Raphael Lemkin papers
Extent and Medium
5 reels
Creator(s)
- United Nations
Biographical History
Raphael Lemkin was an attorney and professor of law who coined the term 'genocide' and was responsible for the United States genocide convention. He was born in Eastern Poland on 24 June 1901. He studied philology, mastered nine languages, served as Warsaw's public prosecutor, and practised and taught law until 1939, when the Nazi invasion forced him to flee to Sweden. In 1941 Lemkin emigrated to the USA on the invitation of the Duke University Law School and was later associated with the Yale Law School. During the 1940s and 1950s he devoted most of his energies to the crusade for the international adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948. He continued to lobby for unanimous ratification. Although the United States failed to ratify the convention, it became international law in January 1951. Lemkin never married and died of a heart attack in 1959.
Acquisition
Raphael Lemkin papers
Donated December 2013
Donor: John Cooper
Scope and Content
This collection of Raphael Lemkin's papers documents his intense interest in the subject of genocide. The originals are held at the New York Public Library, from which the text of the following catalogue was obtained. The papers largely document Lemkin's intense interest in the subject of genocide. With the exception of a draft of his autobiography, Unofficial Man, the collection contains very little personal material. The correspondence is both incoming and outgoing, with public officials, newspapers, academics, and religious groups. It relates to Lemkin's struggle for support for the ratification of the genocide convention. Much of the correspondence is filed by country. The autobiographical writings consist of outlines and summaries of Unofficial Man as well as holograph and typescript drafts of several chapters and abundant notes, memoranda, reports and other documents written by Lemkin and others on the subject of genocide and the struggle for the ratification of the convention. Much of this material is fragmentary. The printed material includes press releases and United Nations publications and reports.
System of Arrangement
The papers are arranged into 8 sections: correspondence, photographs, biographical and autobiographical sketches, public statements, interviews, autobiographical writings, writings on genocide, clippings and printed material.
Conditions Governing Access
Open
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Microfilm