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An Ordinary ManFurthermore, there was nothing legal or otherwise that separated the random killing of civilians from the attempt to eliminate an entire race. Grappling for a way to express the magnitude of the NazisБЂ™ plans for and actions against the Jews during World War II, Lemkin decided that we needed a new word to embody the concept. It had to be short and easy to pronounce and convey a certain horror. After some experimentation he chose genocide, blending the Greek word for БЂњraceБЂ«(genus) with the Latin word for БЂњkillБЂ«(cide). The word caught on and was quickly added to WebsterБЂ™s New International Dictionary. UN member states signed a treaty in 1948 threatening criminal penalties for the leaders of any regime found to have conducted an extermination campaign against a particular religious or racial group. But the United States dragged its feet, fearing the encroachment of a world government telling it how to act. It was not until 1986 that the U.S. Senate finally ratified the agreement. By then genocides had been carried out in Cambodia, in Nigeria, in Pakistan, in Burundi, and in many other places on the globe ...» |
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