The_Genocide_In_Rwanda

The Genocide In Rwanda The Genocide in Rwanda “Things whose existence is not morally comprehensible cannot exist” Primo Levi’s observation of the Jewish Holocaust. The Polish author Raphael Lemkin was the first to coin the phrase ‘genocide’. Lemkin was working as the Polish advisor to the United States War Ministry at the time. He took the word from the Greek phrase for race “genos” and the Latin suffix “cide” which means to kill. Lemkin gave the word the following definition: Genocide- the destruction of a nation or an ethnic group through the existence of a coordinated plan, aimed at total extermination, to be put into effect against individuals chosen as victims purely, simply and exclusively because they are members of the target group (Destexhe, 3). Of course he was referring to the atrocities that he was witnessing first hand committed against the Jews by the Germans during the Second World War. A new word had to be created to describe a crime like none other. Genocide was unique because of the motivation behind it (Destexhe, 2). Over 3 million Jewish people were killed by Hitler’s Nazi Germany between 1939 and 1945. Jews were the specific targets of Hitler’s malice. tutsis, genocide, rwanda, destexhe, been, hutus, hutu, tutsi, government, un, rpf, people, over, killed, first, country, rwandan, jews, definition, belgian, became, armed, world, word, war, two, troops, took, point, one, number, million, mass, every