Rafal Lemkin - various ethical aspects, Jewish feminism and other issues in articles published in the interwar period in Poland

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RAFAL LEMKIN - VARIOUS ETHICAL ASPECTS, JEWISH FEMINISM AND OTHER ISSUES IN ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD IN POLAND

Ewa Saekiewicz-Munnerlyn

У статті представлені міркування видатного юриста, автора Конвенції про запобігання злочину геноциду Рафала Лемкіна щодо таких тем, як аборт, становище єврейських жінок, етика дітей. Дані матеріали є свідченням багатогранності інтересів цього видатного юриста.

Ключові слова: Рафал Лемкін, феміністичний рух, етика дитини, іудаїзм, міжвоєнний період.

The article presents the views of author of the Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide Rafal Lemkin on such topics as abortion, the situation of Jewish women, the ethics of children. These materials are evidence of the diversity of interests of this prominent lawyer.

Keywords: Rafal Lemkin, feminist movement, child ethics, Judaism, interwar period.

rafal lemkin prevention crime genocide ethics jewish women feminist movement

Pro-feminist politics in literary salons. Fanny Lewald - advocate of women's economic liberation. Jewess fought for women's access to higher education. Jewish woman created the institution of women labor inspectors. Jewish women in the feminist movement in Poland.

Jews have always taken a lively part in all liberation movements, whether social or national.

Jewish women are seriously represented in the women's liberation movement, i.e. in the feminist movement.

More serious traces of the feminist activities of Jewish women can be found in that milieu which was once at the forefront of world Jewry in the field of culture and emancipation in the milieu of German Jewry. Here, the Jewish woman begins her feminist activity as an inspiration for men and conducts her propaganda in an individual way. The famous literary salons of the Jewish women Henrietta Herz, Rachela von Varnhagen, and Dorothea Mendelsohn, which at the beginning of the 19th century gathered the entire German elite: poets, philosophers, politicians, scientists, artists, and painters. People such as Humboldt, Schleiermacher, Schiller, Bцrne and Schlegel were regular visitors to these salons. The refined and highly educated hostesses of these salons exerted a serious influence on the mental and political life of Germany at that time. In addition to the most important problems of intellectual and social life, the women's question was raised here vividly, pro-feminist policies were inspired here, and it was under this influence that Schlegel appeared with his well-known work "Lucinde", in which he condemned the slave position of women and called on society to grant women all rights.

Fanny Lewald, a Jewish woman, took a more active and independent role in the faminist movement.

In 1863 she announced "Ostbriefe fьr die Frauen, den deutschen Handwerker - u. Arbeitervereien gewidmet'' and the work ''Fьr u. wider die Frauen''. These works were a revelation to the movement. Fanny Levald condemns feminist phraseology, points out the specific ways in which women occupied social and economic positions. The type of sentimental woman, expecting equality as a gift from men, must be overcome. Women must become practical and militant; they must learn crafts and manual work, master trade unions, and through them influence the course of economic and social life. This is what Fanny Lewald taught and organized the ranks of productive and fighting women.

The Jewish woman Henerietta Goldschmidt also played a serious role in the feminist movement. She was a talented publicist and educator. She devoted all of her talent as a writer and an extraordinary amount of knowledge to the women's cause. In her articles she urged women to fight for equal rights. She wrote a number of works on women's education.

Henerietta Goldschmidt's campaign to allow women to study at universities is particularly important for the feminist movement and for the intellectual life of Europe. H. Goldschmidt initiated this action, mobilized the entire public opinion of Western Europe with great energy and won the battle in Germany. It was also thanks to H. Goldschmidt that for the first time women in Germany were able to enter the university chambers and engage in scientific work together with men.

For her great contribution to the feminist movement H. Goldschmidt was elected vice-president of the German Reich Women's Association in 1867.

The second Jewish woman, Jenny Lind, also played an important role in the association and was co-editor of the association's press organ.

The real revolution in the feminist movement came from the Jewish woman Jeanette Schwerin. She was the first to raise the issue of women's labor protection in the West. Thanks to her initiative, the institution of women labor inspectors was established for the first time. Jeanette Schwerin is also involved in the training of women labor inspectors. She creates courses for the education of women in social policy. She believes that women should take over this field completely. J. Schwerin is also a reformer of charity.

She spoke out strongly against individual and social charity. She demands that this matter be brought under the umbrella of a state organization because the state, as the highest representative of society, should take care of the weak and the poor. A woman should be the champion of this cause.

Thanks to her untiring work in the field of social policy, J. Schwerin gained enormous popularity in Germany; she had a special whirlpool in the social sphere of German democracy, although she did not profess to be a socialist. A large number of Jewish women went down in gold in the general feminist movement.

Of course, they were also active in the specifically Jewish feminist movement. Bertha Pappenheim from Frankfurt should be mentioned in particular, who in 1904 founded the association of Jewish women, which fought for national and social-feminist equality.

