation of forced labor camps and ghettos; with tremendous persecution against Jews.

# data[].attributes.headline
 The Genocide that finally brought the inmates to tears.

# data[].attributes.subject
 The Genocide that finally brought the inmates to tears.

# data[].attributes.body
"... He too was tortured...The SS then condemned him to death...Three prisoners in chains—and, among them, the little pipel, the sad-eyed angel...To hang a child in front of thousands of onlookers was not a small matter. All eyes were on the child. He was pale, almost calm, but he was biting his lips as he stood in the shadow of the gallows...In unison, the nooses were placed around their necks..."Where is merciful God, where is He?" someone behind me was asking. At the signal, the three chairs were tipped over. As for the rest of us, we were weeping...But the third rope was still moving: the child, too light, was still breathing...And so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering be-tween life and death, writhing before our eyes. And we were forced to look at him at close range"

# data[].attributes.headline
The Philippines cry for the conviction of President Duterte.

# data[].attributes.subject
The Philippines cry for the conviction of President Duterte.

# data[].attributes.body
The people of the Philippines are desperate for help in their country. Their President, Rodrigo Duterte has begun the mass slaughter of all drug dealers and users in the Philippines. With his death squad over 9,400 people have been killed, most of them being poor young men, but also killing women, witnesses, children and political competitors. At one point the President stated "Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now, there is three million drug addicts. I’d be happy to slaughter them" when in fact it was six million Jews.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The court, moreover, was created to prosecute cases of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes among member countries only when their national courts are unwilling or unable to do so. Those conditions might be met if the Philippines House of Representatives, dominated by Mr. Duterte's allies, quashes, as expected, an impeachment motion filed by an opposition lawyer. But there is already more than enough evidence for a preliminary investigation, which would send an unmistakable signal to Mr. Duterte that he may eventually have to answer for his crimes, and would encourage governments to take measures against him, such as imposing tariffs on Philippine goods.

And if the findings of Mr. Sabio, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and politicians, or the confessions of the former death squad members, are not enough evidence, there are Mr. Duterte's savage words. "Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now, there is three million drug addicts. I'd be happy to slaughter them," he told reporters in one of his most outrageous statements (and misstating the figure for the Holocaust, which is six million).

This is a man who must be stopped.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The court, moreover, was created to prosecute cases of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes among member countries only when their national courts are unwilling or unable to do so. Those conditions might be met if the Philippines House of Representatives, dominated by Mr. Duterte's allies, quashes, as expected, an impeachment motion filed by an opposition lawyer.

# data[].attributes.headline
Young Germans feel that the world is against them because of their country's past. Education systems in Germany shed away from the Holocaust.

# data[].attributes.subject
Young Germans feel that the world is against them because of their country's past. Education systems in Germany shed away from the Holocaust.

# data[].attributes.body
German author Ursula Duba recounts of her experiences when speaking of the Holocaust to German high schools. Majority of the students feel that they carry a large target on their backs due to Germany's hand in the killing of millions of innocent Jews in WWII. Many state that "they didn't do anything" and should stop being blamed for the Holocaust even though Germany succumbed to its wickedest form during the Holocaust.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Germans, Jews & History - "how Do Young Germans Deal With The Legacy Of The Holocaust And The Third Reich?" | A Jew Among The Germans | FRONTLINE | PBS

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Before I address the complexity and the specific struggles and difficulties I have observed among young Germans in regards to the genocidal history of their country, I would like to mention that five years of regularly attending interdisciplinary seminars at the Genocide Study Center at Yale University has taught me that the anger, finger-pointing and denial many young Germans express about this history is quintessentially human.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Google Docs - create and edit documents online, for free.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

# data[].attributes.body
The meticulous organization of the massacre of the Tutsi was unlike anything the world had ever witnessed. This event shows once more what happens when big countries like the United States refuse to get involved in other epidemics, an example being the Holocaust. Nothing but death and sorrow result.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In just 100 days in 1994, about 800,000 people were slaughtered in Rwanda by ethnic Hutu extremists. They were targeting members of the minority Tutsi community, as well as their political opponents, irrespective of their ethnic origin.

