1 00:00:02,360 --> 00:00:05,920 Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. In this week's episode on the Holta More, 2 00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:10,600 Speaker 1: we talked about Raphael limpkins nineteen fifty three speech and 3 00:00:10,840 --> 00:00:15,120 Speaker 1: article arguing that the Holidamor was one component of a 4 00:00:15,200 --> 00:00:19,200 Speaker 1: genocide that targeted the people of Ukraine. We mentioned in 5 00:00:19,200 --> 00:00:21,880 Speaker 1: the episode that Limpkin had been the person to coin 6 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:25,480 Speaker 1: the term genocide, but his work on this really went 7 00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:28,960 Speaker 1: way beyond that. Our episode on Limpkin came out three 8 00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:33,000 Speaker 1: years ago on March eleven, so we're bringing it out 9 00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:36,199 Speaker 1: as Today's Saturday Classic to add to the context around 10 00:00:36,240 --> 00:00:41,680 Speaker 1: his thoughts on Ukraine. Welcome to Stuff You Missed in 11 00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:51,600 Speaker 1: History Class, a production of I Heart Radio. Hello, and 12 00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:54,840 Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm 13 00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:57,720 Speaker 1: Holly Fry. Today we are going to talk about Dr 14 00:00:57,960 --> 00:01:00,840 Speaker 1: Rafael Limpkin, and you'll see his name spelled a number 15 00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:03,840 Speaker 1: of different ways because he was originally from Poland. And 16 00:01:04,520 --> 00:01:07,399 Speaker 1: you'll see him described as the person who coined the 17 00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:11,760 Speaker 1: term genocide. He did do that, but his contributions went 18 00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:15,720 Speaker 1: way way beyond just coining a new word. He was 19 00:01:15,760 --> 00:01:19,039 Speaker 1: really the driving force behind the existence of the u 20 00:01:19,160 --> 00:01:22,360 Speaker 1: N Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the crime 21 00:01:22,360 --> 00:01:25,360 Speaker 1: of genocide. This was something that he pursued with a 22 00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:29,039 Speaker 1: really single minded determination for years. A lot of the 23 00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:32,240 Speaker 1: time he had no official backing, no funding, and not 24 00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:35,840 Speaker 1: even enough to eat. He had support from other people 25 00:01:35,840 --> 00:01:37,880 Speaker 1: and organizations to get all this done, but he was 26 00:01:37,959 --> 00:01:40,240 Speaker 1: the one who did most of the rallying of that 27 00:01:40,319 --> 00:01:43,720 Speaker 1: support himself, usually at the expense of his own health 28 00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:47,240 Speaker 1: and well being. And Raphael Lemkin coined the word genocide 29 00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:50,560 Speaker 1: in nineteen forty four, but of course, the practice of 30 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:55,000 Speaker 1: genocide maybe as old as humanity. One possible explanation for 31 00:01:55,040 --> 00:01:58,000 Speaker 1: the extinction of the Neanderthals is that they were deliberately 32 00:01:58,080 --> 00:02:02,200 Speaker 1: and systematically killed by humans. In terms of what's documented 33 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:05,080 Speaker 1: in the historical record, one of the earliest events that 34 00:02:05,120 --> 00:02:08,720 Speaker 1: could be described as genocide took place in four sixteen 35 00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:13,280 Speaker 1: BC during the Peloponnesian War. Athens lay siege to the 36 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:17,160 Speaker 1: island of Milos, which was neutral but more sympathetic towards Sparta. 37 00:02:17,680 --> 00:02:20,799 Speaker 1: When Milos surrendered, the Athenians killed all of the men 38 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:25,040 Speaker 1: and sold the women and children into slavery. Many many 39 00:02:25,120 --> 00:02:29,040 Speaker 1: instances of genocide followed after that all over the world. 40 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:32,920 Speaker 1: Elements of European colonization of the America's starting in the 41 00:02:32,960 --> 00:02:37,280 Speaker 1: sixteenth century and Cromwell's conquest of Ireland in the seventeenth century. 42 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:41,160 Speaker 1: The Ching dynasty's extermination of the Zunger people in the 43 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:44,359 Speaker 1: eighteenth century, and the Scramble for Africa and the nineteenth 44 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:48,240 Speaker 1: century have all been described as genocide. The idea that 45 00:02:48,320 --> 00:02:52,920 Speaker 1: international law should protect minorities and other vulnerable people is 46 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:56,520 Speaker 1: also much older than the term genocide. In Europe. That 47 00:02:56,600 --> 00:02:58,960 Speaker 1: idea goes back at least as far as the Peace 48 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:03,480 Speaker 1: of Westphilia in six Among other provisions, the Piece of 49 00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:07,280 Speaker 1: Westphalia formalized the idea of Europe as a collection of 50 00:03:07,360 --> 00:03:12,160 Speaker 1: sovereign states and outlined freedoms and protections for religious minorities 51 00:03:12,240 --> 00:03:15,680 Speaker 1: in those states. In other words, by the time Raphael 52 00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:21,640 Speaker 1: Lemkin was born on June, genocide had existed for millennia, 53 00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:25,040 Speaker 1: and the idea that international law should protect minorities that 54 00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:28,519 Speaker 1: idea had existed for centuries. The language that we used 55 00:03:28,520 --> 00:03:31,600 Speaker 1: to describe it today just didn't exist yet. Lemkin was 56 00:03:31,639 --> 00:03:35,080 Speaker 1: born on a farm outside of Volkovisk, which was then 57 00:03:35,120 --> 00:03:37,720 Speaker 1: in Poland. Later that became part of Russia, and it 58 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:41,000 Speaker 1: is now in what is Belarus. The farm was about 59 00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:44,120 Speaker 1: fourteen miles or twenty three kilometers from town in a 60 00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:48,000 Speaker 1: relatively remote area. The farm itself was adjacent to a 61 00:03:48,080 --> 00:03:51,600 Speaker 1: forest and a lake. Lemkin was the middle of three brothers. 62 00:03:51,640 --> 00:03:54,760 Speaker 1: Although his young brother died in nineteen eighteen during the 63 00:03:54,800 --> 00:03:57,720 Speaker 1: flu pandemic, he spent most of his boyhood playing and 64 00:03:57,800 --> 00:04:00,720 Speaker 1: doing chores on the farm and being taught by mother Bella, 65 00:04:00,840 --> 00:04:03,400 Speaker 1: who was an artist and an intellectual, and he was 66 00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:06,920 Speaker 1: aware of the concept of oppression from a really early age. 67 00:04:07,240 --> 00:04:10,160 Speaker 1: It was illegal for Jews to own or live on farms, 68 00:04:10,320 --> 00:04:12,680 Speaker 1: so in addition to paying the rent on the farm, 69 00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:16,440 Speaker 1: Rafael's father Joseph, had to bribe the local police for 70 00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:18,919 Speaker 1: them to be allowed to stay there. He was also 71 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:22,400 Speaker 1: aware that the oppression was not just about laws and money. 