CYIL vol. 15 (2024)

CYIL 15 ȍ2024Ȏ “RETOUR À LEMBERG”: COULD A COMICS EXPLAIN THE RESPONSE … Court of Justice. He came from the same Galician town like Philippe Sands’ grandfather and was admitted to the Lemberg University Law School, nevertheless, after this city became part of Poland, he was not allowed to finish his studies because of his Jewish origins. Therefore, he moved to Vienna where he was finally able to obtain his law degree. It was there that he met his wife, Rachel. Together, they decided in 1923 to continue their studies in England. Then he pursued an academic career, first at the London School of Economics and later at Cambridge University. After the beginning of the Second World War, he departed with his family to the United States where he met Attorney General Robert Jackson, who later became the “founding father” of the Nuremberg Tribunal. Upon his return to London, he started to participate upon the invitation by Professor Arnold McNair in the work of the newly established United Nations War Crimes Commission. After the defeat of the Nazi Germany, Hersch Lauterpacht was involved by Robert Jackson in the drafting of the London Agreement, including the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal, into which he introduced the concept of crimes against humanity. Subsequently, he provided legal support to Sir Hartley Shawcross, the British Prosecutor before the Nuremberg Tribunal, thus becoming a direct participant in this historic trial. The third story line is the one of Rafael Lemkin, who did not come from Galicia (like author’s grandfather and Hersch Lauterpacht), but from Wolkowysk which is today part of Belarus. Nevertheless, he followed the same path in education like Hersch Lauterpacht, entering the Lwów University Law School in 1921 and being formed by the same Professor of criminal law Juliusz Makarewicz. After receiving his law degree, Rafael Lemkin started a legal career in Poland, first at the Court of Appeal, then as a prosecutor and finally as a successful commercial attorney in Warsaw. Being familiar with Hitler’s Mein Kampf , he fled from Poland after the German invasion, first to Lithuania, then to Sweden. While teaching in Stockholm, he managed to assemble a collection of Nazi decrees applicable in the occupied countries that showed the criminal intentions of the Nazis with the occupied nations and particularly toward the Jewish minorities. When he received an invitation to join the faculty of the Duke University Law School, he embarked on an odyssey through the USSR and Japan to the United States, carrying with him suitcases filled with these Nazi decrees. In the United States, he tried to bring to the attention of the Government in Washington the atrocities committed by the Nazis in the occupied countries. He even met Vice-President Henry Wallace who showed no interest in the matter. In order to raise awareness of the American public, Rafael Lemkin wrote a book entitled “Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government, Proposal for Redress” where he sets out the new crime of “genocide”. Thanks to this book, he was invited to join the team of Robert Jackson. Because of his emotional style of work, however, he was sidelined and not taken to London to prepare the Nuremberg trial. Eventually, he made it to London and argued there strongly for inclusion of genocide into the charges. Nevertheless, as a result of his unauthorized communication with the press, he was excluded from the process. Hans Frank, a leading Nazi lawyer, Bavarian Minister of Justice, Reichsminister and finally head of the General Government administering occupied Poland, is presented as an adversary of Hersch Lauterpacht and Rafael Lemkin. Particularly his position in the General Government made him responsible for the tragic faith of the Jewish population, including the families of Lauterpacht, Lemkin and Philippe Sands. On the margins, the story of Otto von Wächter, the Nazi governor of Galicia, is also mentioned (he is the main character of another excellent book of Philippe Sands – “The Ratline”). Paradoxically, at a conference organized by the Academy for German Law in 1935, where Hans Frank spoke about unacceptability of a possible

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