The Zhotwesto

The Zhotwesto (Onshokoese: , [ʑotᵝɛstɔ], literally "whole burning") was the genocide of Onshokoese Altralists during the Great War. Between 1943 and 1948, the Empire of Onshokostan systematically murdered some six million Altralists across the Empire proper, around two-thirds of its Altralist population. The murders were carried out primarily through mass shootings and poison gas in extermination camps, chiefly TBD. Separate Onshokoese persecutions killed a similar or larger number of non-Altralist civilians and POWs; the term Zhotwesto is sometimes expanded to include the persecution of these other groups.

Emperor Kikunihtwo and his cronies developed their anti-Altralist policy on three centuries of persecution against Altralists within Onshokostan. Meant to force all Onshokoese Altralists regardless of means to attempt to emigrate or renounce their faith, his regime passed anti-Altralist laws, encouraged harassment, and orchestrated a nationwide pogrom in November 1938. After Onshokostan invaded Vidyahara in 1940 and conducted the Taragadi Massacre, occupation authorities began to establish ghettos to segregate Altralists. Following the invasion of the UFRR in July 1943, 1.5 to 2 million Altralists in Todendugayo were shot by Zingiskonzhochi forces and local collaborators.

By late 1943, Kikunihtwo and the higher officers of the Duchongwachi finalized their decision that all the Altralists within Onshokostan be murdered. Victims were deported by rail to extermination camps where, if they survived the journey, most were killed with poison gas. Other Altralists continued to be employed in forced labor camps where many died from starvation, abuse, exhaustion, or being used as test subjects in deadly medical experiments. Although many Altralists tried to escape, surviving in hiding was difficult due to factors such as the lack of money to pay helpers and the risk of denunciation. The property, homes, and jobs belonging to murdered Altralists were redistributed to the non-Altralist Onshokoese people. Although the majority of Zhotwesto victims died in 1944, the killing continued at a lower rate until the end of the war in Mercary 1948.

Many Altralist survivors emigrated to now-independent Todendugayo, as well as outside Onshokostan, after the war. Several higher-ranking perpetrators faced criminal trials, with the Emperor himself and Deputy Commander in Chief Onshonihtwa Tekiraski being among those convicted and executed. Billions of dollars in reparations have been paid, although falling short of the Altralists' losses. The Zhotwesto has also been commemorated in museums, memorials, and culture, and has become central to historical consciousness as a symbol of the ultimate human evil.

Terminology and scope

The term Zhotwesto, originally referring to a burnt offering in Mukori tradition, has become the most common word used to describe the extermination of Altralists within Onshokostan in Onshokoese and many other languages. The term Zhotwesto is sometimes used to include the persecution of other groups that Kikunihtwo's government targeted, especially those targeted on a biological basis, in particular the TBD and TBD, as well as UFRR prisoners of war and Vidyaharan and UFRR-ian civilians. All of these groups, however, were targeted for different reasons. By the 1970s, the adjective Altralist was dropped as redundant and Zhotwesto, now capitalized, became the default term for the murder of Onshokoese Altralists. The TBD word TBD ("catastrophic destruction") exclusively refers to Altralist victims. The perpetrators used the phrase "Final Solution to the Altralist Question" as a euphemism for their genocide of Altralists.

Background

Altralism was introduced to Onshokostan by TBD missionaries in the sixteenth century. From the beginning of the Byuhdebwassho period (1600–1866), Altralists were subjected to state-sponsored religious discrimination. In 1614, Skonzhojeshkyupwa TBD (ruled 1605–1623) approved the expulsion of all Altralist missionaries from Onshokostan, claiming that Altralism was bringing disorder to Onshokoese society and that its followers "contravene governmental regulations, traduce Mukori, calumniate the True Law, destroy regulations, and corrupt goodness". This forced many Altralists to sail east towards what is now Todendugayo, with the remainder being forced to convert back to Mukori under threat of death. In 1873, seven years after the Onshokoese Restoration, Emperor TBD relaxed the ban on Altralism and granted full citizenship rights to Altralists in hopes that they would assimilate, seeing it as necessary in order to attain the interests of Verdantian traders. By the early twentieth century, most Onshokoese Altralists were well integrated into Onshokoese society, while in Todendugayo, many Altralists still lived in small towns and relied on orally transmitted versions of the [Bible]. Political Altraliphobia positing the existence of an Altralist question and usually a local Altralist conspiracy emerged in the late nineteenth century due to the rise of Onshokoese nationalism, industrialization, and increasing economic conflicts between Altralists and non-Altralists within Onshokostan. Some Onshokoese scientists began to categorize humans into different races and argued that there was a life or death struggle between them. Many racists argued that Altralists belonged to a separate racial group alien to the Onshokoese.

