Philosophy

Raphael Lemkin and Eleanor Roosevelt are two very essential people in our history. Lemkin grew up in a Jewish family and was one of three children born to Joseph and Bella Lemkin. His father was a farmer and his mother a highly intellectual woman who was a painter, linguist, and philosophy student with a large collection of books on literature and history. With his mother as an influence, Lemkin mastered ten languages by the age of 14, including French, Spanish, Hebrew, Yiddish, and Russian. His mother being why he becomes a great asset to our history because he created the word “genocide” as well as the first Human Rights Treaty. Eleanor Roosevelt created the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that became the most important document of all other policies and treaties. She was the wife of former United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt By August of 1945, Lemkin and Roosevelt have both witnessed two world wars. They both laid the groundwork for the now United Nations.
Raphael Lemkin directed his interest in genocide after the Armenian Genocide in Turkey during World War I and after seeing it happen so many times around the world. After his interest increased, Lemkin’s life changed and he petitioned for an intercontinental law that he hoped it to prevent any type of genocide or mass murder against humanity. In the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide recognized by Lemkin 19 articles, clarify the guidelines as to what the Contracting Parties confirm that genocide is. The first four articles caught my attention the most because it specifies what kind of punishment there is for the individuals that commit genocide. Article two defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a nationality, ethnic, or religious group” (Power, pg. 62-63). This specific article, describes the horrendous intentions of Adolf Hitler and how many innocent lives were lost because of his intent to kill people that