In Poland, Dr. F. Nossigowa and Dr. Lipszyc Balsigierowa were particularly active in the general feminist movement and participated in the editorial and publishing of the well-known "Women's Voice".

It is not strange that Jewish women have always taken such a lively part in the feminist movement. They belong to a nation which has itself suffered much harm and which to this day is still struggling in a hard struggle for complete equality of rights. A Jewish woman is therefore doubly disadvantaged in legal terms: as a Jew and as a woman. Hence the enormous feeling of injustice, hence the unparalleled zeal to fight for her rights. The struggle was twofold: for national and social-feminist entitlement.

1. a. EWA publication during the interwar period in Poland.

Eve, a weekly magazine, was the most important magazine, which was the only one to survive on the publishing market for over five years (1928-1933). It was created on the initiative of Paulina Appenszlakowa and Iza Rachela Wagmanowa. ¹ The former was the editor-in-chief of the magazine, the latter - its publisher. The magazine gathered not only women but also men, but it was the women who set the tone. It was quite radical and daring in terms of the issues it dealt with; this may have been one of the reasons for the paper's closure. Nevertheless, "Eve" today is a mirror in which we can look at that era. Of course, the picture is colored by the commitment and faith of Zionist women, but it is also a showcase of a certain way of perceiving the role of women in the new, projected Jewish society.

The milieu of "Eve" included, among others: Gizella Balabanova, wife of prof. Majer Balaban, Roza Grycendlerowa, translator, social activist, columnist, Zofia Kramsztyk, Paris correspondent, sister of Roman Kramsztyk, an outstanding painter, Eugenia Markowa, wife of the famous sculptor Marek Szwarc, Celina Meerson-Beckerowa, translator and poet, Iza Rachela Wagmanowa, wife of Saul Wagman, one of the editors-in-chief of the "Nasz Przegl^d", Miriam Wolman-Sieraczkowa, an excellent reporter and correspondent from Israel, as well as Dr. med. Julia Blayowa, Zofia Boder-Szapiro, Zofia Feigenbaumowa, L. Goldnerowa (who also published in the "Nowy Dziennik"), Dr. Maria Hoffman (from Vienna), Judyta Horn, Mira Jakubowiczowa, a well-known social activist for the development of sport, Michalina Kahan, Rachela Klinsber, Dr. Salomea Lurie, Roza Muszkatblit, Ewa Rottnerowa, Adela Schreiber, Alicja Sternowa, wife of Anatol Stern, Sulamita Szapiro, Eugenia Szwarcowa, and Thea Weinberg from Radomsko, the photographer's daughter, who herself photographed and interviewed world famous actors.

In the words of Mickute, Monika Szablowska-Zaremba, Wizerunek kobiety nowoczesnej na lamach „Naszego Przegl^du"1923-1939, UWM, 2016, Prace Literaturoznawcze IV, pp.115-129; Eva Plach, Feminism and Nationalism on the Pages of „Ewa: Tygodnik", 1928-1933, „Polin. Studies in Polish Jewry" 2005, s. 241-263; Maria Antosik-Piela, Feminizm po zydowsku. Tygodnik „Ewa" (1928-1933), „Midrasz" 2008, nr 12, s. 48; Monika Szablowska- -Zaremba, Koncepcja „kobiety uswiadomionej" na lamach tygodnika „Ewa" (1928-1933), w: Ksiggowanie. Literatura, pieni^dze, kobiety, red. I. Iwasiow, A. Zawiszewska, Szczecin 2014, s. 289-307 Jolanta Mickute (Kaunas), Tworzenie kobiety zydowskiej: syjonizm, kobieta i jej cialo w Polsce migdzywojennej, Studia Zydowskie Almanach [Jewish Studies. Almanac] R. VI (2016) Nr 6, p.41 "Put into different words, the notion of "double disempowerment" and "double struggle"-"double marginalization" in contemporary scholarly language-appeared in the Jewish journal Di Froj (Woman) and in articles by the pro-feminist jurist Rafael Lemkin in the pages of Eve. Marginal and marginalized Jewish women were subject to "double disempowerment" as women and as Jewish women, Lemkin said, reflecting on European and Jewish feminism in interwar Poland. They were discriminated against even within the Jewish world because the discursive meanings of cultural gender were established on the basis of their national identity as defined by modern Jewish politics. As a result, to cite Lemkin once again, Jewish women's struggle for equality had to take place on both a national and a socio-feminist plane. Within the framework of the state and society as such, emancipation had to take place as much from above as from below, Lemkin suggested. As a result, Zionist feminists engaged not only in the ideological rebirth of the nation, but also initiated the physical renewal of the Jewish woman, who was considered too urbanized and too decadent. The bodily revival was to lead to a strengthening of Jewish identity and national fabric".

