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DR. FRIEZE PRESENTS LECTURE ON RAPHAEL LEMKIN'S NEWLY PUBLISHED AUTOBIOGRAPHY "TOTALLY UNOFFICIAL"
By MassisPost
Updated: October 16, 2013
By Taleen Babayan
Dr. Donna-Lee Frieze delivered a lecture titled "Raphael Lemkin:
The Armenian Genocide and the Autobiography of the Insistent Prophet"
at Columbia University's Butler Library on Wednesday evening, October
2 at an event hosted by the Armenian Center at Columbia University.
A Prins Senior Fellow at the Centre for Jewish History and a NYC
Visiting Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Research Institute in Melbourne,
Australia, Dr. Frieze spent the last four years editing Lemkin's
unfinished autobiography and papers, which were housed for decades
at the New York Public Library.
Highlighting the significance of the publication of Lemkin's
autobiography, Dr. Peter Balakian, who is the Visiting Ordjanian
Professor in the Department of Middle East, South Asian and African
Studies at Columbia, said Dr. Frieze "rescued and recovered one of
the most important books in history on human rights."
"This is a remarkable memoir that gives shape and scope to Lemkin's
own lifetime efforts to make genocide a crime in international law,"
said Balakian.
Lemkin, who coined the term "genocide" in 1944, used the Armenian
Genocide as a case study, according to Dr. Frieze, who said that the
tragic event left such an impact on him that it led to his future
work as a relentless advocate of the prevention of genocide.
Touching upon the description of Lemkin's childhood in the initial
chapters of "Totally Unofficial," Dr. Frieze contextualized his early
life as a Polish Jew who was homeschooled by a highly intelligent
mother. He describes in detail a childhood full of poetry, music
and literature, which exposed him to cultures beyond his own at a
young age.
"He's writing about a vanished world, in every sense," said Dr.
Frieze, who noted that everyone in his family except his brother was
lost to genocide as victims of the Holocaust. "Lemkin reignites this
loss of language, land, and culture and this memory of wholeness is
perhaps the genocide survivor's key to living."
His first exposure to genocide, however, occurred when he read about
the Armenian Genocide and the subsequent trial of Soghoman Tehlirian,
who was arrested for assassinating Talat Pasha, the architect of the
Armenian Genocide, as an act of revenge. Lemkin was shocked that
Tehlirian was even on trial and reflected, "Why is a man punished
when he kills another man? Why is the killing of a million a lesser
crime than the killing of a single individual?" This event was a
turning point in Lemkin's life as he changed his course of study from
linguistics to law.
"It was the intended destruction of Armenians that triggered Lemkin's
interest," said Dr. Frieze.
As a prominent lawyer and prosecutor in Warsaw, Lemkin became an
internationally displaced refugee during the Second World War, which
further fueled his tireless efforts towards the prevention of genocide.
"I only lived really when I was fighting for an ideal," writes Lemkin
in his autobiography. "I will devote the rest of my life to outlawing
the destruction of people."
Arriving in the United States in 1941, Lemkin became a faculty
member at Duke University and spent the remaining years of his life
to ensuring the passage of the United Nations Convention against
Genocide. He used the Armenian Genocide as an example to appeal to
the public's moral consciousness.
"The Armenian Genocide deeply influenced his thoughts on genocide,
not as mass murder but as sinister panorama of destruction that was
intended, specific and planned," said Dr. Frieze.
Lemkin's efforts, however, were continuously met with opposition and
Frieze noted that Lemkin was known as naïve, a fanatic and humorless.
"But 'Totally Unofficial' shows an extremely shrewd lawyer, three
steps ahead of his enemies, as he called them."
"Lemkin was a prophet of sorts," said Dr. Frieze. "He knew the
Genocide Convention would not prevent genocide and that it would
continue. Instead, he saw it as a rallying point."
At the age of 59, Lemkin passed away of a heart attack in New York
and his autobiography was left unfinished until Dr. Frieze tackled
the challenge of weaving together Lemkin's manuscript.
"By bringing Raphael Lemkin's autobiography to print, Dr. Frieze
restores Lemkin to his rightful place in the pantheon of human rights
champions," said Mark Momjian, Esq., chairman of the Armenian Center
at Columbia University. "The Armenian Center is acutely aware of
Lemkin's research into the Armenian Genocide, as well as the critical
importance it played in his effort to get the United Nations to pass
the Genocide Convention."
