Holding the darkness in the light

An act of commemoration before Holocaust Memorial day

Holocaust (Shoah)Extermination camps

Auschwitz 1,000,000

Belzec 600,000

Chełmno 320,000

Jasenovac 58,000 – 97,000

Holocaust (Shoah)Extermination camps

Majdanek 360,000

Maly Trostinets 65,000

Sobibor 250,000

Treblinka 870,000

Victims killed

Jews 5.9 million Soviet POWs 2 – 3 million Ethnic Poles 1.8 – 2 million Romani 220,000 – 1,500,000 Disabled 200,000 – 250,000 Freemasons 80,000 – 200,000 Slovenes 20,000 – 25,000 Homosexuals 5,000 – 15,000 Jehovah's Witnesses 2,500 – 5,000

Genocides from today

89,400 – 130,400, Civil war, Syria, 2011, ongoing

8,813 – 1,400,000, Violent civilian deaths by NATO, Afghanistan, 2001 – 2013

15,000 – 52,000, Violent deaths from 1948, Palestine, ongoing

2,000 – 70,000, Persecution of Falun Gong, China, 1999, ongoing

Massacres of pygmies, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1998, ongoing

Genocides

864,531 – 1,500,000, Genocide by US, Iraq, 2003 – 2011

178,258 – 400,000, Darfur conflict, Sudan, 2003 – 2010

8,000 – 8,500, Srebrenica massacre, Bosnia, 1995

500,000 – 1,000,000, Rwandan genocide, 1994

100,000 – 200,000, Massacres of Mayan Indians, Guatemala, 1962 – 1996

Genocides

44,000 – 150,000, Civil War, Algeria, 1991 – 1999

150,000 – 500,000, Mass killings, genocide, Ethiopia, 1974 – 1991

50,000 – 200,000, Al-Anfal campaign, Iraq, 1986 – 1989

18,600 – 183,000, East Timor, 1975 – 1990s

1,000,000 – 3,000,000, Genocide, Cambodia, 1975 – 1979

9,089 – 30,000, Dirty War, Argentina, 1973 – 1983

GenocidesSeveral millions, Starvation, North Korea

100,000, Burmese government killings of Shan, Karen, and NDU, Burma, 1962 – 2007

20,000 – 80,000 Dictatorship and political repression in Equatorial Guinea, 1969 – 1979

35,000,000, Class enemies, religious minorities and Uighurs by Maoist government, PRC army, Red Guards and police, Peoples Republic of China, 1949 – 1977

100,000, Persecution of Hmong by government, Laos, 1975 – 2003

Genocides

800,000 – 3,100,000, American holocaust, Vietnam, 1959 – 1975

50,000 – 100,000, Massacres of Hutus, Burundi, 1972

26,000 – 3,000,000, Bangladesh atrocities, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), 1971

450,000, Indonesian genocide of West Papuans, West Papua, 1969 – 1990s

1,000,000 – 3,000,000, Nigerian Civil War, Nigeria, 1967 – 1970

Genocides500,000, Anti-communist purge, Indonesia, 1965 – 1966

2,000,000, Purge of Nuer and Dinka by Khartoum government, Nuba region, South Sudan, 1956 – 1972

92,000, Tibet uprising, 1959

50,000 – 150,000 Harkis by FLN, Algeria, 1954 – 1962

Collective punishment by British troops, Malaya, Oman and North Yemen, 1950s, 1960s

300,000 – 320,000, Mau Mau massacres of Kikuyu by British colonialists, 1950 – 1959

The holocaust 1941 - 1945

4,194,200 – 17,000,000

Genocides

500,000 – 3,000,000 Expulsion of Germans after World War II, Europe, 1945 – 1950

60,000 – 174,000, Communist purges, Serbia, 1944 – 1945

270,000 – 655,000, Ustashe genocides of Serbs, Jews, Roma and Croats, Croatia, 1941 – 1945

60,000 – 200,000, Volhynia massacre, Poland, 1943 – 1944

7,000,000, Bengali famine, India, 1943

Genocides20,000 – 30,000, Katyn massacre, USSR, 1940

13,160 – 70,000, Dersim massacre, Dersim, Turkey, 1937 – 1938

250,000 – 300,000 Nanking massacre by Japan, 1937

20,000 – 30,000 Execution of Haitians, Dominican Republic, 1937

2,582,000 – 8,000,000, Holodomor (and Soviet famine), Ukrainian SSR, 1932 – 1933

300,000 – 1,500,000, Armenian genocide, Anatolia, 1915 – 1923

Genocides300,000 – 500,000, Decossackization, Don River area, Soviet Union, 1919 – 1920

275,000 – 750,000, Assyrian genocide, Anatolia, 1915 – 1918

200,000 – 1,000,000 Greek genocide, Anatolia, 1915 – 1918

20,000 Bombing and gassing, Sudan, 1918

8,000,000 – 10,000,000, Tropical diseases, and the exploitation of the Congo Free State under the rule of King Leopold II of Belgium, Congo Free State, 1885 – 1908

24,000 – 75,000, Herero and Namaqua genocide, Namibia, 1904 – 1908

Genocides2,000,000 – 100,000,000, European colonization of the Americas, Americas, 1492 – 1900

1,200,000, Maafa, Atlantic ocean, 16th C – 19th C

2,500 – 50,000, Samar massacre, Philippines, 1901 – 1902, part of 1,000,000, US pacification programme, 1899 – 1913

1,500,000, Hazara genocide, Afghanistan, 1888 – 1890s

20,000 Extermination of aborigines, Tasmania, 1788 – 1901

Genocides12,000,000 – 29,000,000 Mass starvation, India, 1876-8, 1890s

1,000,000 Irish Great Famine, Ireland, 1845 – 1852

400,000 – 1,500,000, Circassian genocide, Circassia, 1817 – 1864

480,000 – 600,000, Massacres in Zunghar Khanate, Western Mongolia, Kazakhstan, northern Kyrgyzstan, southern Siberia, 1755 – 1758

80,000, Massacres in Khoshut Khanate, Qinghai and Tibet regions of China, 1723 – 1725

Civil wars, massacres and starvation

The list is incomplete. We also mentionSouth AfricaZimbabweParaguayChileMozambique

others

Crimes against humanity

HIROSHIMA

NAGASAKI

Reflections

The Buddha: Which is greater in the cycle of life, the tears you have shed this long, long time, crying and weeping from being joined with what is displeasing, being separated from what is pleasing – or the water of the four great oceans?

Reflections

The light for which the world longs is already shining. It is shining into the darkness, but the darkness does not apprehend it. It is shining into the darkness, but the darkness is not overcoming it. It is shining in many a soul, and already the new order has begun within the kingdom of the heart. It is shining in many a small group and creating a heavenly-earthly fellowship of children of the light. It will always shine and lead many into the world of need, that they may bear it up into the heart of God.

Thomas Kelly, Quaker, in 1941.