Definitions and concepts of genocide: Lemkin and the concept of genocide
Education
Dr. Raphael Lemkin (19001959) coined the word genocide and was the motivating force behind the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (commonly referred to as the Genocide Convention). He is also the scholarly parent of the emerging field of Genocide studies, an outgrowth and expansion of the earlier field of Holocaust studies. Coupled with Lemkins escape during World War II and the tragedy of the Holocaust, -what impact did his studies have upon him and his lifes work coupled with his own lived experiences? What role did his filtered memory of those events have upon his thinking? To what degree did they shape his commitment to international law as the vehicle to eliminate the scourge of genocide? These and other questions are explored, including the authors own thinking vis-à-vis the relationship between genocide and memory.
