Pre- Genocide 180571_Humanity in Action_UK.indd 1 23/08/2018 11.51 © The contributors and Humanity In Action (Denmark) 2018 Editors: Anders Jerichow and Cecilie Felicia Stokholm Banke Printed by Tarm Bogtryk Design: Rie Jerichow Translations from Danish: Anders Michael Nielsen ISBN 978-87-996497-1-6 Contributors to this anthology are unaware of - and of course not liable for – contributions other than their own. Thus, there is no uniform interpretation of genocides, nor a common evaluation of the readiness to protect today. Humanity In Action and the editors do not necessarily share the authors' assessments. Humanity In Action (Denmark) Dronningensgade 14 1420 Copenhagen K Phone +45 3542 0051 180571_Humanity in Action_UK.indd 2 23/08/2018 11.51 Anders Jerichow and Cecilie Felicia Stokholm Banke (ed.) Pre-Genocide Warnings and Readiness to Protect Humanity In Action (Denmark) 180571_Humanity in Action_UK.indd 3 23/08/2018 11.51 Contents Judith Goldstein Preparing ourselves for the future .................................................................. 6 Anders Jerichow: Introduction: Never Again? ............................................................................ 8 I. Genocide Armenian Nation: Inclusion and Exclusion under Ottoman Dominance – Taner Akcam ........... 22 Germany: Omens, hopes, warnings, threats: – Antisemitism 1918-1938 - Ulrich Herbert ............................................................................................. 30 Poland: Living apart – Konstanty Gebert .................................................................... 40 Italy: The Fascist Campaign and Legislation Against the Jews – Michele Sarfatti .......................................................................................... 48 Hungary: The Trap of Loyalty: Antisemitism on the Eve of the Holocaust László Csősz og Ferenc Laczó ....................................................................... 56 The Netherlands: Dissonance between Feelings of Safety and Destruction - Selma Leydesdorff ....................................................................................... 64 Denmark: No One Could Predict the Holocaust – But Can We Predict the Danger Now? Bent Blüdnikow .............................................................................................. 72 Cambodia: What Makes a Man Start a Fire? – Alexander Hinton .................................. 83 180571_Humanity in Action_UK.indd 4 23/08/2018 11.51 Kurdistan: In Iraq: Fighting for Statehood, Dying for Oil – Joost Hiltermann ............... 84 Rwanda: Genocide against the Tutsies, a story of Rethorical Escalation - Asumpta Mugiraneza .................................................................................. 103 Bosnia Herzegovina: Genocide in Srebrenica and the Valley of Death – Edina Bećirević ............ 120 II. Readiness to Protect Cecilie Felicia Stokholm Banke: The Refugee Problem in the 1930s, the Reaction of the International Society and James G. McDonald's Early Warning about the Holocaust .................... 128 Abram de Swaan: Before the Catastrophe .................................................................................. 141 Frederik Harhoff: We could see it coming ................................................................................. 150 Simon Adams: The Fate of Rohingyas and the Future for Responsibility to Protect ............. 155 Morten Kjærum: A Future for the Rule of Law and the Division of Power? .......................... 164 Wichert ten Have: The Deceptive Graduality of Discrimination ............................................... 172 III. Documents The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide ...................................................... 179 IV. Contributors Contributors ............................................................................................... 185 180571_Humanity in Action_UK.indd 3 23/08/2018 11.51 Preparing ourselves for the future Judith Goldstein Jules Verne opined that “the future is but the present a little further on.” One could add that the future is but the present that has been shaped or formed by the past- connections that have been and remain the concern of many great minds. When one mixes in the critical concept of pre-genocide, the complexities multiply in frightening proportions. Does the term pre-genocide thrust us into the future in the effort of audacious anticipation? This compendium of essays identifies and examines conditions that lead to geno- cides in the recent past as well as current conditions that could lead to future geno- cidal catastrophes. The themes are necessarily infused with alarms and warnings based upon past histories. Furthermore, these studies come at a critical time of global instability and combustible circumstances and events: wars and preparati- ons for wars; environmental havoc that leads to massive displacement; unprece- dented numbers of refugees; growing fears about national and ethnic identities. Are we possibly entering the foreboding realm of pre-genocide, pushing towards authoritarian rule, when the President of the United States asserts that he has complete authority to “terminate” any inquiry into the actions of his office and to pardon anyone who might be tried for any act which the Justice Department and a grand jury determines to be illegal? As Rebecca Rolphie has written: “If the chief executive arrogates control over prosecutorial decisions, there are at least three potential consequences. First, an innocent person might go to jail and lose his liberty, not because he com- mitted a crime but because it was politically expedient to send him there. Second, top White House officials and others could avoid consequences for their acti- ons simply because they have power. Third, the law could be used to threaten, weaken, or dismantle political opposition, which would undermine the entire de- mocratic process.”1 Meeting the many urgencies of the moment is the work of Humanity in Action. Asking this specific question about pre-genocide is one of many, and not just of those based in America, that is at the heart of Humanity in Action. The organi- 6 180571_Humanity in Action_UK.indd 6 23/08/2018 11.51 PREPARING OURSELVES FOR THE FUTURE zation came into existence over 20 years ago to promote a set of and educational objectives: support liberal democracies, support pluralistic societies, support re- sistance to those who work against authoritarian regimes that pit group against group. The historic references, as the European programs began, were the Ho- locaust, the Second World War, and the post war development of human rights laws and democratic states in Europe and elsewhere. Over the years, Humanity in Action’s subjects have grown in geographical scope to include trans-Atlantic studies of slavery, colonialism, racial oppression and nationalism. From the beginning, the pedagogy existed to connect the past to the present in or- der to prepare our Fellows for the future. Little did we expect that these carefully honed linkages would change so much over the past few years. In our present volatile times when liberal democracies are being tested, especially through chal- lenging the value of pluralistic societies, we remain more committed than ever to that educational pedagogy – the obligation to engage an international cadre of university students and young professionals. We exist to help them serve as guar- dians of the past, to meet the challenges of the present and to become architects of a stable and equitable future—a future unmarked by incremental steps that lead to the tragedies of genocide. Note: 1 Roiphe, Rebecca. “Can the Rule of Law Survive Trump?” The New York Review of Books, The New York Review of Books, 1 June 2018 7 180571_Humanity in Action_UK.indd 7 23/08/2018 11.51 Genocide: Never Again? Anders Jerichow Are we lying to ourselves? Or did we not manage to learn from our own experi- ences? After the Holocaust, the governments of the world promised the survivors and themselves that there should be an end to systematic attempts at eradicating spe- cific ethnic or religious group of people: “Never Again” became an international slogan, repeated – in earnest, not just ritually – in the UN, on the anniversary of the Russian liberation of Auschwitz on January 27, 1945, and any other suitable opportunity. Therefore, the world also received its “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.” 1 But the world did not keep its promise. The mere names of Cambodia, Kurdi- stan, Rwanda, and Bosnia produce unbearable memories of the systematic era- dication of peoples, even after World War II – and not in war or in spontaneous arbitrary rage, but after careful preparation, dehumanization of the victims, and rulers’ legitimization of the serial murder of their compatriots. The Holocaust has gained “recognition” as the ultimate slaughter of a people – “Genocide” – after the Nazi Third Reich’s murder of six million Jews and many others. The word itself was created by the Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin2 in the middle of World War II by linking genos (people, race – from Greek) with cide (killing – from Latin) in his book about the Nazi occupying forces in Euro- pean society. Lemkin later became author of the UN Convention on the Preven- tion and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, defined as “actions committed with the intention to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or reli- gious group.” Other powers had previously carried out bloody attempts at wiping