72 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:26,320 Speaker 1: In nineteen o six, the Russian Imperial Army carried out 73 00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:30,040 Speaker 1: a program against the Jewish community of bali Stock, about 74 00:04:30,080 --> 00:04:33,800 Speaker 1: fifty five miles or ninety kilometers away, and at least 75 00:04:33,839 --> 00:04:37,240 Speaker 1: seventy people were killed and as many as one hundred injured. 76 00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:41,720 Speaker 1: This awareness of persecution and of people being harmed by 77 00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:44,880 Speaker 1: those who might have been charged with helping them continued 78 00:04:44,920 --> 00:04:47,920 Speaker 1: to grow as Rafael got older. When he was eleven, 79 00:04:48,040 --> 00:04:51,320 Speaker 1: he read the novel Quo Vadis Narrative in the Time 80 00:04:51,360 --> 00:04:54,480 Speaker 1: of Nero, and one of the themes was Nero's persecution 81 00:04:54,520 --> 00:04:58,560 Speaker 1: of Christians in ancient Rome. He became really fixated on 82 00:04:58,560 --> 00:05:01,039 Speaker 1: this whole idea, and he started learning more and more 83 00:05:01,080 --> 00:05:04,960 Speaker 1: about similarly violence and oppressive events in history, and about 84 00:05:04,960 --> 00:05:08,760 Speaker 1: the people who were the victims of those events. Eventually, 85 00:05:08,800 --> 00:05:12,000 Speaker 1: the Lemkin family moved into vocal Visk to give Rafael 86 00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:16,599 Speaker 1: and his brother more educational opportunities. Bella Lemkin was described 87 00:05:16,680 --> 00:05:19,720 Speaker 1: as brilliant, but she and her husband wanted their children 88 00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:22,640 Speaker 1: to have a broader education than she could give them 89 00:05:22,640 --> 00:05:26,159 Speaker 1: on her own. While they were living there, Raphael continued 90 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:30,640 Speaker 1: to have firsthand experience with anti Semitism and oppression, especially 91 00:05:30,680 --> 00:05:34,440 Speaker 1: after the German army occupied vocal Visc in nineteen fifteen. 92 00:05:34,839 --> 00:05:38,960 Speaker 1: From the time he was young, Limbkin demonstrated an incredible 93 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:43,200 Speaker 1: aptitude for languages. When he entered the University of Heidelberg 94 00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:46,240 Speaker 1: and lavov he already knew seven of them. By the 95 00:05:46,360 --> 00:05:49,400 Speaker 1: end of his life, he would know twelve different languages. 96 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:53,560 Speaker 1: He decided a major in philology which combines literature, history, 97 00:05:53,640 --> 00:05:57,120 Speaker 1: and linguistics. I am very envious of his language skills. 98 00:05:57,800 --> 00:06:02,039 Speaker 1: But uh, in one Limbkin changed his major two law, 99 00:06:02,520 --> 00:06:04,720 Speaker 1: and to understand why he did that, we actually need 100 00:06:04,760 --> 00:06:06,600 Speaker 1: to back up for a moment and talk about the 101 00:06:06,680 --> 00:06:11,359 Speaker 1: Armenian genocide. Although the consensus among historians is that what 102 00:06:11,520 --> 00:06:17,040 Speaker 1: happened constitutes genocide, the governments of Turkey and Azerbaijan disagree. 103 00:06:17,680 --> 00:06:20,880 Speaker 1: They don't necessarily deny that there were massacres, but they 104 00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:24,359 Speaker 1: maintained that this was simply the unfortunate consequence of brutal 105 00:06:24,400 --> 00:06:28,120 Speaker 1: and bloody war, rather than a planned attempt to exterminate 106 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:31,479 Speaker 1: a people. The Armenian genocide has been on our list 107 00:06:31,520 --> 00:06:33,320 Speaker 1: for a full episode for a very long time, but 108 00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:36,919 Speaker 1: it is a huge and complex topic. Uh So we 109 00:06:36,960 --> 00:06:39,840 Speaker 1: are not sure when exactly that will happen. So uh 110 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:43,280 Speaker 1: this is the very basic version. Armenians are a linguistic 111 00:06:43,320 --> 00:06:46,640 Speaker 1: and ethnic group who lived today primarily in Armenia, but 112 00:06:46,720 --> 00:06:49,200 Speaker 1: who historically have lived in a much larger region of 113 00:06:49,240 --> 00:06:54,960 Speaker 1: the Caucasus Mountains, including what's now northeastern Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. 114 00:06:55,560 --> 00:06:57,520 Speaker 1: In the early twentieth century, all of this is part 115 00:06:57,560 --> 00:07:00,320 Speaker 1: of the Ottoman Empire, and in nine five team the 116 00:07:00,360 --> 00:07:05,560 Speaker 1: Ottoman Empire massacred and estimated one point five million Armenians. 117 00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:10,760 Speaker 1: The Armenians were predominantly Christian and the Ottoman Empire was Muslim, 118 00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:13,680 Speaker 1: but this was not only about religion. In the late 119 00:07:13,760 --> 00:07:18,240 Speaker 1: nineteenth century, Armenians had started developing a national identity. The 120 00:07:18,280 --> 00:07:21,440 Speaker 1: Ottoman Empire viewed this growing sense of an Armenian nation 121 00:07:21,640 --> 00:07:25,360 Speaker 1: as a threat. Although several of Europe's great power saw 122 00:07:25,400 --> 00:07:28,400 Speaker 1: a need to try to protect the Armenian people, these 123 00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:31,720 Speaker 1: efforts had the opposite of the intended effect. The Ottoman 124 00:07:31,720 --> 00:07:35,360 Speaker 1: Empire cracked down on Armenians, carrying out a series of 125 00:07:35,360 --> 00:07:39,480 Speaker 1: programs between eighteen ninety four and eighteen ninety six, and 126 00:07:39,520 --> 00:07:41,760 Speaker 1: at this point it wasn't so much about destroying the 127 00:07:41,880 --> 00:07:45,240 Speaker 1: Armenians as it was about re establishing the dominance of 128 00:07:45,280 --> 00:07:48,720 Speaker 1: the Ottoman Empire in the area. But in nineteen o eight, 129 00:07:48,760 --> 00:07:51,040 Speaker 1: members of the Young Turk movement came to power in 130 00:07:51,040 --> 00:07:53,920 Speaker 1: the Ottoman Empire and made a short lived effort to 131 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:57,960 Speaker 1: modernize and to offer some protections to its minority populations, 132 00:07:58,040 --> 00:08:01,560 Speaker 1: but all of that fell away during the Balkan Wars. 133 00:08:01,680 --> 00:08:05,600 Speaker 1: And World War One, especially after the Ottoman Empire joined 134 00:08:05,640 --> 00:08:08,160 Speaker 1: the war on the side of the Central Powers. In 135 00:08:08,280 --> 00:08:11,360 Speaker 1: nineteen fifteen, Russia defeated the Ottoman army at the Battle 136 00:08:11,400 --> 00:08:16,840 Speaker 1: of Sarahkamish. Afterward, Armenians became a scapegoat, with Ottoman officials 137 00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:20,400 Speaker 1: blaming the loss on Armenians who had joined the Russian side, 138 00:08:20,640 --> 00:08:23,720 Speaker 1: and there were Armenians who did side with the Russians, 139 00:08:23,760 --> 00:08:26,280 Speaker 1: but this whole thing was used as grounds for violent 140 00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:30,320 Speaker 1: suppression of the Armenians as a whole. In April of 141 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:34,520 Speaker 1: nineteen fifteen, Armenian intellectuals and political leaders were rounded up 142 00:08:34,520 --> 00:08:38,200 Speaker 1: and later executed. The next months were marked with a 143 00:08:38,320 --> 00:08:44,800 Speaker 1: systematic deportation effort, concentration camps, death marches, massacres, and sexual 144 00:08:44,880 --> 00:08:48,320 Speaker 1: violence against women. Many of the people who survived the 145 00:08:48,400 --> 00:08:52,520 Speaker 1: direct violence later on died of exhaustion or starved to death. 