At a quiet New York cemetery in 1959, a handful of people stand around a fresh grave as a casket is lowered. Any passerby seeing the small somber ceremony might assume that the body belonged to a person of little significance. In fact, this casket carries the body of a man who is responsible for one of the largest shifts in international law in human history. Without his efforts, it is likely that the gravest crime mankind has ever committed and continues to commit would still be a crime without a name.
By the end of World War II, the Nazi regime had orchestrated the murder of over 17 million civilians in concentration camps throughout Europe. 1 Despite these egregious atrocities, no one at the time referred to the Holocaust as an act of genocide, not because it was not an appropriate descriptor, but because Raphael Lemkin had not yet coined the word and defined the crime for the world. The outcome of his personal crusade to encode ‘Genocide’ in an internationally recognized and binding Convention to which the US would sign on became his legacy (the US signed on decades after his passing).
Lemkin was born to a Polish-Jewish family in 1900 in a small village called Bezwodne in what was then The Russian Empire. Home schooled by his mother, he proved to be a brilliant scholar. By the time he received his undergraduate degree from Jan Kazimierz University he had learned over 14 languages and showed strong aptitude and interest in international law. After a career as a prosecutor in Poland, he was forced to flee to Sweden to evade capture by the Nazi forces in 1939. However 49 of his relatives were tortured and/or killed, drops in the ocean of inhumanity that was the Holocaust. 2
After fleeing the Nazi invasion, Lemkin eventually made his way to the United States. There he became a prolific professor, lecturing at the law school at Duke University in 1941 and the School of Military Government at the University of Virginia in 1942. He also served as an adviser to the United States War Department specializing in international law. 3
The world first became aware of Lemkin’s concept of genocide after the publication of what would arguably be his most important work, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, in 1944. Primarily a legal analysis of the behavior of Nazi Germany in occupied territories during World War 2, the book also contained a full definition of the crime Lemkin dubbed “genocide.” 4 After this publication, Lemkin dedicated the rest of his life to getting the international community to acknowledge genocide as a crime under international law.
Lemkin drafted a resolution for a treaty which would officially ban genocide under international law. He then took his resolution on the road, presenting it to any nation which would hear him, hoping to garner enough support to endorse a convention on the subject. After years of lobbying the international community, The United States UN delegation agreed to present Lemkin’s resolution to the General Assembly. Dubbed “The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” the resolution was adopted on December 9th, 1948. It would be another 3 years before enough countries signed on the the convention to make it enforceable. Much to Lemkin’s dismay, The United States was not one of the first 20 signatories. 5
Lemkin dedicated the rest of his life to lobbying those nations which had not yet signed onto the convention, with the United States being his primary target. He invested every moment of his time and every cent of his modest wealth to landing that particular white whale. He eventually died of a heart attack, impoverished, unemployed, and underappreciated, in 1959. His funeral was a small affair, reportedly only attended by 7 people. 6 Yet, today, the is no Law School, no class that teaches Human Rights, nor any conversation of World War II and any of the subsequent Genocides that does not mention his name. More importantly, the Convention provided some tools to prevent or punish such cases.