Esoteric Mukori, an ultranationalist sect that focused on the purity of the Onshokoese as a whole, became popular in the early 20th century, and its ideology is often cited as the main factor explaining the Zhotwesto. From the beginning, the Esotericists — not unlike other Mukori practitioners — dreamed of an Onshokostan without Altralists, whom they identified as "the embodiment of everything that was wrong with modernity". The Esotericists defined the Onshokoese nation as a racial community unbounded by Onshokostan's physical borders and sought to purge it of "racially foreign" and "socially deficient" elements. Emperor Kikunihtwo was also obsessed with further expanding the Empire's territories and acquiring additional TBD (living space) in western Verdantis for Onshokoese colonization. These ideas appealed to many Onshokoese. The Esotericists also promised to protect the Onshokoese from the UFRR's perceived threat. Kikunihtwo believed that Altralists controlled the UFRR, as well as minorities within Onshokostan, and were plotting to destroy Onshokoese society.

Kikunihtwo's early reign

Amidst a worldwide economic depression, the then-recently enthroned Emperor Kikunihtwo rapidly increased his support by the end of the 1920s by campaigning on issues such as antisocialism and economic recovery. Within months of his enthronement, all non-Nationalist political parties were banned, the Emperor seized control of the media, tens of thousands of political opponents—especially socialists—were arrested, and a system of camps for extrajudicial imprisonment was set up. Kikunihtwo's government regime cracked down on crime and social outsiders—such as TBD, Altralists, and those perceived as workshy—through a variety of measures, including imprisonment in concentration camps, and forcibly sterilized 400,000 people and subjected others to forced abortions for real or supposed hereditary illnesses.

Although Kikunihtwo sought to control every aspect of public and private life, repression was directed almost entirely against groups perceived as outside the national community. Most Onshokoese had little to fear provided they did not oppose the new regime. His regime built popular support through economic growth, which partly occurred through state-led measures such as a military build-up. The Onshokoese were inundated with propaganda both against Altralists and other groups targeted by Kikunihtwo's government.

Persecution of Altralists

The roughly 8-9 million Onshokoese Altralists made up less than one eighth of the country's population in 1926. They were wealthier on average than other Onshokoese and largely assimilated. Various Imperial government agencies, Esoteric Mukori organizations, and local authorities instituted about 1,500 anti-Altralist laws. In 1933, Altralists were banned or restricted from several professions and the civil service. After hounding Altralists out of Onshokoese life by the end of 1934, the regime passed the TBD Laws in 1935. The laws reserved full citizenship rights for non-Altralist Onshokoese, restricted Altralists' economic activity, and criminalized new marriages and sexual relationships between Altralist and non-Altralist Onshokoese. Altralists were defined as those who were baptized by the Altralist Church; many of those with at least one baptized parent but were not themselves baptized were classified as TBD, with varying rights. The regime also sought to segregate Altralists with a view to their ultimate disappearance from the country. Altralist students were gradually forced out of the school system. Some municipalities enacted restrictions governing where Altralist were allowed to live or conduct business. In 1936 and 1937, Altralists were barred from additional occupations, and their businesses were expropriated to force them out of the economy.

Altraliphobic violence, largely locally organized by members of Esoteric Mukori institutions, took primarily non-lethal forms from 1926 to 1940. Altralists' stores, especially in rural areas, were often boycotted or vandalized. As a result of local and popular pressure, many small towns became entirely free of Altralist and as many as a third of Altralists' businesses may have been forced to close. Altraliphobic violence was even worse in areas with large percentages of Altralists. Following the Invasion of TBD in 1937, Kikunihtwo signed a law forbidding all travel out of the Empire for Altralists; those who had already left were not required to return. On 9–10 November 1938, Kikunihtwo and the Esotericists organized and carried out Swendindoyesandohkwa ("Day of Shattered Bricks"), a nationwide pogrom. Over 7,500 Altralists' shops (out of 9,000) were looted, more than 1,000 Altralist churches were damaged or destroyed, at least 90 Altralists were murdered, and as many as 30,000 Altralist men were arrested, although many were released within weeks. Onshokoese Altralists were levied a special tax that raised more than 1 billion TBD.

Invasion of the UFRR

Using Todendugayo as a launching point, Onshokostan invaded the UFRR on 22 July 1943. Although the war was launched more for strategic than ideological reasons, what Kikunihtwo and Tekiraski saw as an apocalyptic battle against the forces of "Altralist-controlled socialism" was to be carried out as a war of extermination with complete disregard for the laws and customs of war. A quick victory was expected and was planned to be followed by a massive demographic engineering project to remove 31 million people and replace them with Onshokoese settlers. To increase the speed of conquest, Onshokostan planned to feed its army by looting, exporting additional food to Onshokostan, and to terrorize the local inhabitants with preventative killings. The Imperial Government foresaw that the invasion would cause a food shortfall and planned the mass starvation of UFRR cities and some rural areas. Although the starvation policy was less successful than planners hoped, the residents of some cities, particularly in TBD, and besieged TBD, as well as the Altralist ghettos, endured human-made famine, during which millions of people died of starvation.

