The Associated Press
April 22, 2004, Thursday
Mass killings of the past century
Background and resources on genocides and mass killings in the past
century:
-Armenian Genocide (1915-16): Ottoman Turks kill about 1.5 million
ethnic Armenians during World War I.
-Ukraine (1932-33): An artificial famine caused by Soviet leader
Joseph Stalin’s agricultural policies kills 7 million to 10 million
people.
-Nazi Holocaust (1933-1945): German leader Adolf Hitler leads attack
on Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe in which 6 million Jews die. The
Nazis also kill about 5 million other civilians, including Gypsies,
Poles, political opponents, gays, and others.
-Chinese Great Leap Forward (1959-61): About 30 million Chinese die
in famine that followed Mao Zedong’s effort at rapid rural
industrialization.
-Cambodia (1975-79): Khmer Rouge government kills about 1.7 million
Cambodians in a drive to purge western influence and start an
agrarian communist state.
-Rwanda (1994): Ethnic Hutu rebels lead attacks on ethnic Tutsis and
moderate Hutus, killing an estimated 800,000 people.
Resources for further study:
-Genocide links: