Doesn’t “Genocide” Mean Fewer People?

No, the title isn’t sarcastic. It is meant literally. The term “genocide” was coined in 1944 to describe the systematic elimination of the Jewish people from Europe. In this Hitler succeeded. He presided over the mass murder of about 6 million Jews, including over a million children.

Anyone with one Jewish grandparent was defined as a Jew and went to the gas chambers and crematoria, even if he or she were a devout Catholic or a communist atheist. The Nazis exterminated about 80 percent of European Jews, or about one-third of all Jews on Earth.

At the start of World War II in 1940, there were about 18 million Jews in the world. In 1945 at the end of the war, there were about 12 million. This brings up the First Rule of Genocide: It means fewer people. And no, this is not a joke. Far from it.

If there is a “genocide” by Israel in Gaza, why are there more Gazans than there used to be? But if there is no “genocide” in South Africa, why are there fewer White farmers than there used to be?

“Genocide” is much too awful a word to be thrown around carelessly.