ABSTRACT
After the Convention was adopted, Lemkin was admitted to the hospital, but he was enjoying recognition. He was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. After 1948, he campaigned for the ratification of the Convention and defended it against the proponents of other legal solutions. Having noticed that the US politicians were increasingly averse to ratifying the Convention, Lemkin tried to influence them by giving exposure to genocide in the policies of the communist countries. On 12 January 1951, the Convention entered into force. Due to permanent employment problems, he found himself in financial dire straits. He was working on a three-volume publication on the history of genocides, and intensified his cooperation with emigres’ organizations in the United States. Lemkin was living in fear that his life achievement, the Genocide Convention, would be “wrapped up in a spider web of misunderstanding, political intrigue and […] communist subversion”. He lacked stability in his private life. On Friday, 28 August 1959, he suffered from a fatal heart attack.