The greater legacy of his life’s work would not be realized until several decades after Lemkin’s death. The United States would eventually sign the Genocide Convention, but not until 1988. The international community would eventually convict a man of the crime Lemkin coined, but not until the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 1998 which found Jean-Paul Akayesu guilty of the Rwandan genocide. Three years after that, Radislav Krstic was similarly convicted for the murder of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Yugoslavia. 7 Though he died nearly 40 years too early to see the fruits of his labor truly flourish, we can hope that his soul finds solace in the fact that, thanks to him, these heinous actions have a name and are viewed the world over as being among the worst crimes humanity has ever known. Eradicating the crime of genocide still eludes us but at least accountability is now more widespread around the world. 8
- Donald Niewyk and Francis R. Nicosia, The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust (New York: Columbia University, 2000), 43. ↵
- Raphael Lemkin and Donna-Lee Frieze, Totally Unofficial: The Autobiography of Raphael Lemkin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013). ↵
- Robert Bliwise, “The Man Who Criminalized Genocide,” Duke Magazine, November 14, 2013, http://dukemagazine.duke.edu/article/man-who-criminalized-genocide . ↵
- Rafael Lemkin, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government, Proposals for Redress, (Washington D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Department of International Law, 1944) pg. 79. ↵
- Raphael Lemkin and Donna-Lee Frieze, Totally Unofficial: The Autobiography of Raphael Lemkin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013). ↵
- Jay Winter, “Prophet Without Honors” The Chronicle, June 3, 2013, https://www.chronicle.com/article/Raphael-Lemkin-a-Prophet/139515 . ↵
- Robert Bliwise, “The Man Who Criminalized Genocide,” Duke Magazine, November 14, 2013, http://dukemagazine.duke.edu/article/man-who-criminalized-genocide . ↵
- United Nations, “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” United Nations Treaty Collection, 78:1, 1021 (9 December 1948), New York: United Nations, 1951, 278-311. ↵
175 comments
Peter Coons
I had always assumed the term genocide had always been around following the Holocaust and events similar to it. I never thought that the governments of the world would have to be lobbied into signing into international law a document that says they will not commit mass murder. The fact that the United States of all nations was reluctant to sign the treaty is disheartening. For a nation who experienced genocide first hand with the liberation of the concentration camps, why did it take so long to sign?
Ysenia Rodriguez
This was a very interesting topic and a well written article. We normally do not think about how words originated, however Raphael Lemkin spent a large part of his life trying to coin the term Genocide. It’s a shame that he did not live to see his work pay off, however his legacy has been set in American history and is enforced all around the world.
Lamont Traylor
The things that the Nazi’s did back in world war II were terrible and genocide in general is just something I cannot wrap my mind around. What would make someone want to kill millions of innocent people. It is such a shame that this type of thing has happened a bunch of times throughout history and people just keep on repeating that history.
Christopher Vasquez
Raphael Lemkin was an unsung hero. Dedicating his entire life to prevent the atrocities in WW2, he fought hard to coin the word genocide. What made me sad was that, despite all the good he was trying to do, he died of a heart attack, and that his funeral was a small affair. Nevertheless, his impact on the world has been felt by all, and I hope that the world never repeats any of the atrocities that occurred in WW2.
Sienna Guerra
I also had never heard of Raphael Lemkin or his work in international law here and overseas. I’m glad that his idea of the concept of Genocide was finally seen and is in good use today. However, it needed to be done and it needed to change how intellectuals talked about human rights. I find it crazy how after people die, they tend to get the fame they once deserved before but some is better than none.
Greyson Addicott
I am shocked that I have never once heard the name “Raphael Lemkin” mentioned. The term “genocide” calls many things to mind, but rarely have I ever considered just where it came from. Lemkin deserved a much more grandiose funeral than what he received, as he seemed to have shaped international law as a whole. While he didn’t particularly adapt human rights, he opened the pathway for others to do so.
Steven Hale
It is hard to believe that not every country in the world immediately got on board with making genocide a crime under international law, and it is especially disappointing to see that the United States took a while to do the right thing. I suppose that is one of the things which makes Lemkin such a special figure in history. He was on the right side even when entire countries were not.
Dylan Coons
It’s too bad that not many people know about Lemkin and his work. It’s amazing that one of the few Jews able to make it to America during the Holocaust was able to such important work in the field of human rights. It’s so sad that his work was not recognized till after his death. This was a great article and was a pleasure to read.
Mariana Valadez
I never knew genocide had a convention or that it was an international law. This article was very interesting to read. Raphael Lemkin had an interesting point of view about the Holocaust despite the fact he had family killed by the Nazis. I could not stop reading this article. It was extremely interesting and very well put together. Great article!
Ariana Melendez
Prior to reading this article, I was unaware that the term “genocide” did not exist during World War II. This article does a great job detailing Raphael Lemkin’s struggle in trying to make this term known. The fact that he proceeded to ensure genocide was a crime on a global scale and that there would be consequences for it prove his dedication to this. It is sad, however, that the U.S. took so long to be on board with this.