146 00:08:53,200 --> 00:08:56,439 Speaker 1: These events were known to the international community at the time. 147 00:08:57,160 --> 00:09:02,080 Speaker 1: On nineteen fifteen, France, Russia, and Great Britain issued a 148 00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:06,280 Speaker 1: joint declaration which set in part quote, for about a month, 149 00:09:06,440 --> 00:09:10,040 Speaker 1: the kurd and Turkish population of Armenia has been massacring 150 00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:14,800 Speaker 1: Armenians with the connivance and often assistance of Ottoman authorities, 151 00:09:15,600 --> 00:09:18,120 Speaker 1: and that statement went on to say, quote, in view 152 00:09:18,120 --> 00:09:21,839 Speaker 1: of these new crimes of Turkey against humanity and civilization, 153 00:09:22,280 --> 00:09:26,040 Speaker 1: the Allied governments announced publicly to the Sublime Port that 154 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:30,120 Speaker 1: they will hold personally responsible for these crimes all members 155 00:09:30,160 --> 00:09:32,959 Speaker 1: of the Ottoman government and those of their agents who 156 00:09:32,960 --> 00:09:37,320 Speaker 1: are implicated in such massacres. Then, after the war was over, 157 00:09:37,679 --> 00:09:41,040 Speaker 1: the Central Powers signed the Treaty of Seve, which included 158 00:09:41,040 --> 00:09:43,920 Speaker 1: a provision for determining who had been responsible for the 159 00:09:43,920 --> 00:09:48,080 Speaker 1: massacre of Armenians and who then bringing those people to justice. 160 00:09:48,679 --> 00:09:51,400 Speaker 1: But the new Turkish government that arose after the war 161 00:09:51,559 --> 00:09:55,600 Speaker 1: rejected that treaty, and its nineteen three replacement included no 162 00:09:55,800 --> 00:09:59,839 Speaker 1: such provision. Raphael Lemkin was about to turn fifteen when 163 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:02,680 Speaker 1: all of this started, but it was six years later 164 00:10:02,800 --> 00:10:05,679 Speaker 1: that a connected event really drew his attention to it 165 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:08,240 Speaker 1: and changed the focus of his life. And we're going 166 00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:19,280 Speaker 1: to talk about that after we first have a sponsor break. 167 00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:24,600 Speaker 1: On March fifteenth, ninety one, while Raphael Limpkin was in college, 168 00:10:24,840 --> 00:10:29,800 Speaker 1: an Armenian named Sohoman t Lerian assassinated Mehmed to Lot, 169 00:10:29,880 --> 00:10:33,199 Speaker 1: who was also known as Talat Pasha, the Ottoman Minister 170 00:10:33,360 --> 00:10:37,240 Speaker 1: of the Interior a Lot was widely recognized as the 171 00:10:37,320 --> 00:10:40,480 Speaker 1: architect of the massacres that had taken place in nineteen fifteen, 172 00:10:40,720 --> 00:10:43,560 Speaker 1: and to Lerian's family had been killed in those massacres. 173 00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:47,480 Speaker 1: When he shot the Ottoman minister, he reportedly said, this 174 00:10:47,559 --> 00:10:50,400 Speaker 1: is for my mother. To Larrian was put on trial 175 00:10:50,480 --> 00:10:55,160 Speaker 1: the following June, and this trial struck Lemkin as deeply incongruous. 176 00:10:55,720 --> 00:10:58,440 Speaker 1: To Lot had not faced trial for the massacres in 177 00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:02,200 Speaker 1: any way, you international laws governing the rules of war 178 00:11:02,320 --> 00:11:05,920 Speaker 1: and human rights didn't apply because the massacres were committed 179 00:11:05,960 --> 00:11:09,680 Speaker 1: by the Ottoman Empire in its own sovereign territory, not 180 00:11:10,080 --> 00:11:14,280 Speaker 1: against another sovereign nations people, but Talirian, whose crime was 181 00:11:14,320 --> 00:11:18,119 Speaker 1: on a far smaller scale, was being tried. When discussing 182 00:11:18,120 --> 00:11:22,400 Speaker 1: this trial and class, Limkin noted this discrepancy, saying, quote, 183 00:11:22,679 --> 00:11:25,320 Speaker 1: it is a crime for Tllrian to kill a man, 184 00:11:25,640 --> 00:11:27,880 Speaker 1: but it is not a crime for his oppressor to 185 00:11:27,960 --> 00:11:31,160 Speaker 1: kill more than a million men. He also noted that 186 00:11:31,200 --> 00:11:34,560 Speaker 1: the idea of national sovereignty should not give a nation 187 00:11:34,960 --> 00:11:38,000 Speaker 1: the right to kill its own people with impunity. This 188 00:11:38,080 --> 00:11:41,720 Speaker 1: incident inspired Limkin to change his major to law so 189 00:11:41,760 --> 00:11:44,000 Speaker 1: that he could work toward an international law that would 190 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:47,520 Speaker 1: apply to what the Armenians had faced. He graduated with 191 00:11:47,559 --> 00:11:52,800 Speaker 1: a doctorate in law in Another similar assassination took place 192 00:11:52,880 --> 00:11:56,640 Speaker 1: in Paris that same year, and that reinforced Limpkin's commitment 193 00:11:56,679 --> 00:12:01,080 Speaker 1: to advocate for an international law against genocide. This time, 194 00:12:01,360 --> 00:12:06,959 Speaker 1: Shalom schwartz Bard assassinated Ukrainian official Simon pet Leura, who 195 00:12:07,160 --> 00:12:10,040 Speaker 1: was believed to be responsible for a series of programs 196 00:12:10,040 --> 00:12:14,320 Speaker 1: in which Swartspard's parents had been killed. Once again, an 197 00:12:14,360 --> 00:12:18,080 Speaker 1: individual person was being tried for a much smaller crime 198 00:12:18,120 --> 00:12:20,400 Speaker 1: than the ones committed by the person he had killed, 199 00:12:20,480 --> 00:12:23,320 Speaker 1: and the person he had killed was not tried for 200 00:12:23,360 --> 00:12:27,280 Speaker 1: those crimes at all. Both to Leirian and schwartz Bard 201 00:12:27,280 --> 00:12:31,000 Speaker 1: were ultimately acquitted, with their defenses focusing on the mental 202 00:12:31,200 --> 00:12:35,080 Speaker 1: trauma that they had each been through. After graduating, Lemkin 203 00:12:35,200 --> 00:12:38,679 Speaker 1: moved to Warsaw and got a position working as a prosecutor. 204 00:12:39,400 --> 00:12:43,480 Speaker 1: He started writing books about international law, human rights, and genocide, 205 00:12:43,520 --> 00:12:46,920 Speaker 1: although he wasn't yet using that term. He wrote at 206 00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:49,400 Speaker 1: a rate of about a book every year, and in 207 00:12:49,520 --> 00:12:52,200 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty three he had the opportunity to make his 208 00:12:52,280 --> 00:12:55,320 Speaker 1: first real effort at advocating for a law at the 209 00:12:55,360 --> 00:12:58,920 Speaker 1: international level. He was invited to make a presentation at 210 00:12:58,960 --> 00:13:02,080 Speaker 1: the League of Nations Prints in Madrid. The paper that 211 00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:05,200 Speaker 1: he wrote leading up to this conference included his definitions 212 00:13:05,240 --> 00:13:10,160 Speaker 1: for two different but related crimes. One he called barbarity, 213 00:13:10,200 --> 00:13:13,200 Speaker 1: and this was a crime against people, especially acts of 214 00:13:13,240 --> 00:13:18,199 Speaker 1: extermination because of ethnic, religious, or social identity. The other 215 00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:21,960 Speaker 1: crime he called vandalism. Vandalism was a crime against a 216 00:13:21,960 --> 00:13:25,680 Speaker 1: people's cultural heritage, and it included things like the destruction 217 00:13:25,760 --> 00:13:30,040 Speaker 1: of monuments and the outlawing of native languages. He wanted 218 00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:33,280 Speaker 1: to address both the physical presence of a group that 219 00:13:33,360 --> 00:13:37,280 Speaker 1: groups very existence and the group's history and spiritual life. 220 00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:40,560 Speaker 1: But after he submitted his paper, he got a phone 221 00:13:40,600 --> 00:13:43,120 Speaker 1: call telling him that he was no longer invited to 222 00:13:43,200 --> 00:13:47,400 Speaker 1: attend the conference in person. An anti submitting newspaper in 223 00:13:47,440 --> 00:13:52,280 Speaker 1: Poland had written a scathing response to Lemkin's paper, criticizing 224 00:13:52,360 --> 00:13:55,160 Speaker 1: him for focusing on the protection of Jews and not 225 00:13:55,280 --> 00:13:59,240 Speaker 1: of the Polish population as a whole. Afterward, the Minister 226 00:13:59,320 --> 00:14:02,480 Speaker 1: of Justice decided that Lemkins should not attend the conference, 227 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:06,640 Speaker 1: and although his paper was discussed without his personally being there, 228 00:14:07,160 --> 00:14:10,480 Speaker 1: it didn't lead to any meaningful action. In the face 229 00:14:10,559 --> 00:14:13,839 Speaker 1: of all this criticism, Lemkin also had to resign as 230 00:14:13,840 --> 00:14:17,240 Speaker 1: a prosecutor, and he went into private law practice instead. 