2. The Zionist dimension of Lemkin's thought in the 1920s, In 1927, he began a regular legal advice column for the Warsaw Yiddish daily Haynt. There he introduced the Yiddish-speaking Polish Jews to the battery of new laws emerging from the Polish Second Republic on matters related to the occupations, taxation, emigration, regulation of kosher laws, legal status of Jewish schools and citizenship. He also published several legal guides for Polish Jews over the next few years. ¹

3. Controversy with Zielinski.

An editor of the Yiddish-language daily Haynt and the Yiddish-language Zionist weekly Tsionistishe velt, he also wrote for Ewa, a Polish-language Jewish feminist journal, and contributed regular articles to the Polish-language Zionist newspaper, Nasz Przeglqd, and other Hebrew and Yiddish periodicals.

In October 1927, he joined the Haynt reportorial team that traveled to Paris to cover the sensational trial of Sholem Shvartsbard, a Polish Jew who had assassinated the Ukrainian nationalist leader Simon Petliura in revenge for the murder of over 100,000 Jews in the post-World War I pogroms. In an October article in Haynt, Lemkin applauded the jury's decision to find Shvartsbard not guilty. The murderous destruction of the Jews demanded justice in the form of the accused's own "beautiful crime," an act of reparative justice. The law should evolve to reflect the nature of the ominous kinds of eliminationist threats that endangered the Jews as a people. See, for instance, Rafail Lemkin, 'Yuridishe notitsen' [Legal notices], Haynt, 20 September 1928, p. 4 and Rafail Lemkin, Di organizatsye fun di yidishe kehiles [The organization of the Jewish communities] (Warsaw: Renoma, 1928) and Dos industrye-gezets [Industrial law] (Warsaw: E. Gitlin, 1929); References given by Prof. James Loeffler, Department of History, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA, in his article "Becoming Cleopatra: the forgotten Zionism of Raphael Lemkin", Journal of Genocide Research, 2017, vol. 19, No. 3, 340-360 https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.201 7.1349645. Rafail Lemkin, "Dos gerikht far di 'sheyne farbrekhens,'" Haynt, October 28, 1927, 4; Loeffler, "Becoming Cleopatra," 347-50. More on this controversy in the article of James Loeffler, "The First Genocide: Antisemitism and Universalism in Raphael Lemkin's Thought", Jewish Quarterly Review, Volume 112, Number 1, Winter 2022, pp. 139-163, published by University of Pennsylvania Press. I would like to thank the author, Prof. James Loeffler, for sending me this artile.

A week after that impassioned column, Lemkin took to the pages of Nasz Przeglqd to review the first volume of Zielinski's book. This work represented the "first serious attempt to explore the essence of Judaism," he began. Yet despite his scholarly prowess, Zielinski displayed gross bias in his selective use of facts. Why speak of Hellenism in terms of the stages of its historical development, but reduce Judaism to its most "dogmatic form without taking into account the developmental process of this religion?" Zielinski had no trouble historicizing "Hellenic religion." It was perfectly clear from his book, wrote Lemkin, that "the God of Homer is not the God of Plato," yet this same "historical perspective vanishes relative to Judaism." As a result, Zielinski's "Hellocentrist viewpoint" fails its own stated goal of an "objective, even-handed analysis" of both Greek and Jewish religion. Zielinski simply cherry-picked and misread biblical prooftexts in order to "negate and post-date the basic principles of Judaism," including the very idea of "Judaism's monotheistic character. Rafal Lemkin, "Krytyka judaizmu w ksiqzce prof. Zielinskiego," Nasz Przeglqd, November 5, 1927, 8; 1.https:// polona.pl/search/?query=nasz_przegl%C4%85d&filters=public:1

After attacking Zielinski on his methods, Lemkin challenged his core idea of Hellenism's universalism contrasted with Jewish parochialism. Many places in the biblical text plainly contradicted this caricature, Lemkin observed, including Jer 32.19 ("Your eyes are open to the ways of all mankind; you reward each person according to their conduct and as their deeds deserve."), Isa 19.18-25 (describing God's salvation of Egyptians, Israelites, and Assyrians alike), and 1 Kgs 8.41-43 (Solomon's request of God to welcome all foreigners into his temple and accept their prayers equally with those of Israel). Moreover, Hellenism's vaunted "universalism of care" hardly extended "so far as to embrace your own slaves and 'barbarian' foreigners." Hellenistic universalism applied only to "free Greeks, and often times only to citizens of a specific place." Even Hercules and the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, required special permission to enter the Athens community. Hierarchy and power were hardly absent in the Greek moral and religious worldview.

