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Guide to the Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959) Collection,
undated, [1763]-2002, (bulk 1941-1951)

P-154

Processed by Tanya Elder

American Jewish Historical Society

Center for Jewish History

15 West 16th Street

New York, NY 10011


Phone: (212) 294-6160

Fax: (212) 294-6161

Email: info@ajhs.org


URL: http://www.ajhs.org

© 2003. American Jewish Historical Society, Newton Centre, MA and New York, NY. All rights reserved.
Center for Jewish History, Publisher.
Machine-readable finding aid was created by Tanya Elder as an MS Word 2000 document in February 2003. Electronic finding aid was converted to EAD 1.0 by Tanya Elder in March 2003. Electronic finding aid was converted to EAD 2002 by Tanya Elder in December 2003. Description is in English.
October 8, 2003: Separated Materials note added by Tanya Elder. December 30, 2003: revised as Lemkin2.xml by Tanya Elder. Attached EAD 2002 stylesheet, updated codes, added language codes, changed doctype declaration, added subject headings, etc. February 9, 2004: Biographical Note updated by Tanya Elder. March 11, 2005: revised by Tanya Elder (Lemkin02-03.xml). Removed boilerplate entities; attached updated stylesheet (removed frames); updated Biographical Note (changed reference from India to Japan; changed reference to bullet wound); corrected folder numbering error in Box 9; shortened inclusive dates of collection. Also added material to the collection (Box 1, Folder 2). April 22, 2005: Photograph of Lemkin's War Department identification card added by Tanya Elder.

Descriptive Summary
Creator: Lemkin, Raphael (1900-1959)
Title: Raphael Lemkin Collection
Dates: undated, [1763]-2002 (bulk 1941-1951)
Abstract: Raphael Lemkin, an international lawyer, initiated the use of the term "genocide," and succeeded in persuading the United Nations to adopt the Genocide Convention in 1948. Documents include personal correspondence and artifacts; correspondence, documentation, clippings, and articles regarding the United Nations adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment on the Crime of Genocide treaty; and source material for the unfinished manuscript, History of Genocide. Collection includes photographs, identity cards, articles, papers, essays, clippings, magazines, research materials, term papers, posters, United Nations materials, and microfilm.
Languages: The collection is in English, French, Hebrew, German, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Lithuanian.
Quantity: 12 manuscript boxes, 2 oversized boxes. 7.5 linear ft.
Identification: P-154
Repository: American Jewish Historical Society
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Biographical Note

Raphael Lemkin War Dept. Identification, 1946
Raphael Lemkin
War Department Identification, 1946
Raphael Lemkin Papers, AJHS

Raphael Lemkin was born in Bezwodene, Poland (located in imperial Russia at the time of Lemkin's birth and now near Volkovysk, Belarus), on June 24, in 1900, though some sources claim 1901 as his birth year. 1 Little is known of Lemkin's early life in Poland, a point mentioned in the only full-length biography written to date about Lemkin by Dr. James Martin, a Holocaust revisionist. 2 What is known is that Lemkin was one of three children born to Joseph and Bella (Pomerantz) Lemkin, all boys, including brothers Elias and Samuel. According to various sources, his father was a farmer and his mother a highly intellectual woman who was a painter, linguist, and philosophy student with a large collection of books in literature and history. With his mother as an influence, Lemkin mastered nine languages by the age of 14, including English, French, Spanish, Hebrew, Yiddish, and Russian. At the age of 15, Lemkin first encountered the idea of intentional mass murder of a population when news of the Turkish slaughter of Armenians reached Poland in 1915. 3 In addition, the novel Quo Vadis, by the Polish author Henryk Sienkiewicz, describing the barbarity of the Roman Empire under Nero, is cited as an additional influence on the young, sensitive, and impressionable Lemkin. Later in life, the 1933 slaughter of Christian Assyrians in Iraq propelled his work on the legal concepts of mass murder.

In 1919, he began the study of linguistics at the University of John Casimir in Lwow (Lviv, Poland), moved on to the University of Heidelberg in Germany to study philosophy, and returned to Lwow to study law at John Casimir in 1926, becoming a prosecutor in Warsaw at graduation. From 1929-1934, Lemkin was the Public Prosecutor for the district court of Warsaw. While Public Prosecutor, he wrote books on the law and worked on the team that codified the penal codes of Poland, which had gained independence from Russia in 1917. An important contact in the United States was forged during this time, when Lemkin worked with visiting Duke University law professor, Malcolm McDermott, in translating the The Polish Penal Code of 1932. McDermott would later provide Lemkin with help in leaving Europe.

