Vandalism and barbarity — Raphael Lemkin’s conception of “crimes of the new type”
Raphael Lemkin’s concept of the crime of barbarity and vandalism did not earn support from jurist and lawyers participating in Conference in Madrid. In his speech he never used the words “Germany” or “Third Reich.” However ten years later, he admitted that his report was a proposition of international actions against Hitler’s Nazi and racist policy. The policy, he openly warned of. His warnings and postulates proved to be a dark prophecy of the Second World War tragedy.
Despite defeat, Lemkin did not put an end to his works on the crimes of the new type idea. In his opus vitae — the monograph Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, which was published over ten years after the Conference in Madrid — he reminded his original propositions. The concept of the crime of genocide especially different areas of the crime — political, social, cultural, religious was based on his earlier idea of the crime of barbarity and vandalism.