231 00:14:17,720 --> 00:14:21,920 Speaker 1: A few years later, on August nineteen thirty nine, Adolf 232 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:24,440 Speaker 1: Hitler gave a speech to his chief commanders at his 233 00:14:24,520 --> 00:14:28,840 Speaker 1: home in ober Salzburg. It said, in part quote, our 234 00:14:28,880 --> 00:14:32,760 Speaker 1: strength lies in our quickness and in our brutality. Genghis 235 00:14:32,840 --> 00:14:35,760 Speaker 1: Khan has sent millions of women and children into death 236 00:14:35,840 --> 00:14:39,640 Speaker 1: knowingly and with a light heart. History sees in him 237 00:14:39,680 --> 00:14:43,040 Speaker 1: only the great founder of states. As to what week 238 00:14:43,120 --> 00:14:47,160 Speaker 1: Western European civilization asserts about me, that is of no account. 239 00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:50,360 Speaker 1: I have given the command, and I shall shoot everyone 240 00:14:50,440 --> 00:14:53,080 Speaker 1: who utters one word of criticism. For the goal to 241 00:14:53,120 --> 00:14:55,520 Speaker 1: be obtained in the war is not that of reaching 242 00:14:55,600 --> 00:15:00,080 Speaker 1: certain lines, but of physically demolishing the opponent. And so 243 00:15:00,200 --> 00:15:02,360 Speaker 1: for the present only in the East I have put 244 00:15:02,440 --> 00:15:05,920 Speaker 1: my death head formations in place, with the command relentlessly 245 00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:10,480 Speaker 1: and without compassion, to send into death many women and 246 00:15:10,600 --> 00:15:14,440 Speaker 1: children of Polish origin and language. Only thus can we 247 00:15:14,520 --> 00:15:18,040 Speaker 1: gain the living space that we need. Who, after all, 248 00:15:18,200 --> 00:15:21,960 Speaker 1: is today speaking about the destruction of the Armenians. There 249 00:15:22,040 --> 00:15:25,560 Speaker 1: is some debate about whether the speech included that last sentence, 250 00:15:25,640 --> 00:15:28,080 Speaker 1: because some of the documents recording the speech do not 251 00:15:28,280 --> 00:15:31,200 Speaker 1: include it, and a primary one that does include it 252 00:15:31,280 --> 00:15:35,520 Speaker 1: came from an anonymous source. But regardless, less than two 253 00:15:35,560 --> 00:15:40,160 Speaker 1: weeks later, on September one, Hitler invaded Poland and started 254 00:15:40,200 --> 00:15:43,800 Speaker 1: carrying out the extermination that he had described in the speech. 255 00:15:44,240 --> 00:15:46,880 Speaker 1: At that point, Raphael Limpkin was still living in Warsaw, 256 00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:50,480 Speaker 1: and on September six, just ahead of German troops arrival there, 257 00:15:50,600 --> 00:15:53,520 Speaker 1: he tried to escape the city by train, but the 258 00:15:53,520 --> 00:15:55,960 Speaker 1: train that he was on was bombed, leading him and 259 00:15:56,040 --> 00:15:58,800 Speaker 1: some of the other survivors to take refuge in the woods. 260 00:15:59,400 --> 00:16:01,560 Speaker 1: He and a few other men traveled together and tried 261 00:16:01,600 --> 00:16:04,480 Speaker 1: to evade German troops, although some of them were killed 262 00:16:04,520 --> 00:16:08,160 Speaker 1: in another bombing not long afterward. Over the next two months, 263 00:16:08,560 --> 00:16:13,280 Speaker 1: Lemkin traveled with a continually changing group of refugees. Few 264 00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:15,480 Speaker 1: of them had any provisions with them, so they had 265 00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:18,800 Speaker 1: to forage for food, sometimes stealing from crops in the 266 00:16:18,880 --> 00:16:23,120 Speaker 1: fields or occasionally getting help from sympathetic people that they met. 267 00:16:23,880 --> 00:16:27,120 Speaker 1: As often as he could, he encouraged people to escape. 268 00:16:27,680 --> 00:16:30,600 Speaker 1: Based on mind comp and other writings, Lemkin knew that 269 00:16:30,680 --> 00:16:34,480 Speaker 1: Hitler was planning an extermination campaign much different from the 270 00:16:34,520 --> 00:16:37,480 Speaker 1: typical perils of warfare that the people he met often 271 00:16:37,520 --> 00:16:40,640 Speaker 1: thought that they could survive. During these weeks when he 272 00:16:40,680 --> 00:16:44,160 Speaker 1: was in flight, Lemkin's ultimate goal was to get to Lithuania, 273 00:16:44,400 --> 00:16:47,000 Speaker 1: which was at that moment neutral, and he thought he 274 00:16:47,040 --> 00:16:50,040 Speaker 1: could escape from there, but he also wanted to get 275 00:16:50,080 --> 00:16:52,560 Speaker 1: to his parents and try to convince them to go 276 00:16:52,640 --> 00:16:56,440 Speaker 1: as well. He finally got to Volcovist by train, disguising 277 00:16:56,520 --> 00:16:59,880 Speaker 1: himself as a Russian peasant, including trading in his expe 278 00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:02,720 Speaker 1: sive eyeglass frames for a cheaper pair so that they 279 00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:05,879 Speaker 1: would not raise suspicions. He spent two days with his 280 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:08,680 Speaker 1: parents in late nineteen thirty nine, but he couldn't convince 281 00:17:08,720 --> 00:17:12,399 Speaker 1: them to leave. Limken finally got to Lithuania in early 282 00:17:12,520 --> 00:17:16,360 Speaker 1: nineteen forty. His week's long flight from the Germans prompted 283 00:17:16,440 --> 00:17:18,560 Speaker 1: him to give up the idea of going back to 284 00:17:18,640 --> 00:17:21,520 Speaker 1: being a private lawyer and instead to focus on his 285 00:17:21,560 --> 00:17:25,439 Speaker 1: work in education and actively trying to get the international 286 00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:28,840 Speaker 1: community to stop such abuses. He got in touch with 287 00:17:28,840 --> 00:17:31,679 Speaker 1: people he knew in Sweden and the United States, trying 288 00:17:31,720 --> 00:17:33,679 Speaker 1: to get a visa so he could get to a 289 00:17:33,720 --> 00:17:37,040 Speaker 1: safer location and continue his work. From there, he got 290 00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:40,199 Speaker 1: an appointment teaching law at the University of Stockholm, and 291 00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:42,520 Speaker 1: while he was there he worked with the Swedish Foreign 292 00:17:42,600 --> 00:17:46,480 Speaker 1: Ministry to gather information about human rights abuses in places 293 00:17:46,480 --> 00:17:50,440 Speaker 1: where Sweden had embassies and consulates. One of their findings 294 00:17:50,480 --> 00:17:54,120 Speaker 1: was that Germany was distributing rations and occupied territory based 295 00:17:54,119 --> 00:17:57,920 Speaker 1: on nationality, so Germans were getting ninety seven percent rations, 296 00:17:58,359 --> 00:18:01,520 Speaker 1: Dutch people were getting ninety five percent. The numbers got 297 00:18:01,520 --> 00:18:05,040 