Raphael Lemkin

Raphael Lemkin (June 24, 1900 – August 28, 1959) was a Polish lawyer of Jewish descent. Before World War II, Lemkin studied the Armenian Genocide in depth and campaigned in the League of Nations to ban what he called "barbarity" and "vandalism". He is best known for his work against genocide, a word he coined in 1943 from the root words genos (Greek for family, tribe or race) and -cide (Latin for killing). He first used the word in print in Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation - Analysis of Government - Proposals for Redress (1944).