Genocide is an action that is not unique to a specific set of circumstances. He knows no limits of time or place. From thousands of years to the present day and on every civilized continent, entire groups of people have been eradicated. The current definition of genocide was established by the United Nations in 1948: “(a) Killing members of a group; b) Cause serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately subjecting the group to conditions of existence likely to bring about its total or partial physical destruction; d) Impose measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children from one group to another group” “with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”. But how can crimes of this magnitude occur? Attempting to eradicate an entire group of people, successfully or not, is a formidable feat. There must be equally considerable influences at work, such as justification through denial and mitigation, established racism and discrimination, group polarization, and the psychological effect of schadenfreude. These influences can be seen in Art Spiegelman's comic strip, Maus: A Survivor's Tale, which depicts the experiences of Art's father, Vladek, through the prototypical example of genocide, the Holocaust. The history of genocides, and in particular complete genocides, carries an inherent dimension. subjectivity due to the lack of victims to give their point of view and the position of power over history that the perpetrators assume. This power allows for advantages that can be used to erase the genocide from history or, if complete erasure is impossible, mitigate the degree of crimes and place the blame on the middle of paper...... Colin Wayne Lixivier. “Why Neighbors Don't Stop the Murders: The Role of Group Schadenfreude.” » Explaining the breakdown of ethnic relations: why neighbors kill. Ed. Victoria E. Esses and Richard A. Vernon. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2008. Print.5. Spiegelmann, Art. Maus: the story of a survivor. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986. Print.6. Staub, E. “The Psychology of Heroic Spectators, Perpetrators, and Helpers.” The psychology of good and evil: why children, adults, and groups help and harm others. New York: Cambridge, 2003. web. February 28, 2014.7. Sunstein, Cass R. “The Law of Group Polarization.” University of Chicago Law School, John M. Olin Law & Economics Working Paper No. 91 (1999): Web. February 28, 2014.8. United Nations General Assembly. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Paris, December 9, 1948. Place de l’Histoire. Internet. February 28. 2014.