In 1933, as public prosecutor, Lemkin presented a paper at the Madrid meeting of the League of Nations, urging the delegation to condemn acts of vandalism and barbarity as crimes against humanity. He proposed, prior to creating an actual word for it, that the "destruction of national, religious, and racial groups" should be declared "an international crime alongside piracy, slavery, and drug smuggling." 4 He proposed a ban on mass slaughter, but could not persuade the League to vote on it, with the Nazi delegation laughing at the idea of such a proposal. The presentation of his ideas at the League of Nations proved to be detrimental to his career as lead prosecutor, though being Jewish in Poland added to his career decline. Shortly after the Madrid meeting, he was admonished by the Polish Foreign Minister and under pressure, resigned his position in 1934, going into private practice until 1939.

When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Lemkin joined the underground guerilla movement in the forests of Poland. After spending six months avoiding the Germans and making his way to Lithuania, he escaped to Sweden. In Sweden from 1940-1941, he was a lecturer at the University of Stockholm, presenting a series of lectures on international finance, 5 published under the title Valutareglering och Clearing (Exchange Control and Clearing), while persuading Swedish officials to provide him with copies of Nazi directives issued to occupied countries. Professor McDermott invited Lemkin to join him at Duke in North Carolina, and with the Nazi directives in hand, he made an arduous eastern journey through Russia and Japan, arriving on the East coast of the U.S. in 1941. In the U.S., Lemkin presented the confiscated Nazi directives to the State and War Departments, and began lecturing at Duke.

At the outbreak of American participation in the war, the U.S. Army recruited Lemkin to teach classes in military government while the Board of Economic Warfare gave him a position as a consultant due to his work on international finance law. From 1941-1943, he worked on his most well known publication, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, in which he continued his work on the 1933 Madrid proposal, published the translated Nazi directives obtained in Sweden, analyzed Axis authority and policies in occupied Europe, and introduced the term and concept of genocide. Chapter 9 of Axis Rule developed Lemkin's theories on genocide, the word being a combination of the Greek "genos" or "race" and the Latin "cide" or "killing," thus forming a new concept of killing based on the deliberate destruction of a national, racial, ethnic, religious, or political minority by the majority or dominating society. 6

At the end of the war, the great majority of Lemkin's European family had died. His brother Elias survived with his wife and two sons. Raphael and Elias had a brief reunion in Europe, and Elias wrote letters from a U.S.-controlled Munich repatriation camp to Lemkin asking for help in immigrating to Canada, where additional Lemkin family were located in Montreal and Ottawa. From correspondence in the collection, Elias and his family successfully left Europe for Montreal in 1948.

In 1945-1946, Lemkin left his paid position with the Army, moving on to become an advisor to the U.S. Supreme Court Justice and Nuremberg Trial Judge, Robert Jackson. During the trials, he fought to have the word genocide introduced into the trial record, but his efforts were unsuccessful. British prosecutors objected on the grounds that the word was not found in the Oxford English Dictionary. 7

After Nuremberg, Lemkin turned to the United Nations General Assembly convened at Lake Success, NY in an effort to have the newly formed body condemn the act of genocide as an international standard. Lemkin presented a draft resolution for a Genocide Convention treaty to the countries of Cuba, India, and Panama, persuading them to sponsor the resolution. With the support of the United States, the resolution was placed before the General Assembly for consideration, with the various arguments and legalities over the document debated in the Legal Committee and the Social and Economic Council. The final draft of Resolution 96 (I) was presented to and approved by the General Assembly on December 11, 1946. The resolution affirmed that genocide was a crime under international law and directed the Member States and the Social and Economic Council to draft a treaty to present to Member States for ratification.

From 1947-1948, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment on the Crime of Genocide treaty was hashed out with Lemkin regularly consulting on the articles of the treaty. The draft was presented to the General Assembly from September to December 1948 at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris. Lemkin, with little money and suffering from recurring ill health, managed to make the Paris Conference and was present when the treaty was adopted on December 9, 1948. On December 11, the United States was the first of a required twenty Member State signatures needed for UN treaty adoption, though it was also necessary for each individual signatory government to ratify and adopt the treaty as well. In this respect, one hurdle remained for United States ratification: approval by the U.S. Senate. On June 16, 1949, the treaty, supported by President Truman and the State Department, arrived in Congress where it immediately ran into roadblocks, including the Korean War, McCarthyism, rising xenophobia in the U.S., the disapproval of the American Bar Association, and a movement to stop ratification led by Senator John Bricker. Ultimately, the hurdles in the United States proved too high, and in April 1953, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles withdrew any human rights treaties from consideration. Lemkin was devastated by the actions of his adopted country.8

After the UN adoption of the treaty in 1948, Lemkin became a minor celebrity, with newspaper articles written, magazine interviews given, and radio plays performed about his life. He enjoyed his brief time in the spotlight but continued to push for the ratification of the treaty in the United States. He believed that with the U.S. in the moral lead, other countries would follow suit and provide positive action in stopping mass race killings. He worked tirelessly during this period, becoming the first lecturer on international law at Yale University, consulting with the United Nations, working with the U.S. Committee for a U.N. Genocide Convention, writing his autobiography and drafting the unfinished manuscript, History of Genocide. In addition to teaching at Yale, Lemkin taught at Rutgers and Princeton Universities. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in the early 1950s and received the Grand Cross of Cespedes from Cuba in 1950 and the Stephen Wise Award of the American Jewish Congress in 1951. Ill health continuously plagued him, in particular high blood pressure, which may have contributed to his death from a heart attack on August 28, 1959. He died in poverty, without marrying, and is buried in Mt. Hebron Cemetery in Queens, New York with a headstone that reads "The Father of the Genocide Convention."

