Holocaust

The word Holocaust is derived from the Ancient Greek ‘holokauston’ (holos “completely” and kaustos “sacrificial offering”), then Late-Latin ‘Holocaustum’ (whole burnt offering), a variation of the Hebrew word ?olah’ (completely burnt sacrifice offered to God.)

The word Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people in whole or in part. The term was coined in 1944 by Polish-Jewish descent jurist and author Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959).

Even before the Second World War, both words were sometimes used to describe the death of a large group of people, but since 1945, Holocaust has become almost synonymous with the genocide of European Jews during the Second World War.

It is defined in (Article 2) of the 'Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide' (CPPCG) adopted by the UN General Assembly (9 December 1948) and came into effect (12 January 1951) under (Resolution 260 (III)).

According to "Genocide Watch" 156 fourth world nations have suffered genocide since 1945.

The "Political Instability Task Force" estimates that 43 genocides occurred between 1956 and 2016, resulting in about 50 million deaths.

Between 1989 and 2022, the "United States Department of State" has formally recognized 8 genocides: Bosnia (1993); Rwanda (1994); Iraq (1995); Darfur (2004), and areas under the control of ISIS (2016 and 2017).

The UNHCR estimated that by May 2024, more than 120 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations. This includes: 43.4 million refugees.

Consider how many genocides have occurred since the 1948 Convention and its ratification in 1951.

Now consider that only three have been legally recognized and led to trials under the convention: 1). Rwanda (1994), 2). Bosnia and the Srebrenica massacre (1995), and 3). Cambodia under the Pol Pot regime (1975-9).

To-date Genocide is widely considered to be the epitome of human evil and impunity…

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Food for thought!