OM DENNE EPISODE
Hi friends! In this episode, we are talking about genocide. What is genocide? How did the word come about? Why are some genocides recognized and remembered, while others are not? The truth is, we don’t have all the answers—but we can start by turning to the life of Raphael Lemkin.
In our case study, we think alongside Lemkin’s global vision, who first defined “genocide” in print in his 1944 book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. Influenced by the Armenian Genocide and his own family’s mass murder during the Holocaust, Lemkin derived the word genocide from the Greek prefix genos (meaning race or tribe) and the Latin suffix cide (meaning killing). According to Lemkin, “genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and punish.” In the eighty years since its invention, the word genocide has skyrocketed in usage across mass media, popular literature, and everyday speech.
On a more personal note…this episode happens to fall on Kohar’s birthday. Coincidence or synchronicity? As a descendant of genocide survivors still awaiting reparations, she reflects on her entanglement within this history and shares her own family’s survival story. What can we learn from the powerful testimonies of survival, collective refusal, self-determination, and radical love that emerge in the face of genocide?
As always, we close out with our half-baked thoughts—the segment where we share ideas that we haven't fully fleshed out but stand fully behind. You’ll just have to listen to the episode to hear those.Thanks for listening! Please rate and review the podcast on Spotify and Apple Music, follow us @nameitpod, and share the episode with a friend!
Where We Know From:
Lemkin, Raphael, and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Division of International Law. 1944. Axis Rule in Occupied Europe : Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government, Proposals for Redress. Washington [D.C.]: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of International Law.
Lemkin, Raphael. “Genocide.” American Scholar 15, no. 2 (April 1946): 227-230.
"Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 260 A (III), December 9, 1948."
