Raphael Lemkin

1900–1959 (age 59)

Lawyer/Scholar

Biography

Raphael Lemkin was a Polish-born lawyer whose scholarship on mass atrocities led him to coin the word “genocide” while cataloging the crimes of the Nazi regime in his 1944 book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe.

He devoted the remainder of his life to persuading the United Nations to adopt a Genocide Convention, tirelessly lobbying diplomats, drafting legal language, and inspiring future human rights advocates who continue his work.

Honored posthumously across the globe, Lemkin’s name remains synonymous with the fight to prevent and punish the destruction of entire peoples, a cause that keeps his memory alive at Mount Hebron Cemetery.

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