The purpose of this blog is too examine different genocides in the books “A problem From Hell.”

In chapters 1 and 2, As I was reading I noticed many people were involved in the Armenian genocide. Some were good and some were bad and tried to destroy them. In chapter 1, the section talks about a young man named Soghomo Tehlirian, whe murdered Mehmed Talaat, who set out to destroy the Armenian problem. Soghomo had two sisters and two brothers, they went through terrible experiences and soon, he was the only survivor out of them all. He was in fact the survivor of his whole family in the genocide which killed thousands and thousands of Armenian civilians. As I kept reading the chapter, which I have never though I would be interested in, it discusses his work in bringing those responsible to Justice. At that time, Talaat ruled the ottoman empire and was the major cause of the killings of the Armenian families. There were many different tones in this section and many people were involved. However the only person that caught my attention from both chapters 1 and 2 was Raphael Lemkin, he was introduced and mentioned more in chapter 2. He was studying linguistics at the University of Lvov while the Armenian genocide was happening, he was reading an article about the assassination of Talaat. Lemkin was captivated by the case and told his professor about it. He asked his professor “Why the Armenians did not have the Talaat arrested for the massacre” (17)? The professor replied with a metaphor and Lemkin replied “It is a crime for Tehlirian to kill a man, but it is not a crime for his oppressor to kill more than a million ,men” (17)? I absolutely love that he said that. Lemkin must of felt horrified that a country can plan and direct a genocide. Later on in chapter 2, it talked about how Lemkin had experience atrocities at young age. Lemkin has seen many awful things that not many has seen. Lemkin then returned to the University to continued his journey and graduate with a law degree. No brainer, with his degree he did what he could to prevent the destruction of groups bases on ethnicity, religion,even nationality. This plan was presented in Madrid during a conference. The plan was hard to pass through and Lemkin could not enter the country. Six years later, Germany invaded Poland, Hitler had Talaats ashes moved back to Turkey where he was announced “ A fallen Hero.” Lemkin was trying to convince everyone that the world behavior happens and the citizens who sit around and allow them to happen are just as guilty as those who were behind the genocides. Lemkin traveled to Sweden and lectured on the subject of hate. Lemkin began his journey to the U.S. to start “Over” a new beginning for him. What I admired about Lemkin is that he wanted to help the world and change it by preventing genocides of happening and wanted to protect the people who could be targeted, he wanted to help so bad that he had a plan to help them and wanted that plan to be passed.