East West Street : On the Origins of "Genocide" and "Crimes Against Humanity"

Overview: A profound and profoundly important book—a moving personal detective story, an uncovering of secret pasts, and a book that explores the creation and development of world-changing legal concepts that came about as a result of the unprecedented atrocities of Hitler’s Third Reich. When Human Rights Lawyer Philippe Sands Received An Invitation To Deliver A Lecture In The Western Ukrainian City Of Lviv, He Began To Uncover A Series Of Extraordinary Historical Coincidences. It Set Him On A Quest That Would Take Him Halfway Around The World In An Exploration Of The Origins Of International Law And The Pursuit Of His Own Secret Family History, Beginning And Ending With The Last Day Of The Nuremberg Trials. Part Historical Detective Story, Part Family History, Part Legal Thriller, Philippe Sands Guides Us Between Past And Present As Several Interconnected Stories Unfold In Parallel. The First Is The Hidden Story Of Two Nuremberg Prosecutors Who Discover, Only At The End Of The Trials, That The Man They Are Prosecuting May Be Responsible For The Murder Of Their Entire Families In Nazi-occupied Poland, In And Around Lviv. The Two Prosecutors, Hersch Lauterpacht And Rafael Lemkin, Were Remarkable Men, Whose Efforts Led To The Inclusion Of The Terms 'crimes Against Humanity' And 'genocide' In The Judgement At Nuremberg. The Defendant, Hans Frank, Hitler's Personal Lawyer And Governor-general Of Nazi-occupied Poland, Turns Out To Be An Equally Compelling Character. The Lives Of These Three Men Lead Sands To A More Personal Story, As He Traces The Events That Overwhelmed His Mother's Family In Lviv And Vienna During The Second World War. At The Heart Of This Book Is An Equally Personal Quest To Understand The Roots Of International Law And The Concepts That Have Dominated Sands' Work As A Lawyer. Eventually, He Finds Unexpected Answers To His Questions About His Family, In This Powerful Meditation On The Way Memory, Crime And Guilt Leave Scars Across Generations, And The Haunting Gaps Left By The Secrets Of Others. Machine Generated Contents Note: Pt. I Leon -- Pt. Ii Lauterpacht -- Pt. Iii Miss Tilney Of Norwich -- Pt. Iv Lemkin -- Pt. V Man In A Bow Tie -- Pt. Vi Frank -- Pt. Vii Child Who Stands Alone -- Pt. Vii Nuremberg -- Pt. Ix Girl Who Chose Not To Remember -- Pt. X Judgment. Philippe Sands. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. "A ... personal detective story, an uncovering of secret pasts, and a book that explores the creation and development of world-changing legal concepts that came about as a result of the unprecedented atrocities of Hitler's Third Reich. East West Street looks at the personal and intellectual evolution of the two men who simultaneously originated the ideas of "genocide" and crimes against humanity," both of whom not knowing the other, studied at the same university with the same professor, in a city little know today that was a major cultural center of Europe, "the little Paris of Ukraine," a city variously called Lemberg, Lwów, Lvov, or Lviv ... Sands ... realized that his own field of international law had been forged by two men--Rafael Lemkin and Hersch Lauterpacht--each of whom had studied law at Lviv University in the city of his grandfather's birth, each of whom had come to be considered the finest international legal mind of the twentieth century, each considered to be the father of the modern human rights movement, and each, at parallel times, forging diametrically opposite, revolutionary concepts of humanitarian law that had changed the world."-- Dust jacket flap "A ... personal detective story, an uncovering of secret pasts, and a book that explores the creation and development of world-changing legal concepts that came about as a result of the unprecedented atrocities of Hitler's Third Reich. East West Street looks at the personal and intellectual evolution of the two men who simultaneously originated the ideas of "genocide" and crimes against humanity," both of whom not knowing the other, studied at the same university with the same professor, in a city little known today that was a major cultural center of Europe, "the little Paris of Ukraine," a city variously called Lemberg, Lwów, Lvov, or Lviv ... Sands ... realized that his own field of international law had been forged by two men - Rafael Lemkin and Hersch Lauterpacht - each of whom had studied law at Lviv University in the city of his grandfather's birth, each of whom had come to be considered the finest international legal mind of the twentieth century, each considered to be the father of the modern human rights movement, and each, at parallel times, forging diametrically opposite, revolutionary concepts of humanitarian law that had changed the world."