Award Date

5-2009

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in History

Department

History

First Committee Member

Janet Ward, Chair

Second Committee Member

Kevin Dawson

Third Committee Member

Elizabeth White Nelson

Graduate Faculty Representative

Michele Kuenzi

Number of Pages

147

Abstract

Italian-Jewish chemist and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi wrote in his work The Drowned and the Saved about the "Gray Zone," or holding place for all things difficult to categorize about his experiences in the Nazi camp Auschwitz. Because human tendency is to divide things in a rigid dichotomy, he argued, anything without a set role is brushed aside. I have extended this Gray Zone to include mutually shared situations from modern genocide including: the relationship of race/land to genocide, the "Forced Victim-Perpetrator" (victim forced to commit atrocities against his or her own people), and the complex international reaction to genocidal situations on individual and state levels. Understanding some of the common characteristics of the Gray Zones of modern genocide may help scholars and activists to keep the realistic view that genocide is not a confusing anomaly but an unfortunate pattern of human existence that must be understood and combated.

Keywords

Genocide; Holocaust; Jewish (1939-1945); Human rights; Pogroms

Disciplines

Criminal Law | European History | History | Jewish Studies | Race and Ethnicity

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Comments

Signatures have been redacted for privacy and security measures.

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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