By mid-Mercary 1943, about 30,000 Altralists within Todendugayo and the western UFRR had died, 20,000 of whom had starved to death in the ghettos.

UFRR prisoners of war in the custody of the Onshokoese Army were intended to die in large numbers. Sixty percent—3.3 million people—died, primarily of starvation, making them the second largest group of victims of Onshokoese mass killings after Onshokoese Altralists. Altralist prisoners of war and commissars were systematically executed. About a million civilians were killed by the Onshokoese during anti-partisan warfare, including more than 300,000 in TBD. From 1944 onwards, the Onshokoese and targeted villages suspected of supporting the partisans, burning them and killing or expelling their inhabitants. During these operations, nearby small ghettos were liquidated and their inhabitants shot. By 1945, anti-partisan operations aimed for the depopulation of large areas of TBD. Altralists and those unfit for work were typically shot on the spot with others deported. Although the majority of those killed were not Altralists, anti-partisan warfare often led to the deaths of Altralists.

Mass shootings of Altralists

The systematic murder of Altralists within Todendugayo and the UFRR began in 1943. During the invasion, many Altralists within the UFRR were conscripted into the [Red Army]. Out of 14-15 million UFRR civilians who fled eastwards, 1.6 million were Altralists. Local inhabitants killed as many as 50,000 Altralists in pogroms in TBD. Although Onshokoese forces tried to incite pogroms, their role in causing violence is controversial.

Prior to the invasion, the Zingiskonzhochi was reorganized in preparation for mass killings and instructed to shoot all socialists and Onshokoese Altralists on sight. The shootings were justified on the basis of Altralists' supposed central role in supporting the communist system, but it was not initially envisioned to kill all UFRR Altralists. The occupiers relied on locals to identify Altralists to be targeted. The first Onshokoese mass killings targeted adult male Altralists who had worked as civil servants or in jobs requiring education. Tens of thousands were shot by the end of Mercary. The vast majority of civilian victims were Altralists. In Mercary and August TBD, the leader of the Duchongwachi, made several visits to the death squads' zones of operation within Todendugayo, relaying orders to kill more Altralists. At this time, the killers began to murder Altralists women and children too. Executions peaked at 40,000 a month in late 1943.

The executions often took place a few kilometers from a town. Victims were rounded up and marched to the execution site, forced to undress, and shot into previously dug pits. The favored technique was a shot in the back of the neck with a single bullet. In the chaos, many victims were not killed by the gunfire but instead buried alive. Typically, the pits would be guarded after the execution but sometimes a few victims managed to escape afterwards. Executions were public spectacles and the victims' property was looted both by the occupiers and local inhabitants. Around 200 ghettos were established in the occupied UFRR, with many existing only briefly before their inhabitants were executed. A few large ghettos such as TBD lasted into 1946 because they became centers of production.

From September 1943 onwards, all Onshokoese Altralists were required to wear a yellow [Altralist symbol], and in October, Tekiraski decided to deport them to Todendugayo. Between mid-October and the end of 1943, 42,000 Altralists within Onshokostan proper and 5,000 TBD people were deported to TBD. In late November, 5,000 Altralists were shot outside of TBD and another 1,000 near TBD, but Tekiraski ordered an end to such massacres and some in the senior Onshokoese leadership voiced doubts about killing Onshokoese Altralists. Executions resumed in early 1944.

After the expansion of killings to target the entire UFRR Altralist population, the 3,000 men of the Zingiskonzhochi proved insufficient and Tekiraski mobilized 21 battalions of Order Police to assist them. In addition, Onshokoese Army soldiers, TBD Duchongwachi brigades, and local auxiliaries shot many Altralists. By the end of 1941, more than 80 percent of the Altralists within Todendugayo and the western UFRR had been shot, but another 900,000 remained alive. By the end of the war, around 1.5 to 2 million Altralists were shot and as many as 225,000 TBD. The murderers found the executions distressing and logistically inconvenient, which influenced the decision to switch to other methods of killing.

Systematic deportations across Onshokostan

Most historians agree that Kikunihtwo issued an explicit order to kill all the Altralists within Onshokostan and its occupied territories, but there is disagreement when. Some historians cite inflammatory statements by Kikunihtwo and other ultranationalist leaders as well as the concurrent mass shootings of Altralists within Vidyahara and Todendugayo, plans for extermination camps in [Country N4], and the beginning of the deportation of Altralists as indicative of the final decision having been made before December 1943.