The following week Lemkin published the second part of his review. There he dealt specifically with the charge of Israelite mass murder. Rafal Lemkin, "Krytyka judaizmu w ksiqzce prof. Zielinskiego," Nasz Przeglqd, November 13, 1927, 6

Zielinski's choice to invoke this allegation was hardly a coincidence, wrote Lemkin, for "almost all representatives of scientific [sic] antisemitism from Apion to [Houston Stewart] Chamberlain have referenced" this text from Deuteronomy. Moreover, Zielinski's emphasis on the absence of free will and individual ethics in Judaism effectively implied that Orthodox Jews were continuously obligated and destined to obey their deity and practice mass murder. In reality, Lemkin countered, the singular divine command applied only to one discrete moment of military conquest during the earliest "period of the Jewish monotheistic religion." It had nothing to do with the "later Judean period in Jewish history," the ostensible focus of Zielinski's book. Its place in Hellenism and Judaism could only be explained by a willful desire to slander Judaism.

Two weeks later, on December 3, Zielinski spoke publicly in Krakow. There he gave a long address titled "Science and Sentiment in Relation to Hellenism and Judaism." Ostensibly an academic lecture, Zielinski's remarks took the form of a highly personal attack on his critics. The charges of bias against him were ludicrous.¹

4. "Children's Ethics in Historical Perspective"

Rafal Lemkin addressed the ongoing controversy again in an April article, "Children's Ethics in Historical Perspective," published in Ewa, a new Polish Jewish feminist journal. (Ewa, no8, 1928, p.3) T. Zielinski, "Nauka i sentyment wobec hellenizmu i judaizmu," Przegl^d Wspolczesny 8.71 (1928): 370; R. Lemkin, "Pomniejszycielowi Judaizmu w odpowiedzi (Na marginesie drugiej ksi^zki prof. Zielinskiego)," Nasz Przegl^d, February 12, 1928, 5 Rafal Lemkin "Children's Ethics in Historical Perspective,"Ewa, no.8, 1928.p.3.

The famous German scholar Delbrьck once wrote that the whole of modern culture is based on three cultural-national elements, which have their origin in the three oldest and most cultured nations of the ancient world: Greeks , Romans and Jews.

However, while the cultural legacy of the Greeks and Romans can be reduced to a common denominator and may be labeled under the common name of ancient Greco-Roman culture, the cultural legacy of Judaism occupies a completely separate position and in many fundamental respects presents itself as opposed to the Greco-Roman world.

In the light of Delbrьck's thesis above, I would like to point to the origins of two trends in modern society which have clashed over a fundamental problem of humanity: that of childbearing and the treatment of the child. The starting point for these two directions is the Greek and Jewish worlds.

The attitude to the child in Greece.

In ancient Greece, human personhood was not granted to the child until some time after birth . A child who is newborn or not yet born does not enjoy the protection of the law. The father decides the fate of the newborn child : he can include it in his family, he can abandon it or kill it.

Out of 337 graves excavated in the Neuropolis Gela, as many as 233 child skeletons were found placed in pots. The abandonment of children took place in ancient Greece by placing them in pots which were then displayed in forests and mountains (Staat u.Gesellschaft der Griechen, Hinnerbergs Sammelwerk). Abandoning a child, killing it, or spending the fetus was not considered a crime in all of Greece (except Thebes). Both Plato and Aristotle commend the abortion and destruction of infants in the supposed interest of the state. Greek women, however, aborted themselves en masse solely to preserve their beauty, which was, after all, so highly valued in Greece. Even if some Greek authors speak out against the killing of infants, they do so not for the sake of the infant himself, but in the interest of the parents themselves. The stoic Hierocles, for example, advises that all or most children should be brought up so that parents can find help and support from their children in their old age. It is only in the Greek mystic Orpheus that we find a clear condemnation of mothers who interrupt their pregnancies and "prevent their children from seeing the beautiful light of day" (Maas, Orpheus).

The few voices that were raised in Hellad in defense of the child cannot, however, erase from the general joyful and smiling background of Greek life those bloody specters of murdered and nipped in the bud children's lives.

Judaism and the child.

Within Judaism, a completely opposite image. Flood and multiply" is the religious canon of the Jews. Jewish law requires that a newborn child be treated as equal to an adult human being (treaty of Niddah); it is strictly forbidden to violate the fetus in the womb. After all, man is created in the likeness of God! Philo , the eminent Jewish thinker of the Jewish-Hellenic era, severely condemns the fetus-spending of the Greeks and rejoices that his nation is devoid of this sin. He writes: , "Murderers are those who suffocate in the embryo the first vibration of young life and kill the fetus in the womb or the newborn child. They commit the great sin of lust and detestation of mankind'" (Philo on the Laws III § III).

The eminent expert of the ancient world Willamowicz -Moellendorff claimed that the defense of the fetus in the womb as well as of the child born is the exclusive merit of the high religious ethics of the Jews, that Judaism exerted its salutary influence in this respect on the way the child in the womb was treated in Christianity and Islam.