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide treaty went into effect by the United Nations on January 21, 1951. The United States ratified the treaty on October 14, 1988 and President Ronald Reagan signed the bill on November 4, 1988.

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Scope and Content Note

The collection documents the life of Raphael Lemkin as well as his fight for the adoption of the Genocide Convention by the United Nations and the United States. The collection documents his life from 1941-1951, with some research material covering earlier historic periods. Series I: Personal and Biographical, contains personal correspondence, biographical clippings, and personal affects such as photographs and identity papers. Series II: Genocide Convention, holds documents on the Genocide Convention including Lemkin correspondence on the Convention, correspondence from the U.S. Committee for a U.N. Genocide Committee, and various writings including clippings, articles, radio transcripts, notes, drafts, term papers, statements, resolutions and memoranda concerning the Convention. Series III: History of Genocide contains source materials, student assistant essays, handwritten notes, research index cards and correspondence regarding Lemkin's writing and publishing his uncompleted History of Genocide manuscript. Series IV: Publications, contains journals and pamphlets removed from folders in Series II and III. Series V: Restricted Documents contains yellowing and fragile correspondence, documents and writings removed from the collection. User copies have been produced for research use. Oversized Materials contain original clippings, which are restricted due to their fragility. All clippings have been photocopied and user copies are available for researchers. This section also contains an oversized document from the U.S. Committee for a U.N. Genocide Convention, and various miscellaneous source materials.

The collection is in English, French, Hebrew, German, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Lithuanian.

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Arrangement

Arrangement mostly follows the original archiving of the collection, with some minor changes and variations for clarification of contents.

Organized in five series and one oversized materials section.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

The collection is open to all researchers by permission of the Executive Director of the American Jewish Historical Society, except items that are restricted due to their fragility.

Use Restrictions

Information concerning the literary rights may be obtained from the Executive Director of the American Jewish Historical Society. Users must apply in writing for permission to quote, reproduce or otherwise publish manuscript materials found in this collection. Please note that literary rights to materials authored by Raphael Lemkin are held by the Lemkin heirs. For more information contact:
American Jewish Historical Society, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, 10011.
email: info@ajhs.org

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Related Material

American Jewish Archives, Raphael Lemkin Papers; New York Public Library, Raphael Lemkin Papers; 1 folder of materials from the American Affairs section of the Hadassah Archives.

The website Prevent Genocide has a selection of articles and commentary written by Lemkin at http://www.preventgenocide.org.

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Separated Material

A book inscribed to Raphael Lemkin was found within the library collection of the American Jewish Historical Society on October 6, 2003. It is not clear as to whether the book originates from the Lemkin Collection. The book is signed by its author, J. Tenenbaum, and is entitled Underground, The Story of a People, published in 1952.

The typescript of William Korey's "An Epitaph for Rapheal Lemkin" was placed in the collection and incorporated into the AJHS library holdings.

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Preferred Citation

Published citations should take the following form:

Identification of item, date (if known); Raphael Lemkin Collection; P-154; box number/folder number; American Jewish Historical Society, Newton Centre, MA and New York, NY. Newton Centre, MA, and New York, NY.

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Access Points

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Container List

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

 

Series I: Personal and Biographical, undated, 1933, 1941-1951, 1983, 1989, 2002.

Languages in this series include English, Hebrew, French, and Swedish.
Box 1 (Folders 1-16).
Arrangement:

Arranged in alphabetical order.
Scope and Content:

Series I contains several types of documentation regarding Mr. Lemkin, primarily personal correspondence between the years of 1941-1951. Correspondence contains various business correspondence including requests for payments of overdue fees and library books; correspondence from relatives in Canada, Long Island, NY, and Germany, including Lemkin's brother Elias (in a U.S. repatriation camp in Munich and from Montreal, Canada); and correspondence between Lemkin and Kurt Grossman over disputed payment for an article written by Grossman. Also of interest are letters from the Board of Economic Warfare regarding Lemkin's collection of Axis mandates smuggled from Sweden to the U.S. in 1941, letters from Robert Oppenheimer regarding employment of Lemkin at the Institute of Advanced Study in New Jersey, and a letter from an early collaborator of Lemkin's, Malcolm McDermott. Lemkin and McDermott collaborated on a publication of the Polish Penal Code of 1932 and the Law of Minor Offenses of 1939. McDermott aided Lemkin on his escape from Sweden to the U.S. in 1941.

