Title: Raphael Lemkin and the Genocide Convention | Facing History and Ourselves
Headings: Raphael Lemkin and the Genocide Convention
Raphael Lemkin and the Genocide Convention
Connection Questions
Stay Connected With Us

Content: 230. 6 : “ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide ,” Prevent Genocide International, accessed October 3, 2005. Connection Questions
Raphael Lemkin spoke of the importance of envisaging “future Hitlers.” What did he mean? Why might it have been important to imagine “future Hitlers” even when leaders were still trying to address the crimes of the Nazis? Numerous words that described mass killings were available to Lemkin, including “crimes against humanity,” “slaughter,” “race murder,” and others. He rejected all of them in favor of a word he made up himself. Does the word genocide convey something the other terms do not? When a people is destroyed, what is lost in addition to their lives?