Directions

In modem society there are two directions fighting each other with regard to the problem of the child. The first is the direction of enlightened selfishness, clothed in the philosophical robes of Greek Hedonism, a direction leading from the systematic destruction of children, to the abortion of the fetus, to the elaborate prophylactic technique of modern marriage, built mostly on matters of interest and use. The second is the direction born of the religious inspiration of Judaism, a direction which raises the creation of life to the dignity of an ethical imperative, which is conditioned by a sense of social responsibility, and which bases the development of humanity on happiness and the fullness of joy within that little sociological cell which is called the family.

Jewish women and Jews found themselves in the crossfire of these two warring orientations. The Jewish family has shaken in its foundations. Voices of warning , cries for rescue are raised. Is it not possible to lead out of this abyss by turning to the source of the ethics of mankind, to the ethics of Judaism?

There, he argued for ancient Judaism as a source of modern Western ethics morally superior to the Greco- Roman pagan tradition. If we accept German historian Hans Delbruck's recent claim that "all modern culture [. . .] originate[s] from the three oldest, most cultured nations of the ancient world: Greeks, Romans, and Jews," Lemkin wrote, then we must acknowledge that "the cultural heritage of Judaism [. . .] stands in very opposition to the Greco-Roman world." Those "contradictory" legacies are evident in modern life in terms of "the basic problem of humanity": reproduction and child-rearing. In Greco-Roman culture, abortion was common place. The child only acquired human personality a certain amount of time after birth. Neither the unborn fetus nor the newborn child could bene"t from legal protection. The father decided the newborn's fate: he could admit the child to his family, or he could abandon or kill it. Even those Greek authors who opposed this practice did so on grounds of parental self-interest, not children's rights: "Those few voices raised in Hellas in defense of children cannot wipe out from the general joyful and the smiling backdrop of Greek life the bloody ghosts of these children murdered and nipped in the bud." Judaism, by contrast, presented "a completely opposite picture" in its attitude to children and to life. "'Be fruitful and multiply' is a central tenet of the Jewish faith," wrote Lemkin, "Jewish law treats a newborn child on par with an adult person (Tractate Niddah). It is strictly forbidden to harm a fetus in a mother's womb. After all, man is created in the likeness of God!" The Jewish philosopher Philo "rejoiced in the fact that his nation lacked this sin" of abortion, noted Lemkin. It was from Judaism, therefore, that "this ideal of the defense of the fetus, of mother and child, went on to in#uence Christianity and Islam."

Turning from history to modern society, Lemkin spoke of a moral clash between "two warring impulses" in terms of human sexuality: "Greek Hedonism" and Judaic morality. While the former tradition encouraged abortion and the use of sexual prophylactics, the latter ethos took "religious inspiration from Judaism, thereby striving to elevate procreation to the point where it acquires the dignity of an ethical imperative, conditioned by a sense of social responsibility, based on the cultivation of human happiness, and manifesting joy within that small sociological colossus known as the family."

Lemkin's argument inverted the value judgement of Zielinski. Not only was ancient Judaism compatible with Polish Catholic modernity, but it was also essential to its salvation. He ended on a note of sorrow: "Can we not return to the source of humanity's ethics, to the ethics of Judaism?"

5. The social causes of crime.

In Wiadomosci Literackie (Literary News) in no. 4, 1934, R. Lemkin published the text: Society, criminal and court. The article is very interesting, because it treats about the attitude of the citizens towards the administration of justice, which is very actual now.

In the Interwar Poland, the big criminological debate took place, searching for social causes of crime and ways of fighting it. Mateusz Rodak, pp. 111-112, 139, 142, Interwar Polish criminological debate - the search for social causes of crime and ways of fighting it, Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Legal Sciences, Department of Criminology and Archives

of Criminology, Vol. XXXI/2009, pp.101-145

It is said that the administration of justice is carried out on behalf of the society represented by the state. Society, social interest, social protection, social harm, these are the phrases that in various configurations are associated with the justice system. However, it is necessary to consider whether the legislator knows what his representative is doing. Is society aware of the spirit and principles of the administration of justice, does it know and understand them? The answer to this question cannot be entirely affirmative.