Speaker 1: continually smaller, down to Greeks who were getting thirty eight 298 00:18:05,040 --> 00:18:08,359 Speaker 1: percent rations and Jews who got twenty percent, which was 299 00:18:08,440 --> 00:18:12,480 Speaker 1: not enough to sustain life. By one other parts of 300 00:18:12,480 --> 00:18:14,680 Speaker 1: the world were becoming more aware of what the Nazi 301 00:18:14,800 --> 00:18:19,200 Speaker 1: regime was doing. On August Winston Churchill gave an address 302 00:18:19,280 --> 00:18:22,560 Speaker 1: in which he said, quote as his army's advance, whole 303 00:18:22,600 --> 00:18:27,560 Speaker 1: districts are being exterminated. Scores of thousands, literally scores of 304 00:18:27,600 --> 00:18:31,439 Speaker 1: thousands of executions in cold blood are being perpetrated by 305 00:18:31,440 --> 00:18:34,840 Speaker 1: the German police troops upon the Russian patriots who defend 306 00:18:34,880 --> 00:18:38,639 Speaker 1: their native soil. Since the Mongol invasions of Europe in 307 00:18:38,680 --> 00:18:43,000 Speaker 1: the sixteenth century. There has never been methodical, merciless butchery 308 00:18:43,119 --> 00:18:46,320 Speaker 1: on such a scale, or approaching such a scale. And 309 00:18:46,480 --> 00:18:50,400 Speaker 1: this is but the beginning. Famine and pestilence have yet 310 00:18:50,440 --> 00:18:53,359 Speaker 1: to follow in the bloody ruts of Hitler's tanks. We 311 00:18:53,440 --> 00:18:56,040 Speaker 1: are in the presence of a crime without a name. 312 00:18:56,520 --> 00:18:59,679 Speaker 1: That same year, Limpkin got an appointment teaching law at 313 00:18:59,760 --> 00:19:03,679 Speaker 1: Duke University. Thanks to his colleague Malcolm McDermott, he traveled 314 00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:06,919 Speaker 1: to the United States via Russia and Japan, arriving in 315 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:10,880 Speaker 1: Seattle on April eighteenth, nineteen forty one. When he got 316 00:19:10,920 --> 00:19:13,320 Speaker 1: to Durham, North Carolina, he was asked to give an 317 00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:16,199 Speaker 1: address on his very first evening there, and part of 318 00:19:16,200 --> 00:19:21,280 Speaker 1: his topic was Hitler's plan of exterminating entire people's in 319 00:19:21,320 --> 00:19:25,000 Speaker 1: the territory that Germany was occupying. This was the first 320 00:19:25,040 --> 00:19:28,040 Speaker 1: of many attempts to educate the people around him on 321 00:19:28,080 --> 00:19:31,600 Speaker 1: what Hitler was planning and doing. In nineteen forty two, 322 00:19:31,720 --> 00:19:34,840 Speaker 1: Lemkin was appointed Chief Consultant to the Board of Economic 323 00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:38,240 Speaker 1: Warfare in Washington, d c. And his first task there 324 00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:42,520 Speaker 1: was to educate his colleagues about Hitler's planned exterminations. He 325 00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:45,600 Speaker 1: also wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a call 326 00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:49,400 Speaker 1: for action. As he threw himself into this work, Limpkin's 327 00:19:49,440 --> 00:19:52,960 Speaker 1: health started to suffer. High blood pressure ran in his family, 328 00:19:53,160 --> 00:19:57,159 Speaker 1: but stress and exhaustion were really making it worse. And 329 00:19:57,200 --> 00:19:59,240 Speaker 1: as we alluded to at the top of the episode, 330 00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:03,399 Speaker 1: Lemkins signed only coined the term genocide in nineteen and 331 00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:05,200 Speaker 1: we're going to talk about that after we have a 332 00:20:05,200 --> 00:20:18,200 Speaker 1: little sponsor break. In nineteen forty four, Raphael Limpkin published 333 00:20:18,240 --> 00:20:22,280 Speaker 1: the seven twelve page book Access Rule in Occupied Europe 334 00:20:22,480 --> 00:20:27,320 Speaker 1: Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government Proposals for Redress. This 335 00:20:27,400 --> 00:20:31,240 Speaker 1: book documented conditions in Europe and finally named the crime 336 00:20:31,320 --> 00:20:34,440 Speaker 1: that Roosevelt had referenced in that nineteen forty one address 337 00:20:34,480 --> 00:20:38,720 Speaker 1: we read from earlier. Limpkin wrote, quote, by genocide, we 338 00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:41,760 Speaker 1: mean the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group. 339 00:20:42,359 --> 00:20:45,040 Speaker 1: This new word, coined by the author to denote an 340 00:20:45,040 --> 00:20:48,000 Speaker 1: old practice in its modern development, is made from the 341 00:20:48,040 --> 00:20:53,800 Speaker 1: ancient Greek word genos, race, tribe, and the Latin side killing. 342 00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:58,760 Speaker 1: He went on to explain, quote, Generally speaking, genocide does 343 00:20:58,800 --> 00:21:02,680 Speaker 1: not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except 344 00:21:02,680 --> 00:21:06,080 Speaker 1: when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. 345 00:21:06,880 --> 00:21:10,439 Speaker 1: It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of 346 00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:14,720 Speaker 1: different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of 347 00:21:14,760 --> 00:21:18,080 Speaker 1: the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating 348 00:21:18,119 --> 00:21:22,600 Speaker 1: the groups themselves. Genocide is directed against the national group 349 00:21:22,680 --> 00:21:25,920 Speaker 1: as an entity, and the actions involved are directed against 350 00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:30,199 Speaker 1: individuals not in their individual capacity, but as members of 351 00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:34,199 Speaker 1: the national group. He also explained how genocide happens this 352 00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:38,320 Speaker 1: way quote Genocide has two phases, one destruction of the 353 00:21:38,440 --> 00:21:42,679 Speaker 1: national pattern of the oppressed group, the other the imposition 354 00:21:42,680 --> 00:21:46,240 Speaker 1: of the national pattern of the oppressor. This imposition, in turn, 355 00:21:46,320 --> 00:21:49,320 Speaker 1: may be made upon the oppressed population, which is allowed 356 00:21:49,359 --> 00:21:52,919 Speaker 1: to remain, or upon the territory alone after removal of 357 00:21:52,960 --> 00:21:55,879 Speaker 1: the population and the colonization of the area by the 358 00:21:55,920 --> 00:22:00,119 Speaker 1: oppressor's own nationals. By this point, Lemkin had started working 359 00:22:00,200 --> 00:22:03,480 Speaker 1: as an advisor to U S Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson. 360 00:22:04,200 --> 00:22:07,280 Speaker 1: After World War Two, Jackson was the US Chief prosecutor 361 00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:10,280 Speaker 1: at the Nuremberg Trials, and Lemkin advised him in that 362 00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:14,199 Speaker 1: role as well. Genocide was included in the indictments at 363 00:22:14,280 --> 00:22:18,320 Speaker 1: Nuremberg but to Lemkin's disappointment, not in the final judgment. 364 00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:22,240 Speaker 1: The judgment itself also pertained to only actions that happened 365 00:22:22,320 --> 00:22:26,320 Speaker 1: during wartime, not to atrocities that Germany had carried out 366 00:22:26,600 --> 00:22:30,080 Speaker 1: before the war officially began. On top of that disappointment, 367 00:22:30,440 --> 00:22:33,720 Speaker 1: while he was in Nuremberg for the trials, Limkin learned 368 00:22:33,800 --> 00:22:37,080 Speaker 1: that nearly his entire family had been killed by Nazis, 369 00:22:37,119 --> 00:22:41,040 Speaker 1: including his parents. At least forty nine of his relatives 370 00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:44,560 Speaker 1: were killed, with only his brother and his brother's family surviving. 