Answering the question of why an individual or group believes genocide to be a valid solution is difficult, given that different cultural and socioeconomic factors come in to play in each instance of the atrocity of genocide. The short answer is a lust for obtaining and keeping power, but the answer for each society is more nuanced than that.
For Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, paranoia and feelings of hatred for those who were not pure Germans fueled the genocide of millions of Jews, as well as those of other ethnicities and religions. The Nazis were not the first in Europe to have racist or anti-semitic tendencies; they were simply the first at that time to embrace the use of propaganda to influence enough people to make genocide seem like a solution for the betterment of society.
The reasoning was different in Cambodia during the Pol Pot regime. As the Khmer Rouge came into power, a "reeducation" process began in which teachers, engineers, doctors, lawyers and others were forced from their homes to labor in work camps. Those who complained or didn't follow the rules of the new regime were often tortured and killed. This allowed the Khmer Rouge to suppress intelligent thinking among citizens of Cambodia.
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