Society's attitude towards the administration of justice, especially the system of punishing justice, is immature and primitive. For countless citizens, the criminal court is an interesting dramatic spectacle. The search for sensations and cheap emotions leads people to the courtroom as spectators, makes them read passionately in the reports of the regulations. The courtroom replaces the average citizen with the Old Roman "circenses"; the crossing of arguments and accusations takes the place of the broke of gladiators, and the tears and oppression of the accused provide emotions of the same order as the groans of the vanquished. The average citizen seeks neither synthesis nor consolation in the dramatic meaning of the figures of criminal statistics or in the course of crime. And here the following comparison comes to mind: crime is a severe social disaster like tuberculosis or unemployment. Public opinion (accepts?) these disasters mostly from a general point of view. He does not object to the state of the person affected by tuberculosis, he is not interested in the fate of the individual unemployed in their general form. An expression of these interests is the social action to combat tuberculosis or unemployment. However, when it comes to crime, the interest of society turns only to individual "interesting" "sensational" accidents. This emotional attitude of society to crime takes revenge on its attitude towards the offender. The criminal is most often met with anger, revenge and, in exceptional cases, even uncritical pity. Never does society's attitude towards the offender take on a reasoned character. This is especially evident in collective situations when a criminal finds himself in the face of a crowd immediately after the act has been committed. (?) often the crowd pounces on the criminal, giving indulgence to the feelings that throw him. This often happens in car accidents and although it is extremely difficult to determine the guilt of the driver of the car, - the crowd does not understand, does not investigate whether the chauffeur was at fault, but often commits an active assault on him. At the bottom of the human soul lie dormant the better or less hidden instincts of Lynch. How people of even a higher moral level, talking about some current crime, hastily pass the sentence with an angry cry: "Condemn to death! Hang!''. No criticism, no reasoning, without which there is also no justice. The relationship of the judiciary, or rather the relationship of the court to society, also leaves much to be desired. A modern judge is extremely affected by the lack of contact between the court and society. It is understandable that... [ 3 lines blurred]. The profession of judge keeps him away from the vortex of everyday life and from the struggle for existence [4 lines blurred]. If a judge treats court cases stereotypically routinely, without delving into their psychological and social background - then court hearings become unscientific for him and give me little direct observations of life. A considerable distance can then be created between judgment and life; judgments may then be handed down which will not be understood by society; take as an example the exceptionally lenient penalties (usually fines) so often used in the field of the protection of honor.

However, it is particularly dangerous and harmful to the justice system that the judge lacks precise knowledge of the defendant's personality. Both the investigation and the investigation are conducted mainly to determine who committed the crime. If the perpetrator of the crime has already been detected and evidence of his guilt has been collected, the prosecuting authorities no longer deal at all with his person, character, psychophysical structure , unless there is an accident of mental illness . But even then, the interest is limited to determining by means of experts the degree of sanity of the accused. Throughout the investigation and investigation, the prosecutor does not see the accused, and the materials contained in the case file usually do not give him any indication as to the characteristics of the accused. So he writes an indictment against a person he knows only by name. He accuses an unknown man. Therefore, when they introduce the accused to the courtroom in a more high-profile case, both the prosecutor and the judges look with interest at the perpetrator of an interesting criminal accident. If the case is less interesting, their eyes slip quickly off the person accused, and attention is focused mainly on the files and evidence of the case. In the accused, they are more interested in crime than the criminal. The defendant's personality is to be illuminated by several stereotypical questions, taken from the official form: name, surname, age, profession, family status, whether he was ill, whether he served in the army, whether he was punished, whether he has decorations, etc. Once the accused has answered these questions, the question of his person ceases to interest the court, and the case does not return during the entire proceeding, unless exceptionally and sporadically there are casual compliments to the accused from the mouths of witnesses, usually dehydrated. It is difficult to admit that such an "impersonal", "abstract" justice system agrees with the principles of equity, science, law, ethics, and does not interfere with the explicit provisions of the Act. It should not be forgotten that crime is either an outflow of either the psychophysical structure of man (especially in the case of crimes of passion, sexual crimes, etc.), or it becomes understandable at the level of the social situation of the offender (especially in the case of crimes against property). The science of the offender, criminal biologists, has created the division of criminals into two categories: the first of them, endogenous, includes those who committed a crime under the influence of the properties of their psychophysical structure, i.e. e.g. aggressiveness, alcoholism, excessive sex drive, drug addiction, - the second, exogenous, concerns those who were pushed to crime rather by external circumstances, such as poverty, hunger, family defeat, etc. Both the degree of guilt of the accused and the degree of his social danger should be assessed mainly on the basis of the above criteria. They only give us the key to knowing the personality of the criminal.

This postulate, put forward by the very logic of judging and punishing, was included in the legal form, both by Western and Polish legislation. Article 54 of the Polish Criminal Code of 1932 expressly requires judges to examine, m.in, the character of the accused, his previous life, motives for action, introducing the statutory necessity to examine the personality of the accused.

*

The arguments so far lead us to the conclusion that neither the court nor society knows the personality of the offender well, and that both the court and society do not know each other well enough.

Such a situation is abnormal and harmful. It is necessary to strive hard to change this state of affairs, and the path here leads through the mutual rapprochement of society and the court, and through a deeper interest of both society and the court in the personality of the offender.