371 00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:48,280 Speaker 1: Not long after the end of the Nuremberg trials, Lemkin 372 00:22:48,359 --> 00:22:51,800 Speaker 1: started planning to introduce a resolution on genocide at the 373 00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:55,199 Speaker 1: United Nations. He went to the U n to quote 374 00:22:55,560 --> 00:22:59,159 Speaker 1: enter into an international treaty which would formulate genocide as 375 00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:03,560 Speaker 1: an international crime, providing for its prevention and punishment in 376 00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:07,800 Speaker 1: time of peace and war, and this required multiple steps. 377 00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:11,080 Speaker 1: So first, he needed to convince multiple nations to support 378 00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:14,280 Speaker 1: a resolution calling for the United Nations to draft a 379 00:23:14,320 --> 00:23:18,040 Speaker 1: convention on genocide. He did this in nineteen forty six, 380 00:23:18,320 --> 00:23:22,320 Speaker 1: drafting the resolution and personally meeting with delegates to encourage 381 00:23:22,359 --> 00:23:26,840 Speaker 1: them to sign. Obviously, through this entire process, his amazing 382 00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:32,639 Speaker 1: fluency with languages was extremely helpful. Panama, Cuba, and India 383 00:23:32,760 --> 00:23:36,480 Speaker 1: agreed to sponsor this resolution, which the General Assembly adopted 384 00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:40,879 Speaker 1: on December eleventh, ninety six. It read, in part quote, 385 00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:43,960 Speaker 1: Genocide is the denial of the right of existence to 386 00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:47,720 Speaker 1: entire human groups, as homicide as the denial of the 387 00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:52,080 Speaker 1: right to live of individual human beings. Such denial of 388 00:23:52,119 --> 00:23:56,440 Speaker 1: the right to existence shocks the conscience of mankind, resulting 389 00:23:56,480 --> 00:23:59,080 Speaker 1: great losses to humanity in the form of cultural and 390 00:23:59,119 --> 00:24:03,080 Speaker 1: other contribution represented by those groups, and is contrary to 391 00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:06,640 Speaker 1: moral law and the spirit and aims of the United Nations. 392 00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:10,199 Speaker 1: The resolution went on to affirm that genocide is a 393 00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:14,359 Speaker 1: crime which the civilized world condemns, and invite the member 394 00:24:14,400 --> 00:24:18,800 Speaker 1: states to enact legislation to prevent and punish genocide. It 395 00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:23,399 Speaker 1: recommended international cooperation and requested the Economic and Social Council 396 00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:26,760 Speaker 1: to do the necessary research to drop a convention for 397 00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:30,720 Speaker 1: the next General Assembly. A u N resolution isn't binding, 398 00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:33,600 Speaker 1: so the next step was to draft a convention, which 399 00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:36,960 Speaker 1: is a formal agreement among UN member states. In other words, 400 00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:40,800 Speaker 1: it's a treaty. The u N Secretary General appointed Limpkin 401 00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:44,720 Speaker 1: to draft this Convention. Lemkin had gotten a job teaching 402 00:24:44,720 --> 00:24:46,919 Speaker 1: at Yale, and he took a leave of absence to 403 00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:50,320 Speaker 1: do it. I'll read Donna Due de Vaubre of France, 404 00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:54,919 Speaker 1: the former judge at the International Military Tribunal, and Vespasian 405 00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:59,000 Speaker 1: v Pella of Romania, president of the International Association of 406 00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:01,840 Speaker 1: Penal Law. We're part of the drafting process as well. 407 00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:05,480 Speaker 1: The process of drafting this convention was a long series 408 00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:09,520 Speaker 1: of back and forth and compromises, sometimes because of disagreements 409 00:25:09,520 --> 00:25:12,560 Speaker 1: among these three men, and sometimes because of lobbying by 410 00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:16,159 Speaker 1: the nations that would ultimately need to ratify it. The 411 00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:19,320 Speaker 1: treaty was not retroactive, but a number of UN member 412 00:25:19,359 --> 00:25:23,120 Speaker 1: states had ongoing issues that might be described as genocide. 413 00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:27,560 Speaker 1: For example, Lemkin thought the convention should apply to political groups, 414 00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:29,879 Speaker 1: but if it did, it would not have the support 415 00:25:29,920 --> 00:25:32,200 Speaker 1: of the U s s R, which had been carrying 416 00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:37,000 Speaker 1: out systematic political persecution for decades. The United States was 417 00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:40,280 Speaker 1: also concerned about the idea of cultural genocide, as it 418 00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:43,760 Speaker 1: might relate to black Americans. Even though this was during 419 00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:48,000 Speaker 1: the Civil Rights movement and racist violence was ongoing, it 420 00:25:48,160 --> 00:25:52,600 Speaker 1: seemed unlikely potentially that the US would be charged with 421 00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:56,680 Speaker 1: trying to exterminate people of African descent, given that their 422 00:25:56,720 --> 00:26:01,119 Speaker 1: population was increasing rather than decreasing. But the idea of 423 00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:05,800 Speaker 1: cultural genocide was another matter entirely so the United States 424 00:26:05,840 --> 00:26:08,480 Speaker 1: was not likely to support the convention if it included 425 00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:12,320 Speaker 1: cultural genocide, and as a side note, in nineteen fifty one, 426 00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:15,720 Speaker 1: the Civil Rights Congress presented a two hundred plus page 427 00:26:15,720 --> 00:26:20,639 Speaker 1: paper titled We Charged Genocide the Crime of Government against 428 00:26:20,680 --> 00:26:24,120 Speaker 1: the Negro People, which did argue that the US government 429 00:26:24,160 --> 00:26:27,879 Speaker 1: had committed genocide, but that didn't go anywhere. There are 430 00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:31,720 Speaker 1: also allegations that Lemkin himself was dismissive of this argument, 431 00:26:32,119 --> 00:26:35,200 Speaker 1: but neither the paper nor the response he purportedly gave 432 00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:39,639 Speaker 1: are among his personal documents. The negotiation wasn't just about 433 00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:42,639 Speaker 1: removing language that one or more of the nations was 434 00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:46,000 Speaker 1: wary of or wouldn't agree to. There were also some 435 00:26:46,080 --> 00:26:49,440 Speaker 1: definitions that some nations wanted to have added, but we're 436 00:26:49,520 --> 00:26:53,720 Speaker 1: not added into the final document. As