8

Works Cited

Aly, Götz. Hitler’s Beneficiaries. New York: Henry Holt and Company 2005

Benz, Wolfgang. A Concise History of the Third Reich. England: University of California Press,

2006

Kiernan, Ben. The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer

Rouge 1975-79. United States: Yale University Press, 1996

Lynch, Michael. Nazi Germany. London: Hodder Education 2004.

Mam, Kalyanee E. “An Oral History of Family Life Under the Khmer Rouge.” Yale Center for

International and Area Studies. Online. 11 May 2008. <http://www.yale.edu/ycias>.

Krausz Tibor . “‘Never again,’ but it happened in Cambodia.” Jewish News of Greater Phoenix

21 Apr. 2008

Short, Phillip. Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare. New York: Henry Holt and Company 2004.

“Society Under the Angkar.” Country Studies. Online. 12 May 2008.

<http://countrystudies.us/cambodia/29.htm>.

7

His resentment and hatred of them led him to pour it all in his book Mein Kamf, which would

then become the Nazi ideology and so led the onslaught of the entire race.

Again, it’s the incomprehensibility of the two murderers. They would not tolerate such

people in a world they hoped to create. When the moment came for them to lead their nation, it

was a moment of destiny for both. As Hitler aspired to become an artist and Pol Pot born into a

family of artistic talent, the nation they both led would produce a beautiful but destructive

scenery that only the subjects of their work (for Hitler, his Aryan race and Pol his farming

society) will be distinguishable and will last throughout history, like a painting on canvas. That is

the kind of society they hoped future generations would live in and like an artist sacrificing

everything for his work, they too will sacrifice everything for their ideal world.

In conclusion, both genocides have affected not only the people that have survived and

live throughout it, but they also affected everyone else around the world. The 20th century has

become such a vast and broad topic because of the historical evidences and testimonies for which

we have an innumerable amount of information. Cambodia today, still marred and deeply

inflicted by the Khmer Rouge, is still trying to uncover all the mines in the Killing Fields.

Germany, likewise, will continue to tell the horrendous tales of mass destruction that its

preceding government had committed. With only fifty years in between the two events, billions

of people had been killed. As time moves on, the unheard voices and restless spirits will be

remembered and honored forever.

6

communism and fascism were very different on political beliefs. But it is because they are so

similar that they hate each other.

But why did they do it? Why would human beings go through everything so terrible and

horrendous to destroy others that they hate? The answer is simple: it’s because of the

incomprehensible nature of such people that they would discriminate and even worse, annihilate.

Pol Pot, born as Saloth Sar, was born into a farming family, where they suffered financial

problems and setbacks. To him, it was the upper, middle class that took everything: “They robbed

us of what we needed . . . They were nothing but covetous people . . .”19 It was this resentment

and envy that led him to join the communist rebels of Cambodia. He wanted to unite the farming

people and eliminate all classes that for so long, to him, deterred Cambodia from becoming a

great and powerful nation.

Hitler, born as an Austrian, had a strong admiration for the nation of Germany, for his

hero was Frederick the Great of Prussia. This nationalist view led him to serve in the German

army, away from his dreams of becoming an artist. He was mediocre in the field at best,

according to Lynch, and he lived a poor life before becoming dictator. When he was forced to live

in cheap hostels, he came across some of the poorer Viennese Jews. It was during that period of

his life that he developed a strong dislike of them: “Wherever I went, I now saw Jews, and the

more I saw, the more sharply they set themselves apart in my eyes from the rest of humanity.”20

19 Short 19.

20 Lynch 5.

5

Because of such similarities between the two government’s genocide policies, many

historians and scholars have come to regard the Khmer Rouge regime as “Cambodia’s

Holocaust.” To name it in such fervor would only serve to degrade Pol Pot’s ideology of the

perfect society, unmatched by any other. Of course, he wasn’t referring to the mass murders. In

spite of it all, the results were the same: millions of people have been killed. Approximately six

billion Jews16, along with hundreds to thousands of Gypsies

17, have been killed in the German

death camps. In Cambodia, the total number of deaths ranged from 750,000 to 1.7 million18.

Accounts from victims and survivors from both sides gave the same account: both

genocides have changed their lives and history forever. Conceding this, both my parents are

survivors of Pol Pot’s evil regime. They have seen and witnessed things that cannot be described

in words. My father told me that everyday in the internment camps, there was always news of

someone that was killed. Sometimes, neighbors would intentionally tell Khmer Rouge soldiers

that a neighbor of theirs had extra rations. Possession of private property was a high crime;;

anyone in possession of anything were subject to death.

During the Nazi regime, however, there was class distinction, but there was also prejudice

and subjugation. The Nazis showed no hesitation in discriminating against Jews or even to

annihilate an entire race of them. Pol Pot hated and killed anyone that was not in conjunction to

the Khmer Rouge ideologies, similar to Hitler. Both parties had opposing viewpoints, as

16 Benz 230-31.

17 Benz 233.

18 “Society.”

4

Another close similarity between the two regimes, as Tibor Krausz pointed out, was the

internment camps for which most of the exterminations took place: Auschwitz for Germany and

Tuol Sleng for Cambodia. Both “slaughterhouses” were so similar that Krausz called Tuol Sleng

“Cambodia’s version of Auschwitz.”15 Like the Gestapo of the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge soldiers

took pictures of their victims, either dead or alive, in order to humiliate them. S-21 was the

headquarters of the Khmer Rouge secret police, where many torturing and other crimes against

humanity took place. The same was accounted in Treblinka and Belzec where many people were

tortured to death and women sexually abused.