It is therefore necessary to begin to inform the public about all those issues, legal and criminological, which they either do not know at all, or know only insufficiently. Informing leads to cognition, knowing to understanding, and understanding to society's rational attitude to the issue of crime is of paramount importance. Because society has both the right and the duty to deal with the fight against crime as it does with the fight against any other social disaster. Of course, society cannot interfere with attributions of the right of punishment reserved exclusively to states, but should actively take part in the action of crime prevention. The influence of economic relations and factors such as alcoholism, unemployment, poverty, etc., on crime is established. Constructive social policies can do a lot to stop these sources of crime. But public action in the field of crime prevention should take on more real and direct shapes. Criminal circles should be reached.

These environments are as if infected with crime. When one of its members in the family is a thief, he pulls a brother or sister, daughter or wife on this path. In old professionals, veterans of crime, you can often meet novices who are just finishing. And all this nestles in neighborhoods well known to those who are interested in the issue of crime. After all, there are known cases when victims of theft conduct indirect negotiations with thieves for the return of stolen property.

In all these environments, crime is potentially dormant.

You can't look at these environments and the people living in them as a jerky one and dismiss them with the classic "forest of fire speranza". The inertia and indifference of society to certain and inevitable dangers from criminal circles is astonishing. After all, such fatalism cannot be thought of in any other field. Will the doctor, who sees the formation of an ulcer, indifferently look at this pathogenic process and patiently wait for the moment when the ulcer begins to poison the whole body to only then remove it? Why not take an interest in people who spend their lives in an atmosphere of crime, people among whom many will surely eventually go down the path of crime? There are many hardened and cynical repeat offenders among them, but there are also those whose circumstances of life have pushed them into this environment and who are eagerly waiting for the opportunity to return to an honest life. These people should be reached, given work, given material and moral care.

Therefore, it would be necessary to think about creating the institution of probation officers or guardians who, for the purposes of criminal prevention, would take care of families who are suspected of dealing with a crime or that they may go down the path of crime. [ 12 lines covered]

he does not see and does not know his essential human self. This is not because the judge does not want to know the accused, but because in the current state of criminal procedure he has no opportunity to explore his personality. He lacks the necessary information about this personality, about its psychophysical system, about the course of his life, about the environment in which he lives. These shortcomings were a source of constant concern for Western European legislation. There, especially in pre-Hitler Germany, the issue of informing the court about the personality of the offender was dealt with vividly. In the years 1927-1932, social judicial aid bodies ("Soziale Gerichtshilfe") were massively established at the courts. These bodies, which included either the representatives of the public themselves or representatives of the public and the court, had the task of examining the offender's environment, familiarizing themselves with the characteristics and character traits of the accused and providing the court with this material before judging the case. We believe that such social judicial assistance bodies are necessary in the current state of criminal law and legislation correspond to the requirements of the justice system and criminal policy. In our country, the action of such social judicial assistance could be carried out by the crime prevention committees proposed above.

Materials, provided by the organs of social judicial assistance, should be obtained from the immediate, closest environment of the offender, from his family, employers, neighbors, educators, acquaintances, doctors, should concern the origin of the accused, the course of life, with emphasis and thorough discussion of those events that may have influenced the formation of personality. They must contain a description of the defendant's character, lifestyle and habits, his experiences and interests, etc.; they are supposed to be like a psychophysical photo of the offender, which in its entirety will give the court material to understand the personality of the accused.

Basing the justice system on a deeper knowledge of the offender's personality will bring an invigorating current to the courts, banish the routine and template of stereotypical cases, introduce a variety of human characters into the dock. Exploring the offender's personality will bring a hint of deeper ethical seriousness to the trial.

*

"Not to love, not to hate, but to understand" - these words of Spinoza are perfectly receptive to the attitude of society and the court to the criminal.

Conclusions

Rafal Lemkin was not only an eminent lawyer, creator of the concept of "genocide," but also a great observer of public life in interwar Poland, as reflected in his publications on various topics, which are only mentioned in the article. Each of them requires an interdisciplinary study, a collaboration of lawyers, historians, ethicists, criminologists, anthropologists and people dealing with culture. Just after finishing this article, I found a very interesting article written by Charlotte Kiechel of Yale University, entitled Legible Testimonies: Raphael Lemkin, the Victim's Voice, and the Global History of Genocide.¹

Last, but not the least, iln a recently found article by Mariusz Klarecki, director of Palac pod Blach^ museum in Warsaw, Poland. There was information about a collection of paintings by R. Lemkin, which were stolen by his neighbors and Germans, after the outbreak of World War II, from his apartment in Warsaw at 6 Kredytowa Street. Volume 13 Issue 1, Revisiting the Life and Work of Raphaлl Lemkin, Article 8, 4-2019, Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal, pp.42-63 Mariusz Klarecki, Artwork Plundering in the Occupied Warsaw, May 25, 2019, no.8, The Warsaw Institute Review; Antoni Trepinski, Jak ratowano dobra kulturalne w domach prywatnych [w:] Walka o dobra kultury. Warszawa 1939-1945. Ksigga zbiorowa, red. Stanislaw Lorenz, Warszawa: PIW, 1970, vol. 2, p. 109.