Biographical information includes clippings, articles, and radio transcripts. One dramatized radio script in particular offers a version of Lemkin's escape from Poland, arrival in the United States, and as the writer and champion of the Genocide Convention. Family photographs are also included, presumably of Lemkin's cousins in Canada and two pictures that may be Elias Lemkin's children. Identity cards include Lemkin's War Department identification, his Colonel privileges mess pass, alien registration card, UN Genocide Convention badge, and war ration booklet. Medical papers concerning an illness, letters regarding his appointment to Yale, a report card of final grades presumably from Lemkin's time as a student learning American jurisprudence, and several pen and ink drawings of Yale University are included. As to whether the drawings are directly from the hand of Mr. Lemkin is unknown. Also included are three reprints of lectures or speeches given on the law (Box 1, Folder 11, General Writings on Law) including: Valutareglering och Clearing (Exchange Control and Clearing), a reprint of a series of lectures given by Lemkin at Stockholm University in 1940-1941, a reprint of a lecture originally published in Law and Contemporary Problems in 1944 on "Orphans of Living Parents: A Comparative Legal and Sociological View," and "Les Actes Constituant un Danges General (Interetatique) Consideres Comme Delits de Droit des Gens," presented to the League of Nations at Madrid for the Unification of the Penal Code in 1933.

Rounding out the series are materials added after 1975 from a New York Public Library exhibit on Raphael Lemkin from 1983 (Box 1, folder 14). Also included is a 1989 biographical article written by William Korey entitled "Raphael Lemkin: 'The Unofficial Man'" published in Midstream, June-July 1989 (Box 1, Folder 2). It is not known who donated or added these items to the collection. Tanya Elder added William Korey's "An Epitaph to Raphael Lemkin" to Box 1, Folder 2 in 2005.

Box Folder Title Date
1 1 Biographical Information undated
1 2 Biographical Information, Articles and Clippings undated, 1947-1950, 1989, 2002
1 3 Biographical Information, Radio Transcripts 1949-1950
1 4 Correspondence 1941-1946
1 5 Correspondence 1947
1 6 Correspondence 1948
1 7 Correspondence 1949
1 8 Correspondence 1950
1 9 Correspondence 1951
1 10 Correspondence undated
1 11 General Writings on Law undated, 1933, 1941, 1944
1 12 Identity Cards undated, 1945-1948
1 13 Medical Papers, Position Appointments, Final Grades and Drawings undated, 1944-1945, 1948-1950
1 14 New York Public Library Exhibit Opening Ceremony Agenda and Press Release 1983
1 15 Photographs undated
1 16 Programs and Honors undated, 1951
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Series II: Genocide Convention, undated, 1945-1951.

Languages in this series include English, French, German, Spanish, and Norwegian.
Boxes 2-7.
Arrangement:

Arranged in three subseries, Subseries 1: Correspondence and Other, Subseries 2: United Nations, and Subseries 3: Writings.

Scope and Content:

Series II contains materials either directly gathered from the meetings of the United Nations on the Genocide Conventions (1946-1951), or correspondence and various writings related to the Genocide Convention. The series is subdivided into three subseries: Correspondence and Other; United Nations; and Writings. Related materials on Subseries 2 and 3 may be found in Series IV: Publications, Series V: Restricted Documents and Oversized Materials.

Subseries 1: Correspondence and Other,  undated, 1945-1951.

Arrangement:

Arranged in alphabetical order.

Scope and Content:

Correspondence is arranged alphabetically between Lemkin Correspondence on the Genocide Convention, and correspondence that seems to derive from the U.S. Committee for a U.N. Genocide Convention. Also included are public meeting notices concerning meetings held on the convention in 1949 and 1950, one letter from Pearl S. Buck, a member of the U.S. Committee concerning a draft of the group's manifesto on genocide, and membership lists from the U.S. and International Committees for a U.N. Genocide Convention, along with a few minutes for that group. Additional correspondence from Buck may be found throughout the collection.

Lemkin correspondence derives from 1945-1951 and contains letters from prominent Senators, writers, U.S. Committee on U.N. Genocide Convention members (particularly James Rosenberg), and others concerning the convention on genocide. Among the correspondents are Pearl S. Buck, A.M. Rosenthal of the New York Times, N.Y. Congressman Emanuel Cellar and Senator Brien McMahon of Connecticut, and a letter from Nobel Prize winner Gabriela Mistral. (Mistral's letter was written to Buck and forwarded to Lemkin regarding her stand on genocide. Mistral was a member of the International Committee for a U.N. Genocide Convention.) Other correspondents include foreign ministers and delegates to the Genocide Convention and one letter from Rosa Markmann de Gonzalez Videla, the wife of Gabriel Gonzalez Videla, President of Chile from 1946-1952. A brief letter from Stephan Springarn, Assistant to the President and later FCC commissioner, is also included. Primarily the correspondence offers ideas, proposals, support, and reminders for Lemkin regarding his work on the Genocide Convention

