Raphael Lemkin

Category: Genocide

Raphael Lemkin was born in a town called Wolkowysk, Poland, right outside of Bialystok. It was here, in 1921, that he first became involved in the Armenian genocide when he heard that Tehlirian had killed Talaat. He was shocked that Tehlirian could go to jail for killing one man, but Talaat went unpunished for killing hundreds of thousands.

In 1920, Lemkin enrolled in the University of Lvov to study naming. He was very interested in the "insight naming supplied into a culture" (Power,21). When he heard of Talaat's assasination, he became interested in law, and transfered to the Lvov Law School.