Skip to main content

Search the Holocaust Encyclopedia

Trending keywords:
A cemetery in Nyanza-Rebero, Rwanda, where genocide victims are buried.
< Browse all tags

genocide

The term "genocide" did not exist before 1944. It is a very specific term, referring to violent crimes committed against groups with the intent to destroy the existence of the group. 

More information about this image

All Content Tagged 'genocide'

Ottoman military forces march Armenian men from Kharput to an execution site outside the city. Kharput, Ottoman Empire, March 1915-June 1915. [Courtesy of the Armenian National Institute.]
Article
The Armenian Genocide (1915-16): Overview
Nyanza is a site near Kigali, Rwanda, where several thousand people were executed after being marched from the Belgian Technical School in April 1994. At the school, they had been under the protection of UN peacekeepers until the soldiers were recalled to the airport to help evacuate expatriates. This is one of the few sites where victims had the honor of individual burial; most often they were buried together in large graves. Photograph taken on November 24, 2007. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Article
The Rwanda Genocide
The United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court opened a five week session on June 15, 1998, in Rome, Italy.
Photo
The UN Diplomatic Conference on the establishment of an International Criminal Court
Judge Thomas Buergenthal was one of the youngest survivors of the Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen concentration camps. He immigrated to the United States at the age of 17. Judge Buergenthal devoted his life to international and human rights law. He served as chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Committee on Conscience; was named the Lobingier Professor of Comparative Law and Jurisprudence at the George Washington University Law School; and served for a decade as the American judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. He served as a judge and president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and of the Administrative Tribunal of the Inter-American Development Bank. He was the first US national to be elected to the UN Human Rights Committee, a member of the UN Truth Commission for El Salvador, and vice chairman of the Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Accounts in Switzerland. With a unique perspective shaped by his experiences as a Holocaust survivor and international jurist, Judge Buergenthal taught at several leading law schools and wrote more than a dozen books and numerous articles on international law and human rights.
Oral History
Thomas Buergenthal describes operations of international tribunals
Raphael Lemkin (right) with Ambassador Amado of Brazil (left) before a plenary session of the General Assembly at which the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide was approved. Palais de Chaillot, Paris, December 11, 1948.
Timeline Event
UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide
Timeline Event
UN Security Council Creates ICTY
William Proxmire (1915–2005) served in the United States Senate for the state of Wisconsin from 1957 to 1989. Senator Proxmire was one of the strongest advocates for the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, which was ratified by the United States in 1988.
Photo
United States Senator William Proxmire
William Proxmire (1915–2005) served in the United States Senate for the state of Wisconsin from 1957 to 1989. Senator Proxmire was one of the strongest advocates for the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, which was ratified by the United States in 1988.
Timeline Event
US Ratifies Genocide Convention
Nyanza is a site near Kigali, Rwanda, where several thousand people were executed after being marched from the Belgian Technical School in April 1994. At the school, they had been under the protection of UN peacekeepers until the soldiers were recalled to the airport to help evacuate expatriates. This is one of the few sites where victims had the honor of individual burial; most often they were buried together in large graves. Photograph taken on November 24, 2007. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Photo
View of a burial site in Nyanza, Rwanda
Wanted poster, published by the Rewards for Justice program, seeking key perpetrators who have been indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
Photo
Wanted poster
A witness is sworn in at the trial of 61 former personnel and prisoners from the Mauthausen concentration camp. Swearing him in is Major General Fay Brink Prickett, the president of the Military Tribunal. March 29 - May 13, 1946.
Article
Postwar Trials
Beginning of the burning of the village of Um Zeifa in Darfur after the Janjaweed looted and attacked. Photograph taken by Brian Steidle, December 2004.
Discussion Question
What have we learned about the risk factors and warning signs of genocide?
Beginning of the burning of the village of Um Zeifa in Darfur after the Janjaweed looted and attacked. Photograph taken by Brian Steidle, December 2004.
Article
What is Genocide?
Armenian families next to makeshift tents in a refugee camp. Ottoman Empire, 1915-16.Photograph taken by Armin T. Wegner. Wegner served as a nurse with the German Sanitary Corps. In 1915 and 1916, Wegner traveled throughout the Ottoman Empire and documented atrocities carried out against the Armenians. [Courtesy of Sybil Stevens (daughter of Armin T. Wegner). Wegner Collection, Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Marbach & United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.]
Article
World War I and the Armenian Genocide

Thank you for supporting our work

We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies, Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation, the Claims Conference, EVZ, and BMF for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia. View the list of donor acknowledgement.