15 Tibor Krausz, “‘Never again,’ but it happened in Cambodia,” Jewish News of Greater Phoenix 21 Apr. 2008

Whereas many of the Nazi genocide took place in concentration camps and death camps,

some of the deaths during the Khmer Rouge regime took place in the Killing Fields. Large

numbers of uncharted mines were placed along the countryside, intentionally designed to kill

anyone entering or exiting Cambodia. In addition, the Khmer Rouge sought to eliminate all

foreign and ethnic minority influences residing in Cambodia. The Nazis implemented the same

policy in Germany. To both governments, a perfect nation resided on the ethnicity and culture of

their native people. The Nazis wanted the perfect Aryan race and a Third Reich that will take over

the world, whereas the Khmer Rouge wanted a utopian, egalitarian, and agrarian society.

3

class unity.”10 However the Nazis racial prejudice and injustice toward the Jews called for a

massive genocide, in which most of the deaths occurred (the other being Gypsies).11 Their

religious intolerance is similar to the Khmer Rouge’s. However, the Nazis held a more

acceptable attitude toward Christians whereas the Khmer Rouge tolerated no religion. To them,

religion spoke of rebellion and resistance towards their policies and beliefs.12

The Khmer Rouge implemented brute labor among the people to work in the fields for

more than 10 hours a day.13 During these hours, many people died from malnutrition and

starvation. If anyone exhibited any signs of laziness, they were subject to beatings that resulted

in death. When someone was sick, they had to walk for miles to a medical house for treatment.

Unfortunately for them, the Khmer Rouge executed anyone of intelligent background, including

doctors.

The Nazis, on the other hand, did not relentlessly and needlessly kill off their intelligent

peoples, for those of that background were crucial to the expansion and survival of the Aryan

race. They did, however, eliminate all disabled or mentally challenged persons, such that they

promulgated a set of laws that discriminated against them, including the Law on Hereditary

Health.14 The Nazis also kept their upper, wealthy class, whereas Pol Pot sought to eliminate any

higher ranking class other than that of the proletarians.

9 Short 291.

10 Götz Aly, Hitler’s Beneficiaries, (New York: Henry Holt and Company) 13.

11 Benz 233.

12 “Society.”

13 “Society.”

14 Benz 113-15.

2

the new regime, including Lon Nol officers, monarchy sympathizers, and those with a high

education3 that did not belong to the ideal government, Angkar.

Pol Pot sought to establish the new Cambodia as a self-sufficient and self-governing

power, or autarchy. According to Kieu Samphân, “it was necessary to restrict free trade and to

redefine the relationship between the individual and the state.”4 This way, according to Pol Pot,

Cambodia will be free from foreign dominance that has “marred the state of all its pride and

grandeur.”5 Likewise, Hermann Goering of the Third Reich introduced the Four Year Plan

(1936-39), which also looked to constitute an autarchy. In contrast to the Khmer Rouge’s ideal

economic sufficiency, which depended on agriculture, especially rice6, Goering’s plan depended

widely on arms production.7

Both men also took away from their people every ounce of freedom and rights to life and

property. Phillip Short elaborated upon this: “. . . Hitler . . . enslaved [his] people metaphorically

by depriving them of basic rights and freedoms.”8 Short then went on to contrast Pol’s

deprivation of these rights: “Pol enslaved the Cambodian people literally . . . a ‘prison without

walls.’”9

Some of the major differences between the Nazis and the Khmer Rouge revolve around

their genocide policies. The Nazis and the Khmer Rouge promised their people “national and

3 Kalyanee E. Mam, “An Oral History of Family Life Under the Khmer Rouge,” Yale Center for International and

Area Studies, Online, 11 May 2008, <http://www.yale.edu/ycias/>.

4 Phillip Short, Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare, (New York: Henry Holt and Company) 289.

5 “Society.”

6 “Society.”

7 Michael Lynch, Nazi Germany, (London: Hodder Education) 74.

8 Phillip Short, Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare, (New York: Henry Holt and Company) 291.

1

The history of the twentieth century would have never been the same were it not for the

outbreaks of two world wars, the uprising of tyrannical dictators, and the changes in cultures and

beliefs. But none of these undisputed precedents can outmatch the inevitable changes in

government. From liberal monarchies to autarchic dictatorships, history has been presented with

a series of events. Dictatorships in countries such as Russia, Germany, Italy, and Spain have both

been beneficial and disastrous as well. With dictators came the changes in government, such as

the revolutions of communism and fascism. Two particular dictators include Vladimir Lenin and

Benito Mussolini, whose political views and beliefs in both communism and fascism

respectively, give rise to Adolf Hitler of Germany and Pol Pot of Cambodia.

Communism and fascism, or Nazism, are two different, distinguishable governments and

political beliefs. But what makes them different? What makes them similar? These are the

questions that are about to be answered in this essay. Both of these belief systems have

horrendous and sometimes beneficial results that are going to be elaborated upon. Their impact

on society, culture, and people has altered the course of history, and the world.

Adolf Hitler developed the idea of Nazism, based off of fascism. However its ideals and

beliefs followed a more radical form. The Nazis wanted to build a master Aryan race, which was

the elimination of undesirables, such as Jews, gypsies, Sorbs, Kashubians, Poles, homosexuals,

the disabled, and others unwanted on the grounds of “racial hygiene.”1 Similarly, as soon as he

and the Khmer Rouge won over Cambodia in the Cambodian Civil War, Pol Pot began the

cleansing process, known as Year Zero.2 This included the execution of all suspected enemies of

1 Wolfgang Benz, A Concise History of the Third Reich, (England: University of California Press) 113.

2 “Society Under the Angkar,” Country Studies, Online, 12 May 2008, <http://countrystudies.us/cambodia/29.htm>.