[U.S. Committee for a U.N. Genocide Convention] correspondence was originally filed under "General Correspondence on the Genocide Convention." Under further investigation of the folders (Box 2, Folders 7-11), it was concluded that the letters were not addressed to Lemkin, but to other members of the Committee, particularly to and from the Chairman of the Committee, James Rosenberg and Pearl S. Buck. Also included are letters from foreign delegates including China's Liu Chieh, who wrote to the committee saying that China had not yet officially decided its stance on the genocide convention, Sir Mohamed Zafrullah Khan, Foreign Affairs Minister of Pakistan on Pakistan's stance, and various other letters from foreign correspondents. Also included is a telegram from John D. Rockefeller, Jr., declining a place on the Committee roster and a thank you letter from Henry Cabot Lodge. On the whole, the correspondence documents the proceedings of the Committee and its efforts to persuade the United States government to ratify the Genocide Convention.

Box Folder Title Date
1 17 Buck, Pearl S. Correspondence and Proposed Manifesto undated
1 18 Lemkin Correspondence 1945-1947
1 19 Lemkin Correspondence 1948
Box Folder Title Date
2 1 Lemkin Correspondence February-July 1949
2 2 Lemkin Correspondence August-December 1949
2 3 Lemkin Correspondence 1950
2 4 Lemkin Correspondence 1951
2 5 Lemkin Correspondence undated
2 6 Public Meetings Notices 1949-1950
2 7 [U.S. Committee for a U.N. Genocide Convention] Correspondence 1947
2 8 [U.S. Committee for a U.N. Genocide Convention] Correspondence January-June 1948
2 9 [U.S. Committee for a U.N. Genocide Convention] Correspondence July-December 1948
2 10 [U.S. Committee for a U.N. Genocide Convention] Correspondence 1949-1951
2 11 [U.S. Committee for a U.N. Genocide Convention] Correspondence undated
2 12 U.S. Committee for a U.N. Genocide Convention Membership List and Minutes undated, 1948-1949

Subseries 2: United Nations,  undated, 1947-1949, 1951.

Arrangement:

Arranged in alphabetical order.
Scope and Content:

The United Nations documents derive from UN committees and General Assembly meetings commenced on the subject of genocide including the Ad Hoc Committee of the Economic and Social Council proceedings (1948), the Sixth Committee proceedings from 1946-1949 on the question of the Convention, and Sixth Committee proceedings from the Palais de Chaillot conference held in Paris by the UN in 1948. General Assembly commentary and proceedings are included from the Palais de Chaillot meetings as well as meetings conducted at the UN's Lake Success facility in Lake Placid, NY and New York City proceedings. Statements by various U.S. and foreign delegates are located in this subseries, petitions and communications from Non-Governmental Agencies, and UN press releases from 1947-1951 on the Convention can also be found in this portion of the collection. Two publications on the UN Convention may be found in Series IV: Publications including a 1952 UN pamphlet on the Convention and a report from the President of the United States on U.S. participation in the United Nations for the year 1947-1948.

Box Folder Title Date
2 13 Delegate Statements 1947-1948
Box Folder Title Date
3 1 Economic and Social Council Ad Hoc Committee on Genocide Reports April-May 1948
3 2 Economic and Social Council Ad Hoc Committee on Genocide Proceedings April-June 1948
3 3 Economic and Social Council Proceedings 1947
3 4 Economic and Social Council Proceedings January 1948
3 5 Economic and Social Council Proceedings February, April, August 1948
3 6 General Assembly Proceedings 1946-1947
3 7 General Assembly Proceedings 1948
3 8 General Assembly Resolutions September 21-December 12, 1948
3 9 Non-Governmental Agencies (NGO's) Petitions and Communications undated, 1947-1948
Box Folder Title Date
4 1 Press Releases 1947-1949, 1951
4 2 Sixth Committee, General Assembly Proceedings 1946-1947
4 3 Sixth Committee, General Assembly Proceedings 1948-1949
4 4 Sixth Committee Reports, Journal of the United Nations 1946, 1948, 1949
4 5 Sixth Committee, Official Records of the 3rd Session of the General Assembly, PT. 1, Summary Record of Meeting September 21-December 10, 1948

Subseries 3: Writings,  undated, 1933, 1945-1951.

Arrangement:

Arranged in alphabetical order.
Scope and Content:

The subseries on writings, arranged in alphabetical order, derives from the many types of non-pamphlet and journal articles, clippings, essays, drafts, interviews, notes, term papers, statements, transcripts, resolutions, and unpublished articles and papers found within the collection. Some papers had been housed in manila folders. These were removed and filed, in some cases, in their own folders to distinguish document types. Each folder indicates whether or not Lemkin wrote the contents. There is no direct indication that Lemkin wrote the folder contents labeled Notes and Drafts, Drafts and Early Version of Convention Text, Unpublished Articles, and Unpublished Papers. Of odd interest is a screen- or teleplay written by Austrian director and writer Leo Mittler on the creation of the Genocide Convention (Box 6, Folder 3). Assorted journals and law association journals may be found within Series IV: Publications.

