Who was more ruthless?

[Thorlifter]

Now I'm still learning so much about the Nazi's, the death camps, Warsaw Ghetto, and their march through western Russia, but I want to get your opinion on who do you think was more ruthless in their tactics, either the Nazi's or the Khmer Rouge.

I must say I know very little about the Khmer Rouge so I'm really looking for ya'll input on this. I do know as far as pure numbers, the Khmer Rouge will pale in comparison to the Nazi's. But I'm thinking that was because the Nazi's were far more efficient and dealt with a larger area and greater populations than what was in Cambodia.

 

[michaelmaltby]

Stalin and the Communists - '30's till his death - far more brutal than either group you mention.

MM
Toronto

 

[Amsel]

Stalin and the Communists - '30's till his death - far more brutal than either group you mention.

MM
Toronto

Agreed, Stalin and the NKVD. I really don't think you can even compare though, because a human life is valuable and the terror of these goverments are the same if you are the victim. The 20th century was a horrific time and as an American I cannot even imagine the fear and hopelessness of being the victim of these horrific people. True evil has reared its ugly face with its mix of modern weapons and intelligence agencies and brutal cavemen behavior. I can only hope our human race has learned a few lessons. If you really think about we are all part of the human race and if it can happen in one place then it could happen anywhere.

 

[diddyriddick]

Stalin and the Communists - '30's till his death - far more brutal than either group you mention.

MM
Toronto

You would have a hard time convincing me that anybody is more brutal than the Nazis. They made shrunken heads, lampshades and soap from their victims.

 

[davebender]

I agree.

Aleksandr Yakovlev (Chairman of the Russian Commission for the Rehabilitation of the Victims of Political Repression) estimates that 35 million were murdered by the Soviet regime. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn estimates up to 60 million were murdered. I don't know of any other government that has murdered 35 to 60 million of their own citizens. However percentage wise the Khmer Rouge are in the same ball park.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

You would have a hard time convincing me that anybody is more brutal than the Nazis. They made shrunken heads, lampshades and soap from their victims.

Here is the thing you have to remember. Hitler and his Nazi goons actually thought they were doing the right thing. They thought they were doing good for Germany and Europe (this in no way justifies what they did). Stalin and the Commies on the other hand knew that what they were doing was evil and brutal. They did it because they did not care at all about any form of human life.

Like I said, not trying to justify what the Nazi's did, they were evil and brutal, but Stalin may have been quite a bit worse.

 

[Amsel]

I have never believed the lampshade/ soap stories. I think it was propaganda to frenzy the troops.

 

[ToughOmbre]

Based on numbers, Stalin and his henchmen get the slight nod. They murdered more human beings than Hitler and his goons.

But we are talking about degree here. Both regimes killed millions. There's a place in Hell for both of them.

Dishonorable mention....

Khmer Rouge
Sadaam Hussein

TO

 

[Coors9]

I'm sure when i was alot younger, I saw a picture of one of those lampshades in school. Pretty sure it was real.

 

[DBII]

I vote for Uncle Stalin. One of the first groups he purged were from his home country of Georgia. I think that the Mongals would be in the top ten. You may be able to google the lampshade pictures. All of these people make my skin crawl, each one a monster.

DBII

 

[Marcel]

Hitler did more in less time the Stalin. He just hadn't the time to catch up with Stalin. IMO there's no difference between the two, apart from the fact that the Nazi's were more effective.

 

[Gnomey]

I would agree with Marcel but also agree with Chris. Both regimes were awful and given time the Nazi's perhaps would of equalled Stalin's 'record'. I would give Stalin the nod because he did it knowingly whilst the Nazi's did it clinically for what they thought was the greater good.

You also I think have to mention the Japanese during the war as well, particularly their efforts in China between 1931 and 1945.

 

[GrauGeist]

Pol Pot and his clowns were cold blooded in the fact that they made thier victims write who they were and where they were from, sort of a short biography, then photographed them and then murdered them.

The Nazis for the most part recorded the victim's ID and assigned them a serial number...from that point on, they either lived in a labor camp, a prison camp, or went to "the showers"...still pretty ugly, really.

The communists under Uncle Joe didn't really go to that much effort unless it was a well known person, then the victim died under "unfortunate" circumstances. Otherwise the faceless unknown masses went to thier graves much like Saddam Hussein's victims. Just mowed down and shoved into a slit trench or a shallow grave somewhere to be forgotten...

I'd say for the sheer numbers of victims and the anonymity of those victims, it would the be Soviet communists by a long-shot.

 

[vikingBerserker]

IIRC Stalin and Hitler seemed to target specific groups, whereas the Pol Pot seemed to target everybody. #'s has to go to Stalin, % is hands down Khmer Rouge.

 

[Vassili Zaitzev]

Don't know who Khmer Rouge is, but everybody else that is mentioned gets my vote. Stalin killed more people, but Hitler was intent on wiping certain groups out of existence.

 

[pbfoot]

there are a few other candidates the Turks for there handling of the Armenians and certainly the Rwandans sunk below the line ands lets not forget the recent atrocities by the Serbs and Croats

 

[GrauGeist]

Don't know who Khmer Rouge is, but everybody else that is mentioned gets my vote. Stalin killed more people, but Hitler was intent on wiping certain groups out of existence.

Wiki either Pol Pot or Khmer Rouge and it should give you a decent picture of what those people were about. Sadly, you never hear much about them even though they terrorized Cambodia for about 20 some odd years.

 

[Vassili Zaitzev]

I knew a little about Pol Pot, but not the Khmer Rouge. When going on Wiki, I found this. It says their genocide victims. I mean, some are just kids for Christs sake!

 

[GrauGeist]

I knew a little about Pol Pot, but not the Khmer Rouge. When going on Wiki, I found this. It says their genocide victims. I mean, some are just kids for Christs sake!

I know...

 

[Thorlifter]

The Khmer Rouge not only killed children, but used children as their killers. They made the Nazi Youth look like a bunch of boy scouts.