ABSTRACT

The personal and the professional are always intimately though not always visibly intertwined. That is not the case with my odyssey towards the study of genocide as a primary academic involvement, despite interest, training, and full commitment to other fields. The path was not a subtle one; each step can easily be retraced with a minimum of probing into that psychological realm, the nexus where basic thought and primary emotions mingle. Retrospectively, it all began very suddenly and searingly, simultaneously in the form of a lasting shock and a deeply ingrained memory.