MEGAMURDERS: THE WORST CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

• It is estimated that more than 250 million people were systematically murdered in the 20th century, the century of mass murder.

• In sheer numbers, the 20th century is the bloodiest period in human history.

• 1 Megamurder = 1,000,000 murders

• This presentation is about megamurders in the 20th century, usually caused by leaders or regimes. It does not include people died in combat.

• Notice that some images may be offensive.

China (1949-present), especially under Mao Ze-Dong

• 38,702,000 - 76,702,000 murders of civilians supposed as dissidents.

Mao

U.S.S.R (1917-1990), especially under Josef Stalin

• 23,000,000 - 61,911,000 murders of civilians, including 7,500,000 Ukrainians died of starvation (Holodomor).

Stalin

Nazistic Germany under Adolf Hitler(1939-1945)

• 12,000,000 - 20,946,000 murders of civilians, including 6,000,000 Jews (Holocaust),

Poles, Roma, homosexuals, the physically and mentally handicapped, and dissidents.

Hitler

Leopold II, king of the Belgians (1886-1908)

• 5,000,000 - 15,000,000 deaths of Congolese (indigenous inhabitants of the Congo River Basin) through barbarous exploitation, tortures, and mass killings.

Leopold II

Japan under Hideki Tojo (1941-1944)

• 5,000,000-6,000,000 murders of Chinese civilians during Japan’s invasion in China

Tojo

Ottoman Turkey, especially under Ismail Enver and Kemal Ataturk (1909-1923)

• 2,500,000 – 2,800,000 murders of civilians. It includes the systematic killing of 1,500,000 Armenians, 800,000 Greeks, and 500,000 Assyrians, as a policy of extermination of the non-Turkish population of the Ottoman Empire.

Enver Ataturk

Cambodia under Pol Pot (1975-1979)

• 1,700,000 -2,000,000 murders by torture, starvation, and execution. It included every civilian supposed as potentially opponent to the regime of Khmer Rouge, especially the educated and the religious.

Pol Pot

North Korea (1948-present),especially under Kim Il Sung

• 1,600,000-3,500,000 murders of civilians by starvation, work to death, torture, execution and experiments.

Kim Il Sung

Ethiopia under Mengistu Haile Mariam (1975-1978)

• 1,500,000 murders of supposed enemies or suspected opponents of the Derg regime (Communist military junta that governed Ethiopia), including university students, intellectuals and politicians.

Mengistu

Nigeria under Yakubu Gowon (1967-1970)

• 1,000,000-3,000,000 murders of Biafran people due to the enforcement of a comprehensive blockade which led to severe shortages of food, medicine, clothing, and housing.

Gowon

• Unfortunately, the previous megamurders are not the worst cases of the 20th century.

• We may see the previous 10 cases as the result of the policy of authoritarian regimes, and assume that such crimes cannot take place in democratic societies.

• If you believe so, see the next 3 cases.

The Christian Martyrs

• Although Christianity is the largest religion of the world, it is also the most persecuted religion, especially in Islamic (even democratic) and Communistic regimes

• 45,500,000 martyrs in the 20th century.

Countries where Christians are persecuted

Female Infanticide • 90.000.000 female infant homicides only in

India and China, as e result of systematic sex discrimination

• The global number of female infanticides in the 20th century, must be hundreds of millions

Abortion: The lawful murder of the most innocent and defenseless human beings

• 1-2 billion murders of unborn children in 50 years

• We may consider megamurders as outcomes of policy.

• However, the last three cases, in the first place, are not matters of policy but matters of human wickedness, cruelty and greed.

• And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity;

(Romans 1:28-29)