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WHAT IT MEANS'Genocide - - Race MurderSo|h,Itionrileladn-Pat ter en. Jura-er-i.vs.aitionm-vn.Ionef-id-aysuc-in-icyuldantLrail*ard a vpforfor•en.mdBy BRONISLAW MATECK1I P*»ll»h Economic* Profr**or and Government Official LONDON. Iee. 8 - Crimp without name/'That is how Winston Churchill, in a broadcast made in 1941. described the terrifying accumulation of well-planned barbarities committed by the Nazis on the living bodies of many a European nation and rare.Britain’s war leader, whose unique eloquence failed him when he searched for^a word to convey the suffering of peoples tortured by the German oppressor, finds now the name of this nameless crime in the indictment of the Nazi war leaders —genocide.Count Three of the indictment reads in part: . . They (the defendants » conducted deliberate and systematic genocide ... in order to destroy particular races and classes of people. . . .Genocide, the world coined to fit the crime, seems likely not only to play its part In the Nuernberg trials, but may change the aspects of international law in war and in peace.The creator of the word. Prof. Raphael Lem kin. a noted scholar of International law. formerly a public prosecutor in Poland and now a faculty member at !uke University in North Carolina, says he had no linguistic ambitions in writing the name, that he aimed at a legal and humanitarian concept which. If generally accepted, would mitigate mankind's misery.Why The Name Genocide has two roots — the Greek Renos. nation or race: the Latin cide.’’ a suffix made from caedprp. killing. Put them together and there is genocide— killing a ration or murderer of a na-linn ••like Germanization. Itallanl/.a-tlon or Magvarlzatioii fall to convey physical annihilation and are to be applied only In such special cases where one nation attacks the national pattern of the other.Genocide, on the other hand, means what it says: A murderous attack upon a nation or a group weaker than the oppressor. It does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation—except when accomplished by the mass killing of all its members. It is intended rather to imply a coordinated campaign for the destruction of the essential foundations of the life of national, religious and ethnic groups with the purpose of annihilating the groups themselves.Thus genocide was practiced by the Germans upon Jew*. Gypsies. Poles. Russians, and other Slavs and. to a lesser extent, upon Frenchmen. Belgians and Luxembourger*. How It WorksGenocide is directed against a group as an entity, and the actions involved are directed against Individuals. not in their individual capacity, but as members of such groupsLem kin finds in the Hague Conventions a legal basis for the punishment of genocide in war. More important than punishment, however. he declares, is prevention-effective only when impartial investigators are allowed to study the victims’ cases.Further, he advocates prosecution for genocide in peacetime.World War II. writes the profes-Mir. taught that not only minorities but whole nations and races, if weak may be attacked with a view toward annihilation.
Newspaper Details
Amarillo Sunday News Globe
Amarillo, Texas, US
Sun, Dec 09, 1945
Page 48
Full Page
Clipped by
History M.
OH, USA 03 Feb 2017
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