Genocide justification

On trial for murder, Otto Ohlendorf argued that killing Jewish children was justified because "the children were people who would grow up and surely, being the children of parents who had been killed, they would constitute a danger no smaller than that of the parents".

Genocide justification is the claim that a genocide is excusable, necessary, legal, or even praiseworthy. Genocide justification differs from genocide denial, which is an attempt to reject the occurrence of genocide. Perpetrators often claim that genocide victims presented a serious threat, justifying their actions by stating it was legitimate self-defense of a nation or state. According to modern international criminal law, there can be no excuse for genocide. Genocide is often camouflaged as military activity against combatants, and the distinction between denial and justification is blurred.

Examples of genocide justification include, but are not limited to the Turkish nationalists' claims in regard to the Armenian genocide, the Nazis' justifications behind the Holocaust, anti-Tutsi propaganda during the Rwandan genocide, Serbian nationalists' justifications for the Srebrenica massacre, the Myanmar government's claims about the Rohingya genocide, and most recently the Israeli government and Zionist declarations about the Gaza Genocide, with all cases having sects and actors that simultaneously engage in genocide denial.

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