Genocide' Spent His Life Trying to Stop It by NPR Staff 2014
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Name: Class: The Man Who Coined 'Genocide' Spent His Life Trying To Stop It By NPR Staff 2014 Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959) was a Polish lawyer of Jewish descent who devised the term “genocide” to describe the deliberate killing of a large group of people based on their ethnicity, race, religion, or nationality. While genocide is a widely accepted term today, and a punishable crime, this wasn’t always the case. This informational text discusses the work of Lemkin, and references a documentary that provides further information regarding Lemkin and others that continue to fight to end genocide. As you read, take note of what experiences contributed to Raphael Lemkin’s interest in the issue of genocide. [1] Raphael Lemkin is the Polish lawyer and linguist who coined1 the term “genocide” — and dedicated his life to making genocide recognized as a crime. The world has grown far too familiar with genocide; as mass killings have claimed countless lives, the word has become ingrained into our vocabularies. But the term didn’t exist until 1943, when Polish "The cemetery at the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial and Cemetery lawyer Raphael Lemkin coined it — pairing the to Genocide Victims" by Michael Büker is licensed under CC BY-SA Greek “genos,” meaning race or family, with the 3.0. Latin “-cidere,” for killing. Lemkin, who witnessed the massacres of the early 20th century, spent his life campaigning to make the world acknowledge and prosecute2 the crime. A new documentary, Watchers of the Sky, tells his story. Once he’d established the word, Lemkin worked persistently in the then-newly-formed United Nations, hounding delegates to discuss his new word and acknowledge the issue. [5] “This was a man who didn’t speak English very well, he didn’t represent a country, he didn’t represent an institution, he barely had a home, he barely had food — and yet he was there every day lobbying3 to the delegates and the ambassadors to make this a crime,” says Edet Belzberg, director of the film. Lemkin was born in Poland in 1900, and was instilled with a sense of justice at a very young age. As a teenager, he paid close attention to the massacre of the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire in 1915. 1. Coin (verb): to invent or devise a new word or phrase 2. Prosecute (verb): to bring a legal action against for punishment for a crime 3. to seek to influence a politician or public official on an issue 1 He came across the story of Soghomon Tehlirian, who saw his whole family killed, but survived. Tehlirian later killed one of the masterminds of the massacre, Talaat Pasha, who was living freely. Tehlirian was arrested and went on trial. “Lemkin read about this and at a young age he said to himself, ‘Why is the killing of an individual a greater crime than the killing of millions?’” Belzberg explains. “And that really set him on his path, and he decided at that age that he was going to be the person who would develop and create the law to stop this from happening again.” At first, Belzberg says, people saw him as a pest. They hoped he would give up his preoccupation with mass killings. Then Lemkin — who was of Jewish descent — lost 49 members of his family to the Holocaust, and his determination grew even stronger. [10] Lemkin continued to fight genocide for his entire life. He died of a heart attack at the age of 59, while on his way to yet another meeting. Fewer than a dozen people attended his funeral. Watchers of the Sky weaves Lemkin’s story — with quotes from his notes and journals — with stories of modern conflicts in Rwanda and Darfur, Sudan. The documentary includes interviews with people who continue the crusade4 against genocide, like Samantha Power, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and Luis Moreno Ocampo, the first Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. Belzberg worked from 800 hours of footage and 5,000 stills to tell a story that spans a century. “That was the biggest challenge,” Belzberg says: “to interweave in a coherent and lyrical way that people can be taken from one story to the next and not be fatigued, but be enriched by it.” Interview Highlights On Lemkin’s belief in the importance of finding a word for the crime He believed that if he could find the right word, if he could find the word that would unite people, that would ignite people to come together to stop these crimes. He was very good at languages — he spoke about seven languages — and he thought that there wasn’t a word that described the horror of this crime. And so he set off on a path to do that. On Lemkin’s personal experience with genocide as a Polish Jew Forty-nine members of his family were killed in the Holocaust. He tried, of course, to persuade his family to leave with him in 1939 — he knew what was coming and he tried to persuade his family to go with him to America. And they said they would be fine. And although he was thinking about these crimes before, after that, he was thinking, my God, there has to be something that ... would outrage people in the same way that he was outraged by this. 4. Crusade (verb): to lead or take part in an energetic and organized campaign concerning a social, political, or religious issue 2 On Lemkin’s work during and after the Nuremberg trials5 [15] After having coined this word, he went to Nuremberg ... to try and get them to use this word. Genocide was not a crime at that time ... they couldn’t prosecute for genocide. ... That left Lemkin completely heartbroken ... He understood that there was a flaw in what was happening, that had Hitler not invaded Poland and had he killed all the Jews in Germany, at that time, he wouldn’t have been committing a crime that could have been prosecuted by Nuremberg. That’s what really enraged Lemkin: He felt that a leader shouldn’t have to cross a border in order to be held accountable for their crimes. He felt that crimes against humanity6 and war crimes7 weren’t enough and so he continued his cause, and he then took it to the United Nations and he continued lobbying the leaders there to make this an international crime. And he continued until his death. ©2014 National Public Radio, Inc. News report titled “The Man Who Coined ‘Genocide’ Spent His Life Trying To Stop It” was originally broadcast on All Things Considered on October 18, 2014, and is used with the permission of NRP. Any unauthorized duplication is strictly prohibited. 5. The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military court hearings held by the Allied forces after World War II that prosecuted prominent leaders of Nazi Germany. 6. certain acts that are deliberately committed as part of a widespread attack directed against any civilian population or an identifiable part of the population 7. an action carried out during war that violates accepted international rules of war 3 Text-Dependent Questions Directions: For the following questions, choose the best answer or respond in complete sentences. 1. PART A: Which statement best identifies the central idea of the text? A. While Lemkin struggled to make genocide a recognized crime in his early life, the term was readily accepted for the trials following the Holocaust. B. While Lemkin created the term “genocide” independently, he received a large amount of support when presenting it as a crime that should be punishable. C. The idea of genocide is widely accepted today, but it took an incredible amount of hard work from Lemkin to create the term and convince others to make it a punishable offense. D. It wasn’t until Lemkin had personal experiences with genocide that he became interested in ensuring that the act was a punishable crime. 2. PART B: Which section of the text best supports the answer to Part A? A. “But the term didn’t exist until 1943, when Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin coined it — pairing the Greek ‘genos,’ meaning race or family, with the Latin ‘-cidere,’ for killing.” (Paragraph 3) B. “‘And that really set him on his path, and he decided at that age that he was going to be the person who would develop and create the law to stop this from happening again.’” (Paragraph 8) C. “The documentary includes interviews with people who continue the crusade against genocide, like Samantha Power, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and Luis Moreno Ocampo, the first Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.” (Paragraph 11) D. “Forty-nine members of his family were killed in the Holocaust. He tried, of course, to persuade his family to leave with him in 1939 — he knew what was coming and he tried to persuade his family to go with him to America.” (Paragraph 14) 3. PART A: What is the author’s purpose in this text? A. to prove that genocide continues to be a serious problem today, one in need of people’s attention B. to inform the readers about the accomplishments of Raphael Lemkin and direct them to where they can learn more C. to criticize the United Nations for not acknowledging the term “genocide” or making it a punishable crime sooner D. to show how things could have been different if the world had listened to Raphael Lemkin sooner 4 4. PART B: Which detail from the text best supports the answer to Part A? A.