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Raphel Lemkin is such a fascinating figure. Samantha Power's description of him in A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide are quite vivid and leave you with the impression of a brilliant yet fraught lawyer who dedicated his life to a particular mission that we today sometimes take for granted. Facing History has put together a range of resources entitled Totally Unofficial: Raphael Lemkin and the Genocide Convention that focuses on the story of Raphael Lemkin who coined the term genocide. Many of the reading and activities I did with my students came from this publication. Other resources include chapters from Samantha Power's book and some closer studies of documents Lemkin wrote himself.
Activity 1:
Madrid Paper
This document was powerful and established some key ideas about the evolution of Lemkin's language that eventually brought him to coin the term genocide. It is also an example of the struggles Lemkin had of getting his ideas to be taken seriously. The text was a bit challenging, so in the attachment you will see the text has been excerpted with questions aligned to the different sections to help scaffold chunking and aid overall reading comprehension.
Activity 2:
A Crime without a Name
After students learn about Lemkin and his struggles, its powerful to read Churchill's speech where he refers to the Nazi war crimes as "A crime without a name" almost as a cry to Lemkin and his efforts. As you read through Churchill's speech, pause periodically and ask students how they annotated that section of text. Discuss Churchill’s language and setting up of the categories of good and evil. After students have read the speech and annotated the text, they are tasked with writing a letter from Lemkin to Churchill responding to his radio address. I ask that students make specific reference to Lemkin's ideas before he coins the term.
Annotation Guide text
O – vocabulary
____ main ideas
Squiggle – thematic connection to class
Double Underline – Very important
? – Questions
! – Surprise
Letter to Churchill
Directions: Write Churchill a letter in response to his radio address in the voice of Raphael Lemkin. In your letter, you must use at least three concepts from Lemkin that we’ve studied in class (i.e.barbarism, civilized world, humanity, vandalism, laws, sovereignty). You should use the following documents for evidence: “Sovereignty”, “Madrid Paper”, and “Crime without a Name.” It is not until 1944 that Lemkin coins the term “genocide”, so in order maintain historic integrity you cannot use the word in your letter.
Activity 3:
Samantha Power: “A Crime Without a Name”, from A Problem from Hell Chapter 2
Like in the previous unit, you should assess the purpose and level of your class. As this was an advanced level course, I assigned students to read chapter 2 of Samantha Power's book, with the task of answering the questions below.
Questions: Why was Lemkin conflicted about Tehelirian’s impassioned attempt at justice? (pg. 19)
What did you learn from Lemkin’s mother’s response to her son’s question about Emperor Nero? (pg. 20)
Why was it difficult for Lemkin to find allies for his proposal at the Madrid Conference in 1933? (pg. 22)
What was shocking about Hitler’s remarks in August of 1939? (pg. 23)
What struggles did Lemkin face when trying to convince fellow Polish and German Jews to leave or take action? (pg. 24)
Why was Lemkin interested in moving the US? (pg 25)
What did Lemkin spend most of his time working on while in Stockholm, Sweden? Why? (pg. 26)
What struggles did Lemkin face when trying to convince US statesmen of his campaign? (pg. 28)
What did Lemkin mean by “double murder”? (pg 28)
Overview of Raphael Lemkin
Born in 1900, Raphael Lemkin devoted most of his life to a single goal: making the world understand and recognize a crime so horrific that there was not even a word for it. Lemkin took a step toward his goal in 1944 when he coined the word “genocide” which means the destruction of a nation or an ethnic group. He said he had created the word by combining the ancient Greek word genos (race, tribe) and the Latin cide (killing). In 1948, three years after the concentration camps of World War II had been closed forever, the newly formed United Nations used this new word in a treaty that was intended to prevent any future genocides.
Lemkin died a decade later. He had lived long enough to see his word widely accepted and also to see the United Nations treaty, called the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted by many nations. But, sadly, recent history reminds us that laws and treaties are not enough to prevent genocide.
Raphael Lemkin and the Madrid Paper (1933)
In 1933 the League of Nations met in Madrid to define a new list of international crimes. This was Lemkin’s first opportunity to introduce his thoughts about the need to outlaw mass murder to the international community. But the Polish government, which hoped to please the Nazis, ordered Lemkin not to attend the meetings. Lemkin did not give up. He found a delegate who agreed to present his proposal for him. The text below includes excerpts from this proposal.
Drawing on a handful of existing international laws, Lemkin argued that international laws were based on the idea that certain acts were considered so dangerous to the international community that most nations of the world viewed them as crimes. A person who committed such an act could therefore be arrested and brought to trial in any country, no matter where the crime had been committed or where the person lived. This proposal was based on the principle of “universal jurisdiction,” or in Lemkin’s terms, “the principle of universal repression.” Lemkin argued that attempts to destroy minority groups were examples of such international crimes. Lemkin suggested a broad definition for the crime: both the murder of minority group members (“acts of barbarism”), and the destruction of a group’s cultural heritage (“acts of vandalism”) would be subject to international prohibition. He felt that protecting cultural heritage was essential because he believed that the legacy of all human groups (“collectivities”), contribute to an ever-expanding universal, human culture.
Questions:
What is Lemkin’s definition of an international perpetrator? Explain.
Who does he believe should respond to this type of perpetrator? Why?
Why does Lemkin mention slave trade, and women and children?
What are the laws supposed to protect?
How is the individual and the collectivity related in this argument?
Define these terms: massacre; pogrom; extermination:
What is the significance of the term barbarity? Explain.
Explain his argument of how the destruction of art and cultural heritage is a crime against all of humanity.
What is it that he wants from the League of Nations? Explain.
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