one example, Japan 437 00:26:53,920 --> 00:26:58,119 Speaker 1: had distributed opium during its occupation of China, so China 438 00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:01,720 Speaker 1: wanted narcotics distribution and to be included as a component 439 00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:05,359 Speaker 1: of genocide as this was happening. Support for the convention 440 00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:08,960 Speaker 1: was growing outside of the u N. The National Council 441 00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:11,880 Speaker 1: of Christians and Jews had established a Committee for an 442 00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:17,119 Speaker 1: International Genocide Convention with Lemkin its strategists. In September of 443 00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:20,000 Speaker 1: nineteen forty eight, the committee submitted a petition to the 444 00:27:20,119 --> 00:27:23,240 Speaker 1: u N which had signatures from one hundred sixty six 445 00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:27,480 Speaker 1: non government organizations, which represented about two hundred million people 446 00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:31,439 Speaker 1: from twenty eight nations. The end result of all of 447 00:27:31,440 --> 00:27:35,320 Speaker 1: this negotiation was the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment 448 00:27:35,359 --> 00:27:38,600 Speaker 1: of the Crime of Genocide, which was unanimously approved on 449 00:27:38,680 --> 00:27:43,280 Speaker 1: December nine. As was the case with the earlier resolution, 450 00:27:43,600 --> 00:27:47,480 Speaker 1: Lemkin had individually met with numerous delegates to explain the 451 00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:50,480 Speaker 1: need for the convention and to encourage them to approve it. 452 00:27:50,920 --> 00:27:55,800 Speaker 1: Article one, the contracting parties confirmed that genocide, whether committed 453 00:27:55,840 --> 00:27:58,800 Speaker 1: in time of peace or in time of war, is 454 00:27:58,840 --> 00:28:01,800 Speaker 1: a crime under inter national law which they undertake to 455 00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:06,639 Speaker 1: prevent and to punish. Article two and the present Convention, 456 00:28:06,840 --> 00:28:10,719 Speaker 1: genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent 457 00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:15,240 Speaker 1: to destroy a whole or impart a national, ethnical, racial, 458 00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:18,960 Speaker 1: or religious group. As such, a killing members of the 459 00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:22,919 Speaker 1: group be causing serious bodily or mental harm to members 460 00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:27,280 Speaker 1: of the group see deliberately inflicting on the group conditions 461 00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:30,680 Speaker 1: of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in 462 00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:35,600 Speaker 1: whole or in part. D Imposing measures intended to prevent 463 00:28:35,720 --> 00:28:40,680 Speaker 1: births within the group e. Forcibly transferring children of the 464 00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:45,120 Speaker 1: group to another group. Article three. The following acts shall 465 00:28:45,200 --> 00:28:51,640 Speaker 1: be punishable. A genocide B conspiracy to commit genocide see 466 00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:56,640 Speaker 1: direct and public incitement to commit genocide, D Attempt to 467 00:28:56,760 --> 00:29:02,480 Speaker 1: commit genocide and E complicity in genocide article For Persons 468 00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:05,680 Speaker 1: committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in 469 00:29:05,840 --> 00:29:10,720 Speaker 1: Article three shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, 470 00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:15,360 Speaker 1: public officials, or private individuals. From there, the Convention goes 471 00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:18,440 Speaker 1: on to call on nations to enact their own legislation 472 00:29:18,520 --> 00:29:22,560 Speaker 1: related to genocide. It calls her persons charged with genocide 473 00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:24,840 Speaker 1: to be tried in the territory where the act took 474 00:29:24,880 --> 00:29:29,680 Speaker 1: place or by an international tribunal. Later articles include a 475 00:29:29,760 --> 00:29:34,160 Speaker 1: number of definitions and procedures. Lemkin described some of these 476 00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:37,480 Speaker 1: later articles as trojan horses. These were things that he 477 00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:40,720 Speaker 1: thought weakened the overall convention and put it at risk 478 00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:44,400 Speaker 1: of total failure. Article fourteen gave it a ten year 479 00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:49,080 Speaker 1: duration followed by five year renewals. Article fifteen rendered the 480 00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:52,000 Speaker 1: convention null and void if at any time there were 481 00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:55,360 Speaker 1: fewer than sixteen nations that were party to it. An 482 00:29:55,440 --> 00:29:59,400 Speaker 1: Article sixteen allowed nations to request revisions at any time, 483 00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:01,800 Speaker 1: with the U in General Assembly deciding what to do 484 00:30:01,840 --> 00:30:06,120 Speaker 1: about that request. Limpkin later said that he really regretted 485 00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:09,360 Speaker 1: allowing these to be included in the final document, but 486 00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:12,440 Speaker 1: that he also was not sure that the Convention could 487 00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:15,640 Speaker 1: have made it through another fight about them. Two days 488 00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:19,320 Speaker 1: after the unanimous vote on the convention, twenty two nations 489 00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:22,520 Speaker 1: signed it, signaling their intent for each of their governments 490 00:30:22,560 --> 00:30:27,080 Speaker 1: to ratify the treaty. Not long after that, Lemkin was hospitalized, 491 00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:31,080 Speaker 1: Although doctors never gave him a formal diagnosis. He called 492 00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:34,920 Speaker 1: it genociditis and attributed it to his exhaustion from having 493 00:30:34,960 --> 00:30:38,000 Speaker 1: worked so hard on the convention and on getting it passed. 494 00:30:38,600 --> 00:30:40,240 Speaker 1: As soon as he was out of the hospital, though, 495 00:30:40,280 --> 00:30:43,880 Speaker 1: he was back at work lobbying nations to ratify the convention, 496 00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:46,800 Speaker 1: and this was an ongoing pattern for the rest of 497 00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:49,840 Speaker 1: his life, with cycles of work and advocacy followed by 498 00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:54,160 Speaker 1: hospitalizations and surgeries. The Genocide Convention came into force on 499 00:30:54,240 --> 00:30:58,560 Speaker 1: January twelfth, ninety one, which Lemkin described as quote a 500 00:30:58,680 --> 00:31:01,520 Speaker 1: day of triumph for man kind and the most beautiful 501 00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:04,160 Speaker 1: day of my life. But even then he still wasn't 502 00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:06,640 Speaker 1: done fighting for it. Later on, in the nineteen fifties, 503 00:31:06,680 --> 00:31:09,360 Speaker 1: there was a push to create an International Criminal Court, 504 00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:13,480 Speaker 1: and part of this discussion involved abolishing the Genocide Convention 505 00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:16,440 Speaker 1: and folding the prosecution of genocide up under the court. 