Warning: Contains graphic images.

How did the genocide start?

About 85% of Rwandans are Hutus but the Tutsi minority has long dominated the country. In 1959, the Hutus overthrew the Tutsi monarchy and tens of thousands of Tutsis fled to neighbouring countries, including Uganda.

A group of Tutsi exiles formed a rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which invaded Rwanda in 1990 and fighting continued until a 1993 peace deal was agreed.

On the night of 6 April 1994 a plane carrying then-President Juvenal Habyarimana, and his counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi - both Hutus - was shot down, killing everyone on board.

Hutu extremists blamed the RPF and immediately started a well-organised campaign of slaughter. The RPF said the plane had been shot down by Hutus to provide an excuse for the genocide.

With meticulous organisation. Lists of government opponents were handed out to militias who went and killed them, along with all of their families.

Neighbours killed neighbours and some husbands even killed their Tutsi wives, saying they would be killed if they refused.

At the time, ID cards had people's ethnic group on them, so militias set up roadblocks where Tutsis were slaughtered, often with machetes which most Rwandans kept around the house.

Thousands of Tutsi women were taken away and kept as sex slaves.

Why was it so vicious?

Rwanda has always been a tightly controlled society, organised like a pyramid from each district up to the top of government. The then-governing party, MRND, had a youth wing called the Interahamwe, which was turned into a militia to carry out the slaughter.

Weapons and hit-lists were handed out to local groups, who knew exactly where to find their targets.

The Hutu extremists set up a radio station, RTLM, and newspapers which circulated hate propaganda, urging people to "weed out the cockroaches" meaning kill the Tutsis. The names of prominent people to be killed were read out on radio.

Even priests and nuns have been convicted of killing people, including some who sought shelter in churches.

By the end of the 100-day killing spree, around 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus had been killed.

The UN and Belgium had forces in Rwanda but the UN mission was not given a mandate to stop the killing.

A year after US troops were killed in Somalia, the US was determined not to get involved in another African conflict. The Belgians and most UN peacekeepers pulled out after 10 Belgian soldiers were killed.

The French, who were allies of the Hutu government, sent a special force to evacuate their citizens and later set up a supposedly safe zone but were accused of not doing enough to stop the slaughter in that area.

Paul Kagame, Rwanda's current president, has accused France of backing those who carried out the massacres - a charge denied by Paris.

How did it end?

The well-organised RPF, backed by Uganda's army, gradually seized more territory, until 4 July 1994, when its forces marched into the capital, Kigali.

Some two million Hutus - both civilians and some of those involved in the genocide - then fled across the border into the Democratic Republic of Congo, at the time called Zaire, fearing revenge attacks. Others went to neighbouring Tanzania and Burundi.

Human rights groups say RPF fighters killed thousands of Hutu civilians as they took power - and more after they went into DR Congo to pursue the Interahamwe. The RPF denies this.

In DR Congo, thousands died from cholera, while aid groups were accused of letting much of their assistance fall into the hands of the Hutu militias.

What happened in DR Congo?

The RPF, now in power in Rwanda, embraced militias fighting both the Hutu militias and the Congolese army, which was aligned with the Hutus.

The Rwanda-backed rebel groups eventually marched on DR Congo's capital, Kinshasa, and overthrew the government of Mobutu Sese Seko, installing Laurent Kabila as president.

But the new president's reluctance to tackle Hutu militias led to a new war that dragged in six countries and led to the creation of numerous armed groups fighting for control of this mineral-rich country.

An estimated five million people died as a result of the conflict which lasted until 2003, with some armed groups active until now in the areas near Rwanda's border.

Has anyone faced justice?

Instead, the UN Security Council established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in the Tanzanian town of Arusha to prosecute the ringleaders.

A total of 93 people were indicted and after lengthy and expensive trials, dozens of senior officials in the former regime were convicted of genocide - all of them Hutus.

Within Rwanda, community courts, known as gacaca, were created to speed up the prosecution of hundreds of thousands of genocide suspects awaiting trial.

Correspondents say up to 10,000 people died in prison before they could be brought to justice.

