A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power Page B
Authors: Samantha Power
Tags: United States, General, Social Science, History, 20th Century, Political Science, Holocaust, Violence in Society, International Relations, International Security, Political Freedom & Security, Genocide
Ads: Link
the country into a German and a Soviet zone. Hitler's forces were now storming into eastern Poland. Colleagues on campus asked, "Have you heard the news about the Nazis?" Lemkin, dazed and sullen, looked down. "Sorry," they said, pulling away.`"
Although Lemkin was panicked about the fate of his missing family, he busied himself by proselytizing about Hitler's crimes. The prevailing wisdom in the United States, as it had been in Lithuania, was that the Nazis were waging a war against Europe's armies. When Lemkin told U.S. government officials that Germany was also wiping out the Jews, he was greeted either with indifference or incredulity. But with Hitler's declaration of war against the United States, Lemkin, then fluent in nine languages, thought he might acquire more cachet. In June 1942 the Board of Economic Warfare and the Foreign Economic Administration in Washington, I).C., hired hint as chief consultant, and in 1944 the U.S. War Department brought him on board as an international law expert. But his horror stories were not a U.S. governmental concern. "My companions were mildly and only politely interested," he remembered. "Their attention was rather absorbed by their own assignments....They were masters in switching the discussion in their direction. '-
Lemkin reached out to those at the top. He met with Henry Wallace, Roosevelt's vice president, and attempted to personalize his message. Ahead of the meeting, he had studied up on the Tennessee Valley Authority project on irrigation, which he knew would interest Wallace. Because the vice president had been raised in the cornfields of Iowa, Lemkin also slipped in references to his farm upbringing. Lemkin niet with Wallace on several occasions and introduced his proposals to ban the destruction of peoples."I looked hopefully for a reaction," Lemkin remembered. "There was none."2'
Lemkin next tried to approach President Roosevelt directly. An aide urged him to summarize his proposal in a one-page memo. Lemkin was aghast that he had to "compress the pain of millions, the fear of nations, the hopes for salvation from death" in one page. But he managed, suggesting that the United States adopt a treaty banning barbarity and urging that the Allies declare the protection of Europe's minorities a central war aim. Several weeks later a courier relayed a message from the president. Roosevelt said he recognized the danger to groups but saw difficulties adopting such a law at the present. He assured Lemkin that the United States would issue a warning to the Nazis and urged patience. Lemkin was livid. "`Patience' is a good word to be used when one expects an appointment, a budgetary allocation or the building of a road," he noted. "But when the rope is already around the neck of the victim and strangulation is imminent, isn't the word `patience' an insult to reason and nature?""' He believed a "double murder" was being committed-one by the Nazis against the Jews and the second by the Allies, who knew about Hitler's extermination campaign but refused to publicize or denounce it. After he received word of Roosevelt's brush-off, Lemkin left the department and walked slowly down Constitution Avenue, trying not to think about what it meant for his parents.
He was sure politicians would always put their own interests above the interests of others.To stand any chance of influencing U.S. policy, he would have to take his message to the general public, who in turn would pressure their leaders. "I realized that I was following the wrong path," he later wrote. "Statesmen are messing up the world, and [only] when it seems to them that they are drowning in the mud of their own making, [do] they rush to extricate themselves.""' Those Americans who had been so responsive to Lemkin in person were not making their voices heard. And most Americans were uninterested. Lemkin told himself
All over Europe the Nazis were writing the book of death with the blood of my brethren. Let me now tell this
Although Lemkin was panicked about the fate of his missing family, he busied himself by proselytizing about Hitler's crimes. The prevailing wisdom in the United States, as it had been in Lithuania, was that the Nazis were waging a war against Europe's armies. When Lemkin told U.S. government officials that Germany was also wiping out the Jews, he was greeted either with indifference or incredulity. But with Hitler's declaration of war against the United States, Lemkin, then fluent in nine languages, thought he might acquire more cachet. In June 1942 the Board of Economic Warfare and the Foreign Economic Administration in Washington, I).C., hired hint as chief consultant, and in 1944 the U.S. War Department brought him on board as an international law expert. But his horror stories were not a U.S. governmental concern. "My companions were mildly and only politely interested," he remembered. "Their attention was rather absorbed by their own assignments....They were masters in switching the discussion in their direction. '-
Lemkin reached out to those at the top. He met with Henry Wallace, Roosevelt's vice president, and attempted to personalize his message. Ahead of the meeting, he had studied up on the Tennessee Valley Authority project on irrigation, which he knew would interest Wallace. Because the vice president had been raised in the cornfields of Iowa, Lemkin also slipped in references to his farm upbringing. Lemkin niet with Wallace on several occasions and introduced his proposals to ban the destruction of peoples."I looked hopefully for a reaction," Lemkin remembered. "There was none."2'
Lemkin next tried to approach President Roosevelt directly. An aide urged him to summarize his proposal in a one-page memo. Lemkin was aghast that he had to "compress the pain of millions, the fear of nations, the hopes for salvation from death" in one page. But he managed, suggesting that the United States adopt a treaty banning barbarity and urging that the Allies declare the protection of Europe's minorities a central war aim. Several weeks later a courier relayed a message from the president. Roosevelt said he recognized the danger to groups but saw difficulties adopting such a law at the present. He assured Lemkin that the United States would issue a warning to the Nazis and urged patience. Lemkin was livid. "`Patience' is a good word to be used when one expects an appointment, a budgetary allocation or the building of a road," he noted. "But when the rope is already around the neck of the victim and strangulation is imminent, isn't the word `patience' an insult to reason and nature?""' He believed a "double murder" was being committed-one by the Nazis against the Jews and the second by the Allies, who knew about Hitler's extermination campaign but refused to publicize or denounce it. After he received word of Roosevelt's brush-off, Lemkin left the department and walked slowly down Constitution Avenue, trying not to think about what it meant for his parents.
He was sure politicians would always put their own interests above the interests of others.To stand any chance of influencing U.S. policy, he would have to take his message to the general public, who in turn would pressure their leaders. "I realized that I was following the wrong path," he later wrote. "Statesmen are messing up the world, and [only] when it seems to them that they are drowning in the mud of their own making, [do] they rush to extricate themselves.""' Those Americans who had been so responsive to Lemkin in person were not making their voices heard. And most Americans were uninterested. Lemkin told himself
All over Europe the Nazis were writing the book of death with the blood of my brethren. Let me now tell this
Similar Books
