What inspired Raphael Lemkin to create the word 'genocide'?

Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish lawyer, is credited with coining the term 'genocide' in 1944. He was inspired to create the term by the systematic mass killings and destruction of ethnic, religious, and cultural groups that occurred during World War II, particularly the Holocaust.<br /><br />Lemkin was deeply disturbed by the atrocities committed by the Nazis against the Jewish population and other minority groups. He was particularly appalled by the deliberate and systematic nature of these killings, which he saw as an attempt to destroy entire communities. He believed that there was a need for a new term to describe this type of crime, which he saw as more heinous than ordinary murder.<br /><br />Lemkin's research into the history of mass killings and destruction of ethnic groups led him to the ancient practice of 'auto-de-fe,' a public ritual in which a person was burned at the stake. From this, he derived the term 'genocide,' which he defined as the destruction of a racial, ethnic, religious, or national group, in whole or in part.<br /><br />Lemkin's efforts to raise awareness of the crime of genocide were instrumental in the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948.