ABSTRACT
According to the information provided by Lemkin, he took his finals on 30 June 1919 in Białystok. Before that, he likely attended a secondary school in Vilnius for some time, and this city was both an important Polish national center and a spiritual-religious hub for the Jews. It is unclear what Lemkin’s final school years, his preparations for the exit exam, and the exam itself looked like exactly, especially since the city was then under German control and going through a difficult period. In addition, the condition of the schooling system could be best described as an ethnic mosaic combined with organizational chaos. There can be reasonable doubts as to whether sitting a final exam in these circumstances was even possible. It is not inconceivable that Lemkin, trying to escape the postwar malaise which obstructed regular education and examination process, submitted some certification that may or may not have been genuine. If the latter was the case, this is not because he did not want to take his finals, but because he could not take them under the prevailing circumstances and would have had to wait another year.
