 The Simele massacre inspired Raphael Lemkin to create the concept of genocide . In 1933 , Lemkin made a presentation to the Legal Council of the League of Nations conference on international criminal law in Madrid , for which he prepared an essay on the Crime of Barbarity as a crime against international law . The concept of the " crime of barbarity " evolved into the idea of genocide , and was based on the Simele massacre and the Armenian Genocide , later to include the Jewish Holocaust . 