"Frieze's lecture on Lemkin and the Armenian Genocide is one of the
most important new perspectives on the Armenian genocide in recent
years," said Balakian. "It offers scholars and all others, especially,
perhaps the Turkish nationalists, a deeper understanding of why the
Armenian event became a central, if not the central, event in Lemkin's
thinking about what he would come to call genocide."
http://massispost.com/archives/9796
From: Baghdasarian
By MassisPost
Updated: October 16, 2013
By Taleen Babayan
Dr. Donna-Lee Frieze delivered a lecture titled "Raphael Lemkin:
The Armenian Genocide and the Autobiography of the Insistent Prophet"
at Columbia University's Butler Library on Wednesday evening, October
2 at an event hosted by the Armenian Center at Columbia University.
A Prins Senior Fellow at the Centre for Jewish History and a NYC
Visiting Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Research Institute in Melbourne,
Australia, Dr. Frieze spent the last four years editing Lemkin's
unfinished autobiography and papers, which were housed for decades
at the New York Public Library.
Highlighting the significance of the publication of Lemkin's
autobiography, Dr. Peter Balakian, who is the Visiting Ordjanian
Professor in the Department of Middle East, South Asian and African
Studies at Columbia, said Dr. Frieze "rescued and recovered one of
the most important books in history on human rights."
"This is a remarkable memoir that gives shape and scope to Lemkin's
own lifetime efforts to make genocide a crime in international law,"
said Balakian.
Lemkin, who coined the term "genocide" in 1944, used the Armenian
Genocide as a case study, according to Dr. Frieze, who said that the
tragic event left such an impact on him that it led to his future
work as a relentless advocate of the prevention of genocide.
Touching upon the description of Lemkin's childhood in the initial
chapters of "Totally Unofficial," Dr. Frieze contextualized his early
life as a Polish Jew who was homeschooled by a highly intelligent
mother. He describes in detail a childhood full of poetry, music
and literature, which exposed him to cultures beyond his own at a
young age.
"He's writing about a vanished world, in every sense," said Dr.
Frieze, who noted that everyone in his family except his brother was
lost to genocide as victims of the Holocaust. "Lemkin reignites this
loss of language, land, and culture and this memory of wholeness is
perhaps the genocide survivor's key to living."
His first exposure to genocide, however, occurred when he read about
the Armenian Genocide and the subsequent trial of Soghoman Tehlirian,
who was arrested for assassinating Talat Pasha, the architect of the
Armenian Genocide, as an act of revenge. Lemkin was shocked that
Tehlirian was even on trial and reflected, "Why is a man punished
when he kills another man? Why is the killing of a million a lesser
crime than the killing of a single individual?" This event was a
turning point in Lemkin's life as he changed his course of study from
linguistics to law.
"It was the intended destruction of Armenians that triggered Lemkin's
interest," said Dr. Frieze.
As a prominent lawyer and prosecutor in Warsaw, Lemkin became an
internationally displaced refugee during the Second World War, which
further fueled his tireless efforts towards the prevention of genocide.
"I only lived really when I was fighting for an ideal," writes Lemkin
in his autobiography. "I will devote the rest of my life to outlawing
the destruction of people."
Arriving in the United States in 1941, Lemkin became a faculty
member at Duke University and spent the remaining years of his life
to ensuring the passage of the United Nations Convention against
Genocide. He used the Armenian Genocide as an example to appeal to
the public's moral consciousness.
"The Armenian Genocide deeply influenced his thoughts on genocide,
not as mass murder but as sinister panorama of destruction that was
intended, specific and planned," said Dr. Frieze.
Lemkin's efforts, however, were continuously met with opposition and
Frieze noted that Lemkin was known as naïve, a fanatic and humorless.
"But 'Totally Unofficial' shows an extremely shrewd lawyer, three
steps ahead of his enemies, as he called them."
"Lemkin was a prophet of sorts," said Dr. Frieze. "He knew the
Genocide Convention would not prevent genocide and that it would
continue. Instead, he saw it as a rallying point."
At the age of 59, Lemkin passed away of a heart attack in New York
and his autobiography was left unfinished until Dr. Frieze tackled
the challenge of weaving together Lemkin's manuscript.
"By bringing Raphael Lemkin's autobiography to print, Dr. Frieze
restores Lemkin to his rightful place in the pantheon of human rights
champions," said Mark Momjian, Esq., chairman of the Armenian Center
at Columbia University. "The Armenian Center is acutely aware of
Lemkin's research into the Armenian Genocide, as well as the critical
importance it played in his effort to get the United Nations to pass
the Genocide Convention."
"Frieze's lecture on Lemkin and the Armenian Genocide is one of the
most important new perspectives on the Armenian genocide in recent
years," said Balakian. "It offers scholars and all others, especially,
perhaps the Turkish nationalists, a deeper understanding of why the
Armenian event became a central, if not the central, event in Lemkin's
thinking about what he would come to call genocide."
http://massispost.com/archives/9796
From: Baghdasarian