Box Folder Title Date
5 1 Addresses and Lectures Mentioning or Citing Lemkin 1949
5 2 American Bar Association Debate Transcript and Address September 1949
5 3 Articles by Lemkin 1933, 1945-1948
5 4 Articles by Lemkin 1949-1951
5 5 Articles/Clippings Mentioning or Citing Lemkin 1944-1948
5 6 Articles/Clippings Mentioning or Citing Lemkin 1949
5 7 Articles on the Genocide Convention 1945-1951
5 8 Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, by Lemkin, Chapter 9 of Manuscript (German) on Genocide 1944
5 9 Clippings 1945-1949
5 10 Clippings 1950-1951
5 11 Clippings by Lemkin 1948-1950
5 12 Drafts and Early Version of Convention Text undated, [1947-1949]
5 13 Fact Sheets (Informational Materials) undated, 1947, 1949, 1951
5 14 Genocide and Genocide Convention Scrapbook undated, 1947-1948
Box Folder Title Date
6 1 Lemkin Interviews and Radio Transcripts 1947-1951
6 2 Lemkin Statements and Memoranda undated, 1948-1950
6 3 Mittler, Leo Screenplay 1949
6 4 Notes and Drafts, Misc. undated
6 5 Notes and Drafts, Misc. undated
6 6 Notes and Drafts, Handwritten, Misc. undated
6 7 "Nuremberg Trial and the Genocide Convention," Jan Triska Term Paper 1949
6 8 Radio Broadcast Transcripts [1945-1947], 1948
6 9 Relation of the Genocide Convention and the Nuremberg Law Notes undated
6 10 Reports Mentioning or Citing Lemkin 1945-1947
6 11 Statements, Resolutions, and Memoranda 1946-1948
6 12 Statements, Resolutions, and Memoranda 1949-1951
Box Folder Title Date
7 1 Statements, Resolutions, and Memoranda undated
7 2 Unpublished Articles undated
7 3 Unpublished Papers undated
7 4 U.S. Law and the Genocide Convention Essays undated, 1949-1950
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Series III: History of Genocide, undated, 1763, 1919, circa 1921, 1940s, 1951.

The predominant language of the series is English, with some Polish and German.
Box 7 (Folders 5-11) - Box 9.
Arrangement:

Series III is divided into four subseries: Subseries 1: Source Materials, Subseries 2: Research Essays, Subseries 3: Research Index Cards and Subseries 4: Microfilm.

Scope and Content:

Series III was originally titled Source Material. Upon evaluation of the papers and the discovery of correspondence relating to the proposed publication of Lemkin's book on historic cases of genocide, it was concluded that the research found within this series related to both Lemkin's work on the History of Genocide as well as the overall history of genocide. To reflect the materials contained in this series, its name was changed to History of Genocide.

Subseries 1: Source Materials,  undated, 1763, 1919, 1947-1949.

Arrangement:

Arranged in alphabetical order.
Scope and Content:

This subseries contains source materials on topics relating to examples of genocide as defined by Lemkin. Examples include allegations of mass murder between the states of India and Pakistan in the Kashmir region, the alleged German massacre of Africans at Herero, South-West Africa, the abduction of children by Communist infiltrators in Greece, documentation on the history of confrontation between the Soviet Union and the Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia); the Turkish slaughter of Armenians between the years of 1916-1919, and essays on examples of foreign intervention of the United States and Britain on behalf of oppressed minorities. Source materials include research conducted by student assistants; various documents including United Nations proceedings and reports; snippets of historical accounts, and one item of correspondence relating an interview with an Armenian woman and her escape to the United States circa 1915. Of particular interest are microfilmed facsimile documents (Folder 10) from the British Museum. According to documentation within the folder, the letters, dating to 1763, are from a collection of Colonel Bouquet Papers written to Lord Jeffrey Amherst, commander of the British army during the French and Indian War. The documents authorize the use of providing smallpox-infected blankets to the Indian population near Detroit, Michigan, as well as a request to use the 'Spanish method' of hunting Indians down by dogs in an attempt to exterminate or drive them from the region. Also included in the folder are descriptions of Korean accusations of atrocities committed by the Japanese presented at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and a list compiled by a librarian of references to genocide in British newspapers between the years of 1945-1947, as well as some correspondence containing research. Some publications removed from overstuffed folders can be found in Series IV: Publications. Microfilm concerning the Armenian massacre may be found in Subseries 4: Microfilm.

