ansing that has been and still is happening in Kosovo, in the former Yugoslavia. Both genocides were driven by hatred towards a particular ethnic group. Both the Serbs and the Nazi's singled out their victims because of their ethnic background. The Jews and Muslim ethnic Albanians were specifically targeted for annihilation. The Serbs and the Nazi's both committed atrocities against their victims.Throughout history, the Balkans, a small area in Southern Europe has been a place of hate, fear and atrocity (Vesilind, 1). The Balkans are constantly riven by 6centuries old ethnic and religious hatreds. The violence that exists in the former Yugoslavia has many causes. The recent crises in Kosovo and Bosnia are caused by civil wars between the Serbs, Croats and Muslim Albanians. The Muslims are Slavs who converted to Islam. The Serbs are Eastern Orthodox Christians and the Croats are Roman Catholics. These groups of people simply can't live together (Anderson, 26). Under rule of the Ottoman Empire, the people of the former Yugoslavia all shared a common culture (Vickers, 12). Kosovo is known as the cradle to the Serbian nation. The Serbs sacrificed thousands of men in the last stand against the Ottomans in 1389. Since that time, all Serbs are born with an instinctive devotion to Kosovo (Vickers, 12). Both Serbs and Albanians regard Kosovo as their source of national and cultural identity. This fuels the Kosovo crisis today (Vickers, 13). Yugoslavia was a patchwork nation, remains of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires. Ethnic groups formed uneasy alliances under the Communist regime of Marshal Tito (Altman, 87). Tito ran a strict communist form of government. He sealed the borders, outlawed religion, adopted Stalin's plan of collectivized farming, banned private property and imposed total control over his people through the use of his secret police (Hammer, 3). After World War II, Tito made no attempt to modernize or ind...