Also Dean H.C. Horack of Durham, introducing Lemkin to Duke University, said that his collection of administration of justice from the Middle Ages was looted and sent to Berlin. It was during Dean Horack speech at the proceedings of the Forty-Fourth Annual Session of the North Carolina Bar Association, (Durham N.C.: Christian Printing Co, May 15-17, 1942), pp. 106-7.

1. Antosik-Piela Maria, Feminizm po zydowsku. Tygodnik „Ewa" (1928-1933), „Midrasz" 2008, nr 12, s. 48

2. Kiechel Charlotte, Legible Testimonies: Raphaлl Lemkin, the Victim's Voice, and the Global History of Genocide /Volume 13 Issue 1, Revisiting the Life and Work of Raphaлl Lemkin, Article 8, 4-2019, Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal, pp.42-63

3. Klarecki Mariusz, Artwork Plundering in the Occupied Warsaw, May 25, 2019, no.8, The Warsaw Institute Review

4. Lemkin Rafail, 'Yuridishe notitsen' [Legal notices], Haynt, 20 September 1928, p. 4 and Rafail Lemkin, Di organizatsye fun di yidishe kehiles [The organization of the Jewish communities] (Warsaw: Renoma, 1928) and Dos industrye-gezets [Industrial law] (Warsaw: E. Gitlin, 1929)

5. Lemkin Rafail, "Dos gerikht far di 'sheyne farbrekhens,'" Haynt, October 28, 1927

6. Lemkin Rafal "Children's Ethics in Historical Perspective,"Ewa, no.8, 1928. p.3.

7. Lemkin Rafal, "Krytyka judaizmu w ksi^zce prof. Zielinskiego," Nasz Przegl^d, November 5, 1927, 8; 1.https://polona.pl/search/?query=nasz_przegl%C4%85d&filters=public:1

8. Lemkin Rafal, "Krytyka judaizmu w ksi^zce prof. Zielinskiego," Nasz Przegl^d, November 13, 1927, 6

9. Lemkin Rafal, "Pomniejszycielowi Judaizmu w odpowiedzi (Na marginesie drugiej ksi^zki prof. Zielinskiego)," Nasz Przegl^d, February 12, 1928, 5

10. Lemkin Rafal, Jewish Woman and Feminism, EWA No.3, 1928, p. 2

11. Loeffler James, "The First Genocide: Antisemitism and Universalism in Raphael Lemkin's Thought", Jewish Quarterly Review, Volume 112, Number 1, Winter 2022, pp. 139-163

12. Loeffler James, "Becoming Cleopatra: the forgotten Zionism of Raphael Lemkin", Journal of Genocide Research, 2017, vol. 19, No. 3, 340-360 https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2017.1349645.

13. Mickutй Jolanta, Tworzenie kobiety zydowskiej: syjonizm, kobieta i jej cialo w Polsce miзdzywojennej, Studia Zydowskie Almanach [Jewish Studies. Almanac] R. VI (2016) Nr 6, p. 41

14. Plach Eva, Feminism and Nationalism on the Pages of „Ewa: Tygodnik", 1928-1933, „Polin. Studies in Polish Jewry" 2005, s. 241-263

15. Rodak Mateusz, pp. 111-112, 139, 142, Interwar Polish criminological debate - the search for social causes of crime and ways of fighting it, Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Legal Sciences, Department of Criminology and Archives of Criminology, Vol. XXXI/2009, pp.101-145

16. Szablowska- -Zaremba Monika, Koncepcja „kobiety uswiadomionej" na lamach tygodnika „Ewa" (1928-1933), w: Ksiygowanie. Literatura, pieni^dze, kobiety, red. I. Iwasiow, A. Zawiszewska, Szczecin 2014, s. 289-307

17. Szablowska-Zaremba Monika, Archiwum Emigracji, Studia - Szkice - Dokumenty, Torun, Rok 2014, Zeszyt 1-2 (20-21)

18. Szablowska-Zaremba Monika, Wizerunek kobiety nowoczesnej na lamach „Naszego Przegl^du"1923-1939, UWM, 2016, Prace Literaturoznawcze IV, pp.115-129

19. Trepinski Antoni, Jak ratowano dobra kulturalne w domach prywatnych [w:] Walka o dobra kultury. Warszawa 1939-1945. Ksiyga zbiorowa, red. Stanislaw Lorenz, Warszawa: PIW, 1970, vol. 2, p. 109.

20. Zielinski Tadeusz, "Nauka i sentyment wobec hellenizmu i judaizmu," Przegl^d Wspolczesny 8.71 (1928): 370.

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