Box Folder Title Date
7 5 Foreign Intervention for Oppressed Minorities and Minority Protection Treaties Essays (See also Research Index Cards, American Intervention and Minority Protection and British Intervention) undated
7 6 German Massacre at Herrero (Southwest Africa) General Assembly Report, Essay and Pamphlets undated, 1947-1949
7 7 Greece - Abduction of Children by Communist Guerillas 1948-1949
7 8 India-Pakistan Essays, United Nations Documents and Clippings undated, 1947-1948
7 9 Soviet Union-Baltic States [United Nations Delegation Documents and Visual Materials] undated, 1947-1949
7 10 Source Materials, Clippings and Correspondence, Misc. undated, 1763, 1919, 1947-1948
7 11 Turkey-Armenia [Interview Correspondence] and Microfilm (See Box 9 for microfilmed trial testimony) undated

Subseries 2: Research Essays and Correspondence,  undated, 1763, 1919, 1947-1948, 1951.

Arrangement:

Arranged in alphabetical order.

Scope and Content:

Student research assistants primarily wrote essays to Lemkin on topics related to the treatment of groups by an oppressor. Each essay described an historical period such as the "Black Hundred" movement in Czarist Russia, the British treatment of Catholics and the Irish, German oppression of Slavs and Eastern Europeans, Greek-Turkish relations, Spanish treatment of South American native tribes such as the Mayans and Incans, and an essay on Tamerlane's barbarity on expanding his kingdom from Russia to India. Folder 11 contains correspondence to and from Lemkin and several potential publishers concerning his manuscript and research on the treatment of North America Indians by the French and British.

Box Folder Title Date
8 1 Ancient Assyrians undated
8 2 "Black Hundred" Movement in Czarist Russia (in German) and Correspondence 1948
8 3 Bohemia in the Counterreformation undated
8 4 British Treatment of Catholics Under Elizabeth undated
8 5 British Treatment of Ireland undated
8 6 Charlemagne undated
8 7 German Oppression of Slavs and East Europeans undated
8 8 German Oppression of Slavs and East Europeans (Polish) undated
8 9 Greek-Turkish Relations, Handwritten Notes, and Correspondence undated
8 10 History of Genocide Projected Book and North American Indian Research Correspondence 1947-1948, 1951
8 11 Spanish Treatment of South American Indians undated
8 12 Tamerlane undated
8 13 Teutonic Knights and the Old Prussians Essay and Correspondence undated
8 14 Turkish Massacre of Armenians - Book-Length Manuscript undated
8 15 Turkish Massacre of Armenians - Short Manuscript undated
8 16 Turkish Massacre of Bulgarians Essay undated
8 17 Turks and Greeks Research Notes undated

Subseries 3: Research Index Cards,  undated, [1948-1949].

Arrangement:

Arranged in alphabetical order.
Scope and Content:

Index cards of research notes, primarily written by student assistants. Topics include historical notes and quotes on British and American intervention on behalf of oppressed minorities, Armenians and Assyrians; the revolt under the leadership of the Ukrainian Cossack hetman, Bohdan Chmielnicki (Khmelnytsky in Polish), who fought with Poland and murdered over 100,000 Jews and Poles in 1648-1649; index cards on groups such as the Maronites of the Middle East, Mongols, the Spanish Moriscos or Moors who were expelled from Spain because of their Muslim practices; Quaker persecution in Massachusetts and the psychology and sociology of genocide. In addition, there is research dealing with native Indian tribes in North, Central and South America, and their encounters with Spanish, English and French conquerors.

Box Folder Title
9 1 American Intervention [for Oppressed Minorities and Minority Protection Treaties] ( See also Source Material, Foreign Intervention for Oppressed Minorities and Minority Protection Treaties)
9 2 Armenians and Assyrians
9 3 Bohemia in the Counterreformation
9 4 Chmielnicki Revolt - Jews
9 5 Greeks
9 6 Jews in Medieval Europe
9 7 Maronites
9 8 Minority Protection Treaties and British Intervention (See also Source Material, Foreign Intervention for Oppressed Minorities and Minority Protection Treaties)
9 9 Mongols
9 10 Moriscos
9 11 North American Indians - Enslavement
9 12 North American Indians - European Expropriation of Land
9 13 North American Indians - Extermination
9 14 North American Indians - Forced Relocation
9 15 North American Indians - Miscellany
9 16 Psychology and Sociology of Genocide
9 17 Quakers in Massachusetts
9 18 Romans - Early Christians
9 19 Spaniards - American Indians
9 20 Spaniards - Peruvian Indians
9 21 Spaniards - Yucatan Indians

Subseries 4: Microfilm,  circa 1921.

Arrangement:

Original and research copy. Original copy is restricted.

Scope and Content:

Series 4 is devoted to the user and original copies of microfilm found within the collection. The microfilm is of a charge sheet, evidence, and testimony against Misshak Torlakian (sp), accused of assassinating Behbouth (sp) han Djevanshire, in Constantinople, circa 1921. The trial testimony seems to be part of a military tribunal and Djevanshire may have been a member of the Azerbaijan government, killed by Torlakian, an "Ottoman," or Turkish subject. The microfilm contains part testimony and part handwritten documents, possibly by Lemkin commenting on the case.

