The attempt to kill all the members of a community, whether race, religion or class. It is recognised as a crime by the United Nations and can be prosecuted in the courts of several countries, and in the International Criminal Court at the Hague in the Netherlands.

• 20th century examples were: The Ottoman Turks' attempt to kill the Armenians within the Ottoman Empire (largely successful);
• The German Nazis' attempt to kill all the Jews in Europe, or those parts which they controlled. Largely successful.
• The Hutu attempt to kill all the Tutsis in Rwanda. Thousands died.
• The followers of Pol Pot who attempted to kill all the educated in Cambodia.

• Stalin's massacres during his whole period in office but especially during the Great Purge. (see USSR and Stalinism.)

  See also Ethnic cleansing