Genocide is defined as the systematic extermination of a racial, ethnic, religious, or national group by government. Democide was defined by Professor R.J. Rummel as the political killing of people by their own government. The terms though are related by infamy and cruelty, and at times are difficult to differentiate. The Nazis, for example, conducted genocide against the Jews (who had lost their German citizenship), as well as democide against their own disabled German citizens (“useless eaters”) via the Nazi euthanasia programs before the war.
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