Box Folder Title Date
9 22 Turkish-Armenian Trial Transcript, Original (RESTRICTED) circa 1921
9 23 Turkish-Armenian Trial Transcript, User Copy circa 1921
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Series IV: Publications, undated, 1915-1919, 1944, 1946-1952.

The series is in English and Lithuanian.
Boxes 10-12.
Arrangement:

The publications series is arranged in the order in which the publications were pulled from their respective series and subseries. For instance, journals from Series II: Genocide Convention, Subseries 3: Writings, are filed together by year. The publications, including journals, magazines, and pamphlets, were pulled from their original folders due to overstuffing within folders and incompatibility with loose paper documents.

Scope and Content:

The publications include United Nations-related brochures, writings within general journals and law association journals on the Genocide Convention, and source materials from magazines, bulletins, and pamphlets from publications concerning genocide-related issues of the 20th century. The source materials publications are of particular interest. Included in this section are several copies of the magazine Hellenia: The Voice of Greek Women, from 1949-1950 with articles on general women's issues in Greece as well as information on the abduction of children by Communist guerillas; several issues of the Lithuanian Bulletin from 1946-1950 with articles concerning the conflict between the Baltic countries and the Soviet Union as well as other publications detailing related atrocities; publications from 1915-1919 concerning Turkey and Armenia, and several pamphlets from the Pakistani viewpoint concerning issues regarding allegations of genocide against Muslims in Kashmir and India dating from 1948.

Series II: Genocide Convention. Subseries 2: United Nations, 1948, 1952
Box Folder Title Date
10 1 "Convention on Genocide: What the United Nations is Doing" 1952 edition
10 2 "United States Participation in the United Nations: Report by the President to the Congress for the Year" April 1948

Series II: Genocide Convention. Subseries 3: Writings, 1947-1951
Box Folder Title Date
10 3 Journal Articles 1947-1948
10 4 Journal Articles 1949
10 5 Journal Articles 1950
Box Folder Title Date
11 1 Law Association Journal 1949
11 2 Law Association Journals 1950-1951

Series III: History of Genocide. Subseries 1: Source Materials Publications, 1915-1919, 1944-1951
Box Folder Title Date
11 3 Greece-Abduction of Children by Communist Guerillas, [Hellenia: The Voice of Greek Women Magazine] 1949-1950
11 4 India-Pakistan Pamphlets 1948
11 5 Soviet Union-Baltic States Publications 1944, 1948-1951
Box Folder Title Date
12 1 Soviet Union-Baltic States [Lithuanian Bulletin] 1946-1947
12 2 Soviet Union-Baltic States [Lithuanian Bulletin] 1947-1950
12 3 Turkey - Armenian Publications 1915-1919, 1946-1948
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Series V: Restricted Documents, various dates.

Box 13.
Arrangement:

The documents are arranged by series in alphabetical order.

Scope and Content:

This series contains fragile and yellowing documents removed from the general collection for preservation purposes. All materials have been photocopied with copies placed within the original folder for research purposes. All documents in this series are restricted due to their fragile condition.
Box Folder Title
13 1 Series I, Correspondence
13 2 Series II, Articles by Lemkin
13 3 Series II, Articles Mentioning or Citing Lemkin
13 4 Series II, Lemkin Correspondence
13 5 Series II, Notes and Drafts
13 6 Series II, Statements, Resolutions and Memoranda
13 7 Series II, United Nations
13 8 Series II, Unpublished Essays
13 9 Series III, Research Essays
13 10 Series III, Research Notes
13 11 Series III, Source Materials
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Oversized Materials, undated, 1944-1945, 1947-1951.

The predominent language of the series is English.
Box 14.
Arrangement:

Documents are arranged by series in alphabetical order.
Scope and Content:

Oversized materials primarily consist of original clippings pulled from the collection, unfolded and placed in flat storage. All clippings have been photocopied with copies placed within the original folder for research purposes. Unless otherwise noted, all materials are restricted. Folder 6 and folder 7 contain materials that may be used by researchers including a U.S. Committee for a U.N. Genocide Convention poster with photographs and quotes by members of the committee and a poster of the Genocide Conventions. Folder 7 contains various oversized source materials. This folder is shared with restricted source material clippings.

Box Folder Title Date
14 1 Series I: Clippings, Biographical (Restricted) undated, 1947-1948, 1950
14 2 Series II: Clippings (Restricted) undated, 1949-1950
14 3 Series II: Clippings by Lemkin (Restricted) 1948-1951
14 4 Series II: Clippings Mentioning or Citing Lemkin (Restricted) undated 1944, 1947-1948
14 5 Series II: Genocide and Genocide Convention Scrapbook (Restricted) undated 1947-1948
14 6 Series II: U.S. Committee for a U.N. Genocide Convention Committee Poster and Convention Text (Fact Sheets, Informational Materials) undated
14 7 Series III: Source Materials Clippings and Misc. Source Material (Clippings restricted) undated, 1945, 1947
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