| Raphael
Lemkin
by Holly A. Lukasiewicz
The concept of peace constitutes
an incredible awareness of the circumstances that allow
all living things to exist comfortably in their state
of being. Achieving peace requires an active input from
all individuals. Often the effort put forth by one individual
will significantly influence the way others approach their
struggle and and affect their understanding of peace through
actions or by introducting a concept. The Polish-born
lawyer, Raphael Lemkin, is one such individual who has
accomplished this type of effort on an international scale.
With glasses, blue eyes, and tall stature, Raphael Lemkin
was multi-talented and could paint a beautiful landscape,
play a decent game of checkers, and fish all day. Among
his hobbies, Lemkin held within him a deep concern for
the dignity and right to life that is common among all
individuals. He made his concern known worldwide by developing
the word genocide to describe the deliberate destruction
of a racial, ethnic, or religious group.
Lemkin was born to Jewish parents on June 24, 1901, on
a farm in Eastern Poland. Until the age of fourteen, Lemkin,
with his two brothers, were educated mainly in the humanities
by their mother, tutors, and the family library. Lemkin
wrote that his mother was "a brilliant intellectual…Somehow,
she saw to it we had a tendency to practice what we were
learning." Before entering legal training, Lemkin
studied philology at the University of Lwow in Poland
and the University of Heidelberg in Germany. He spoke
nine languages and read fourteen. He also studied in France
and Italy. Lemkin called law a "social engineering,"
because "law gives you an instrument to influence
society by the way of formulation."
After deciding on a career in law and earning his doctorate,
Lemkin became a public prosecutor for the District Court
of Poland (1929-1934), and represented Poland at international
conferences in many countries. He taught law at Tachkimoni
College in Warsaw, and became secretary of the Committee
on Codification of the Laws of the Polish Republic (1929-1935).
At a young age Lemkin was upset by the mass murder of
two groups of people. The slaughter of Armenians by Turks
during World War I and the massacre of Christian Assyrians
by Iraqis in 1933 caused Lemkin to wonder why such inhuman
acts were allowed to occur. He began to focus his attention
on these heinous acts and examined them as crimes. Writing
on the subject and drawing up a document to outlaw "acts
of barbarism and vandalism," he then presented his
proposal before the Legal Council of the League of Nations
in Madrid. He urged the adoption of his proposal as an
instrument for the protection of minorities; but the council
refused. Dr. Lemkin's efforts towards this cause in Madrid
were not looked upon favorably by the Polish government,
which at that time was pursuing a policy of conciliation
with Nazi Germany. He eventually retired from his public
position and went into private law practice in Warsaw
(1934-1939).
In 1939, Germany invaded Poland. During the fighting
outside the city of Warsaw, Lemkin was wounded in the
left leg and for six months he hid in the Polish forests,
finally escaping to Sweden by way of Lithuania and the
Baltic Sea. He and his brother Elias were the only surviving
members of the Lemkin family which contained over forty
members. During 1940-1941 Lemkin taught at the University
of Sweden in Stockholm, and also began the work of compiling
documents on Nazi rule in the occupied countries of Europe.
After making his way to the United States via Russia,
Japan, and Canada, Lemkin joined the law faculty at Duke
University in North Carolina in 1941. During the summer
of 1942 he lectured at the School of Military Government
at Charlottesville University in Virginia. He also wrote
Military Government in Europe, which was a preliminary
version of his more fully developed publication, Axis
Rule in Occupied Europe. From 1942-1943 Dr. Lemkin was
appointed chief consultant of the U.S. Board of Economic
Warfare and Foreign Economic Administration and later
became a special adviser on foreign affairs to the War
Department.
In 1944 his book, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, was published
by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In
the words of Professor Lemkin's preface, the book was
designed to provide "undeniable and objective evidence
regarding the treatment of the subjugated peoples of Europe
by the Axis powers." In this book the word genocide
was first used, which Lemkin had compounded from the Greek
genos (race) and the Latin cide (killing) to describe
the policy of "destruction of a nation or of an ethnic
group." He further defined the concept as "a
coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction
of essential foundations of the life of national groups,
with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves."
In commenting on the long history of wars of extermination,
Lemkin concluded that the modern objectives were for "the
disintegration of the political and social institutions
of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and
the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction
of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and
even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups."
Material from Axis Rule in Occupied Europe was used in
establishing a basis for the Nuremberg War Trials, and
Lemkin was appointed an adviser to the Nuremberg Trial
Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson. Since the Nuremberg
trials handled cases of war guilt only and genocide in
times of peace was not punishable under those terms, Lemkin
resolved to carry on the campaign that he had begun in
Poland in 1933 for the establishment of genocide as a
crime under international law.
He attended the Paris Peace Conference in 1945, but was
unable to persuade the delegates to adopt such a measure.
Lemkin continued to write and speak on the subject though.
Many called him a dreamer and fanatic, but he persuaded
United Nations delegates to propose and support a resolution
naming genocide a crime under international law. In 1946
the UN General Assembly approved the resolution and directed
the formulation of an international treaty to that effect.
The UN Economic and Social Council, with Lemkin as adviser,
rewrote the draft and in December 1948, in Paris, the
UN General Assembly approved the international treaty
by a vote 55 to 0.
In an article that appeared in the New York Times, the
document was called durable and stated that "the
genocide treaty is a triumph of one man's ideal over cynicism."
By the terms of the treaty, genocide is established as
a crime, punishable in an international penal tribunal;and
the crime is defined as the mass murder or persecution
of a group for reasons of race, religion or culture. The
treaty, which is binding only on countries that ratify
it, provides for the punishment of responsible individuals,
"whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers,
public officials, or private individuals." The new
international pact became a part of international law
on October 16, 1950.
In 1950 and 1952 Raphael Lemkin was nominated for the
Nobel Peace Prize. He was awarded the Grand Cross of Cespedes
from Cuba (1950) and the Stephen Wise Award of the American
Jewish Congress (1951). He died on August 28, 1959. Lemkin
often indicated that reading Tolstoy in his youth had
affected him deeply. He commented, "Tolstoy taught
me to live an idea." And living an idea, is what
Raphael Lemkin undertook to the fullest extent.
Holly A. Lukasiewicz is a student at Millikin University
in Decatur, Illinois
Bibliography
"Biographical Sketch." An Inventory to the
Raphael Lemkin Papers. online January 22, 2000. At http://huc.edu/aja/Lemkin.htm
Jirran, Richard J. "European Convention on Human
Rights is Signed." In: Chronology of European History.
John Powell, Editor. Vol. 3. Pasadena California:Salem
Press. 1997. pp.1154-56.
Rothe, Anna, Editor. Current Biography Yearbook 1950.
New York:H.W. Wilson Co. 1951
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