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When historians talk about 
the atrocities of the 20th century,

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we often think of those that took place
during and between the two World Wars.

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Along with the Armenian genocide 
in modern-day Turkey,

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the Rape of Nanking in China,

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and Kristallnacht in Germany,

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another horrific ethnic cleansing campaign

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occurred on an island between 
the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea.

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The roots of this conflict 
go back to 1492,

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when Christopher Columbus stumbled 
onto the Caribbean island

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that would come to be named Hispaniola,
launching a wave of European colonization.

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The island’s Taíno natives were decimated 
by violence and disease

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and the Europeans imported large numbers
of enslaved Africans

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to toil in profitable sugar plantations.

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By 1777, the island had become divided

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between a French-controlled West 
and a Spanish-controlled East.

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A mass slave revolt won Haiti 
its independence from France in 1804

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and it became the world’s 
first black republic.

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But the new nation paid dearly,

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shut out of the world economy and 
saddled with debt by its former masters.

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Meanwhile, the Dominican Republic 
would declare independence

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by first overthrowing Haitian rule 
of eastern Hispaniola

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and later Spanish 
and American colonialism.

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Despite the long and collaborative history
shared by these two countries,

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many Dominican elites saw Haiti 
as a racial threat

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that imperiled political and commercial
relations with white western nations.

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In the years following World War I,

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the United States occupied 
both parts of the island.

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It did so to secure its power 
in the Western hemisphere

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by destroying local opposition 
and installing US-friendly governments.

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The brutal and racist nature 
of the US occupation,

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particularly along the remote
Dominican-Haitian border,

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laid the foundation for bigger atrocities 
after its withdrawal.

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In 1930, liberal Dominican president 
Horacio Vásquez

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was overthrown by the chief of his army, 
Rafael Trujillo.

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Despite being a quarter Haitian himself,

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Trujillo saw the presence of a bicultural 
Haitian and Dominican borderland

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as both a threat to his power

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and an escape route 
for political revolutionaries.

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In a chilling speech on October 2, 1937,

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he left no doubt about his intentions 
for the region.

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Claiming to be protecting Dominican
farmers from theft and incursion,

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Trujillo announced the killing 
of 300 Haitians along the border

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and promised that this so-called "remedy" 
would continue.

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Over the next few weeks, 
the Dominican military,

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acting on Trujillo’s orders,

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murdered thousands of Haitian men 
and women,

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and even their Dominican-born children.

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The military targeted black Haitians,

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even though many Dominicans themselves 
were also dark-skinned.

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Some accounts say that to distinguish
the residents

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of one country from the other,

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the killers forced their victims 
to say the Spanish word for parsley.

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Dominicans pronounce it perejil, 
with a trilled Spanish "r."

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The primary Haitian language, however,
is Kreyol, which doesn’t use a trilled r.

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So if people struggled to say perejil,

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they were judged to be Haitian 
and immediately killed.

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Yet recent scholarship suggests 
that tests like this

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weren’t the sole factor used to determine
who would be murdered,

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especially because many of the border 
residents were bilingual.

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The Dominican government censored
any news of the massacre,

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while bodies were thrown in ravines,

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dumped in rivers,

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or burned to dispose of the evidence.

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This is why no one knows exactly 
how many people were murdered,

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though contemporary estimates 
range from about 4,000 to 15,000.

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Yet the extent of the carnage 
was clear to many observers.

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As the US Ambassador to 
the Dominican Republic at the time noted,

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“The entire northwest of the frontier
on the Dajabón side

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is absolutely devoid of Haitians.

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Those not slain either fled across the
frontier or are still hiding in the bush.”

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The government tried 
to disclaim responsibility

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and blame the killings 
on vigilante civilians,

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but Trujillo was condemned 
internationally.

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Eventually, the Dominican government

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was forced to pay only $525,000 
in reparations to Haiti,

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but due to corrupt bureaucracy,

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barely any of these funds reached 
survivors or their families.

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Neither Trujillo nor anyone 
in his government

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was ever punished for this crime 
against humanity.

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The legacy of the massacre remains 
a source of tension

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between the two countries.

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Activists on both sides of the border 
have tried to heal the wounds of the past.

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But the Dominican state has done little, 
if anything,

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to officially commemorate 
the massacre or its victims.

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Meanwhile, the memory of the Haitian
massacre remains a chilling reminder

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of how power-hungry leaders
can manipulate people

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into turning against 
their lifelong neighbors.