For a decade until 2012, 12,000 gacaca courts met once a week in villages across the country, often outdoors in a marketplace or under a tree, trying more than 1.2 million cases.

Their aim was to achieve truth, justice and reconciliation among Rwandans as "gacaca" means to sit down and discuss an issue.

What is Rwanda like now?

President Kagame has been hailed for transforming the tiny, devastated country he took over through policies which encouraged rapid economic growth. He has also tried to turn Rwanda into a technological hub and is very active on Twitter.

But his critics say he does not tolerate dissent and several opponents have met unexplained deaths, both in the country and abroad.

The genocide is obviously still a hugely sensitive issue in Rwanda, and it is illegal to talk about ethnicity.

The government says this is to prevent hate speech and more bloodshed but some say it prevents true reconciliation.

Charges of stirring up ethnic hatred have been levelled against some of Mr Kagame's critics, which they say is a way of sidelining them.

He won a third term in office in the most recent election in 2017 with 98.63% of the vote.

All photographs belong to the copyright holders as marked

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In just 100 days in 1994, some 800,000 people were slaughtered in Rwanda by ethnic Hutu extremists - how did the genocide happen?

# data[].attributes.body
These children, wearing the striped clothing of inmates, are in one of Germany's concentration camps. During the Holocaust, many children were either killed at a young age or forced into labor camps where they would work for many hours nonstop.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Google Docs - create and edit documents online, for free.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

# data[].attributes.headline
Germany takes big risk by labeling the Armenian killings a "genocide"

# data[].attributes.subject
Germany takes big risk by labeling the Armenian killings a "genocide"

# data[].attributes.body
Germany is currently facing some heat from Turkey for labeling the killings of millions of Armenians a genocide. This article clearly depicts how countries who were the aggressor during massacres refuse to take responsibility for their actions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
BERLIN - Germany risked alienating the European Union's key partner in curbing the flow of migrants to Europe after its parliament approved a motion Thursday that labels the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 a genocide.

Parliament speaker Norbert Lammert said Turkey's government was not to blame for what happened around the time of World War I, "but it shares responsibility for what happens with it in the future."

"(We have) seen that an honest and self-critical appraisal of the past does not endanger relations with other countries," he said. "In fact, it is a precondition for understanding, reconciliation and cooperation."

Armenians say that up to 1.5 million of their people were killed a 100 years ago when the Turkish government sought to expel and massacre Christian Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. Turkey says the number is far lower and that other Turks also died during the killings. Ankara disputes that the event is tantamount to genocide.

More than 20 countries and organizations including Russia and the Vatican recognize the Armenian genocide. The United States does not.

President Obama called the killings "the first mass atrocity of the 20th century" in a statement marking Armenian Remembrance Day on April 24, but he stopped short of calling it genocide despite a 2008 campaign pledge to do so.

"I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915, and my view has not changed," Obama said in April.

Genocide is commonly defined as the systematic and deliberate attempt to exterminate a national, racial, political or cultural group.

While Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim previously said the outcome of the vote would not have any impact on the EU's agreement with Turkey to stem the migrant influx, he described the symbolic vote as a "true test of friendship." He said the vote was an attempt to distract Germany from unspecified domestic problems.

"At times countries that we consider to be friends come up with these bright ideas to distract attention when they fall into despair with their domestic policy," he said. "This is one of them."

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said diplomatic ties with Berlin would suffer. He recalled the country's ambassador to Germany following the parliament's decision, German news agency DPA reported.

Tensions between Turkey and the EU are already elevated amid a disagreement over the EU's conditions for granting Turks visa-free access to the 28-nation political bloc. In return for supporting the migrants deal, Ankara wants the process accelerated but Brussels insists it needs to improve its human rights record.

"There is a lot that binds Germany to Turkey and even if we have a difference of opinion on an individual matter, the breadth of our links, our friendship, our strategic ties, is great," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday. She made the comments while appearing at a news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1X0fFOR

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Germany risks Turkey's ire by calling Armenians' killings genocide

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
BERLIN - Germany risked alienating the European Union's key partner in curbing the flow of migrants to Europe after its parliament approved a motion Thursday that labels the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 a genocide.