On the subject of massacres

One hundred years ago from this last Saturday, August 23rd, Germany committed the largest massacre of Belgian citizens during the outbreak of the war.  The city of Dinant fell to Germany after several days of fierce resistance by the French and Belgians.  674 civilians, which included women and children, were executed in response to perceived attacks on German soldiers trying to repair a bridge over the Meuse.

I think that this is a significant event because it was acts like these which galvanized the populations of Germany's opponents against them.  Since the staggering civilian deaths of the Second World War and beyond, 674 people may seem relatively small, and was certainly not the largest to have ever occurred in Belgium before.  But this was only the largest act in a series of attacks which killed thousands of innocents in the first months of the war.  It's important because it demonstrates the impact that moral and immoral actions can have on opposing sides of a conflict, violent and non-violent.

The executions themselves were conducted in an arbitrary fashion which varied from town to town.  Typically occupants were divided by category, usually sex and put on opposites sides of the town square.  Then a selection was made... every 10th person, usually from the men's side, or every 5th, etc.  As one of the moral motivations for participation in the war, particularly for Britain, a language of propaganda was developed around these killings.  People referred to "Poor Belgium" as part of the justification for intervention.

The massacres hold a special interest for me.  I spent a good six years of my life working with the Human Rights Data Analysis Group, collecting and analyzing large scale human rights events.  It is crimes against civilians such as those that occurred at such a large scale during the Second World War that caused me to want to work with such an organization.

I'm also staying in Paris at the moment, and have visited with some folks who are also interested in this sort of thing, specifically executions committed by the Islamic Republic of Iran.  I'm very bless to know such people, and one day I hope that all there is left to do is these kinds of commemorative trips.