72    

THE UNIVERSITY ARRANGED speaking engagements across North Carolina at about the time that Lauterpacht was on his own lecture tour. Lemkin bought himself a fine white suit, which he wore with white shoes and socks, and a silk tie that had a hint of color. In this natty outfit—I found one photograph—he became a familiar sight on campus and on travels around the state. He talked of Europe, speaking with care and emotion. The passion was evident, as was the heavy middle European accent.

McDermott invited Lemkin on a trip to Washington, offering an opportunity to reacquaint himself with colleagues from League of Nations days and to create a constituency of supporters for his work on the decrees. He liked Washington, the “subdued elegance” of Sixteenth Street and the extravagance of Massachusetts Avenue, the simplicity of the monuments, the lack of pretension. He visited the Polish embassy and the Library of Congress. There he met with the law librarian John Vance, whom he knew from a conference held in The Hague four years earlier. The slender, friendly librarian sported a generous mustache and sideburns and had a voice with a timbre that accommodated all the world’s concerns. Vance offered Lemkin access to the resources of the Library of Congress and his own address book. One important introduction followed, to Colonel Archibald King, head of the War Plans Division in the U.S. Army’s Office of the Judge Advocate General, a senior military lawyer.

Credit 72.1

Lemkin in white suit, Washington, D.C., undated

Lemkin shared his ideas on barbarity and vandalism with Colonel King, who listened patiently before revealing his belief that Germany’s lawyers would surely respect the laws of war. Lemkin explained the measures being taken in Germany and the occupied territories, with documents in proof. King asked to see them. Germany’s war was directed “against peoples,” Lemkin explained, in violation of international laws. Did Germany officially reject the Hague regulations? “Not officially,” Lemkin replied, “but unofficially.” He told Colonel King about Alfred Rosenberg, Hitler’s principal theorist, but King hadn’t heard of him.

Germany wanted “to change the whole population structure of Europe for a thousand years,” Lemkin explained, to disappear “certain nations and races” completely. King was taken aback and said he’d look into the matter.