506 00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:19,920 Speaker 1: Lempkin once again stopped his other work and lobbied for 507 00:31:19,960 --> 00:31:23,400 Speaker 1: the Genocide Convention to remain in place. The Cold War 508 00:31:23,520 --> 00:31:26,720 Speaker 1: ultimately derailed this whole plan, and the International Criminal Court 509 00:31:26,760 --> 00:31:30,560 Speaker 1: was established much later. For much of the time working 510 00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:33,480 Speaker 1: on the Genocide Convention, Lemkin had been acting as a 511 00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:37,200 Speaker 1: private citizen. Once the treaty was drafted, he had no 512 00:31:37,240 --> 00:31:41,440 Speaker 1: official backing and he had no funding. He frequently went hungry, 513 00:31:41,800 --> 00:31:44,600 Speaker 1: and that continued later in his life. After the Convention 514 00:31:44,680 --> 00:31:47,720 Speaker 1: had come into effect. He continued to teach and to 515 00:31:47,760 --> 00:31:51,640 Speaker 1: write books, including an autobiography, But if he wasn't teaching, 516 00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:53,760 Speaker 1: he was trying to live off a hundred dollars a 517 00:31:53,800 --> 00:31:56,720 Speaker 1: month from the Jewish Labor Committee, and a small amount 518 00:31:56,760 --> 00:31:58,840 Speaker 1: of money he had been granted by the Conference on 519 00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:03,239 Speaker 1: Jewish Material claim Names against Germany. He was nominated for 520 00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:05,320 Speaker 1: the Nobel Peace Prize more than once for all of this, 521 00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:09,240 Speaker 1: but it was never awarded to him. On August nineteen 522 00:32:09,280 --> 00:32:12,360 Speaker 1: fifty nine, Limcoln died of a heart attack. He collapsed 523 00:32:12,360 --> 00:32:14,000 Speaker 1: at a bus stop. He was either on the way 524 00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:16,480 Speaker 1: to or from a publisher's office to talk about the 525 00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:20,360 Speaker 1: autobiography that he had been writing. The American Jewish Committee 526 00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:23,360 Speaker 1: paid for his burial, and only seven people attended his 527 00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:26,280 Speaker 1: grave side service. He had spent the last years of 528 00:32:26,320 --> 00:32:28,600 Speaker 1: his life living in the US, but he didn't live 529 00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:32,040 Speaker 1: long enough to see the US ratify the Genocide Convention. 530 00:32:32,760 --> 00:32:35,880 Speaker 1: Although the US was one of the first twenty two signatories, 531 00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:41,400 Speaker 1: the ratification didn't happen until November twenty five. And another 532 00:32:41,440 --> 00:32:44,040 Speaker 1: thing that Limpcoln did not live to see is that, 533 00:32:44,080 --> 00:32:46,960 Speaker 1: in the years after this convention came into effect, it 534 00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:50,320 Speaker 1: really hasn't had the impact that he hoped that it would. 535 00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:54,760 Speaker 1: He very clearly sincerely believed that an international law was 536 00:32:54,840 --> 00:32:57,800 Speaker 1: the only way to both prevent genocide and punish the 537 00:32:57,840 --> 00:33:00,560 Speaker 1: people responsible for it, but I don't. If you've listened 538 00:33:00,560 --> 00:33:03,239 Speaker 1: to our our podcast a lot, you have heard us 539 00:33:03,240 --> 00:33:05,200 Speaker 1: talk about a lot of things that have happened in 540 00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:08,880 Speaker 1: the years since then that fit under various definitions that 541 00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:14,200 Speaker 1: we read from the treaty earlier in eighteen and recognition 542 00:33:14,240 --> 00:33:17,400 Speaker 1: of the seventieth anniversary of the Genocide Convention, u N 543 00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:22,160 Speaker 1: Secretary General Antonio Guterres said, quote, since Nuremberg, we have 544 00:33:22,240 --> 00:33:26,520 Speaker 1: failed to prevent genocide in Cambodia, Rwanda and Strebanitza in 545 00:33:26,520 --> 00:33:29,640 Speaker 1: the former Yugoslavia. But in the past two decades we 546 00:33:29,680 --> 00:33:33,160 Speaker 1: have at least started to hold perpetrators to account. The 547 00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:37,560 Speaker 1: International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal 548 00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:41,520 Speaker 1: Tribunal for Rwanda, and the Extraordinary Chambers and the Courts 549 00:33:41,560 --> 00:33:45,360 Speaker 1: of Cambodia have all convicted perpetrators for the crime of genocide. 550 00:33:45,680 --> 00:33:48,880 Speaker 1: The work of these courts reflects a welcome resolve to 551 00:33:48,960 --> 00:33:52,480 Speaker 1: punish genocide. He went on to note that as of January, 552 00:33:53,840 --> 00:33:56,400 Speaker 1: there were still forty five u N member states that 553 00:33:56,440 --> 00:33:59,280 Speaker 1: had not yet become a party to the Genocide Convention 554 00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:02,680 Speaker 1: and urged them to do so. To end on a 555 00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:06,080 Speaker 1: more hopeful note, like I said earlier, Raphael Limpkin was 556 00:34:06,160 --> 00:34:10,000 Speaker 1: just unshakably certain during his lifetime that an international law 557 00:34:10,080 --> 00:34:12,759 Speaker 1: was what was needed to address this crime. And so 558 00:34:12,800 --> 00:34:15,720 Speaker 1: to end with a quote from the introduction to his autobiography, 559 00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:20,000 Speaker 1: which is called totally unofficial quote, I feel grateful to 560 00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:23,319 Speaker 1: Providence for having chosen me as a messenger boy for 561 00:34:23,400 --> 00:34:32,359 Speaker 1: this life saving idea. Say so much for joining us 562 00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:35,400 Speaker 1: on this Saturday. Since this episode is out of the archive, 563 00:34:35,520 --> 00:34:37,480 Speaker 1: if you heard an email address or a Facebook U 564 00:34:37,560 --> 00:34:39,759 Speaker 1: r L or something similar over the course of the show, 565 00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:43,799 Speaker 1: that could be obsolete now. Our current email address is 566 00:34:43,960 --> 00:34:48,440 Speaker 1: History Podcast at I heart radio dot com. Our old 567 00:34:48,480 --> 00:34:51,680 Speaker 1: health stuff works email address no longer works, and you 568 00:34:51,719 --> 00:34:55,040 Speaker 1: can find us all over social media at missed in History. 569 00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:58,239 Speaker 1: And you can subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, 570 00:34:58,280 --> 00:35:01,240 Speaker 1: Google podcast, the I heart rate Adeo app, and wherever 571 00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:07,560 Speaker 1: else you listen to podcasts. Stuffy miss In History Class 572 00:35:07,600 --> 00:35:10,680 Speaker 1: is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts 573 00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:14,239 Speaker 1: from I heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, 574 00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:17,320 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H