The Nazis and people who agreed with them wanted to protect the German community from "inferior" races. Are there other examples in history or literature in which groups of people murdered innocent people in the name of "protecting" themselves? How are these examples similar to or different from the Holocaust?

There are many examples of genocides in history which are done on similar lines of protecting the race like the Armenian Genocide.

Explanation:

The Armenian people are a persecuted minority in Eastern Europe before World War 1 and started facing undue hate crimes during the war due to many reasons.

The ottoman expire ad an irrational hatred for them and oftentimes would put the Armenians in jails or get killed.

During the war, the rhetoric was to blame the Armenians for the precarious state of the empire.

In reality the empire was weak and losing the war and wanted an excuse to show that they are not losing because of their incompetence.