The 20th century genocides in Rwanda and Germany had striking similarities, something that should have alerted the world to stop them. At the heart of these two massacres were patterns that outlined how similar thoughts and reasoning could lead to something as horrific as these two events. One can see how both groups used their mastery of knowledge as a way to control people, how the rest of the world refused to step up to stop the killings, and how people were considered inferior to humans to provide a just cause. for such terrible acts. In both cases of genocide, the killings were carried out as a way to "cleanse" the population; both are the result of a political power that rises up and wishes to eliminate any impurity or competition. In Rwanda, the Hutu wanted to eradicate their rival tribe, the Tutsi, and take back their home. Political tension had existed for years between Tutsi and Hutu, as the more powerful Tutsi had militarily conquered Hutu land before Belgian colonization. Even during Belgian colonization, the Tutsi remained prominent and favored for their system of government. These conflicts had already brought Hutus and Tutsis to enmity with each other before the genocide began. This contrasts with the Holocaust, as in Germany there was no political tension between Jews and Germans that could trigger conflict. German propaganda had to play a larger role in convincing ordinary people that Jews, homosexuals, Slavs and others were all impure people. “In 1929 Hitler chose Josef Goebbels as his Propaganda Minister. Goebbels developed highly successful campaigns using simple slogans and images repeated over and over again to gain public support for the pa... middle of paper murders. Many others were sentenced to prison for their roles in the genocide. The genocides in Rwanda and Nazi Germany are just two examples of how the world sat back and watched as masses of innocent people were killed. Both were the result of political powers wishing to consolidate control and create a better society, through the mass killing of those who were taught to be enemies of the state and sub-human. Both relied on the use of propaganda to control the knowledge that ordinary people had access to, thus controlling them. The different methods of mass killing were a result of the different reasons for killing, available resources, and the power of the party responsible. The rest of the world can and must learn, through these acts of hatred, that every unjust killing must be stopped, as the country's internal affairs cannot be allowed to include massacres of innocent people..