ABSTRACT
At the time when Lemkin began his university studies, the system of higher education in Poland was only taking shape. The universities in Kraków and Lviv were in a better position than those newly founded, because they could rely on the model of teaching law which had taken shape under the Galician autonomy. Lemkin began studies at the Faculty of Law and Administration at the Jagiellonian University. During the escalation of the Polish-Soviet war in the summer of 1920, Lemkin was staying in the conflict zone for some time. He witnessed Bolshevik ideology and politics still before the escalation of the conflict in the spring and summer of 1920. It is not clear what was happening to Lemkin’s family at time, however he did not take part in the fights and served only in the sanitary formation. The false certificate of military service at the drumhead court-martial at the 2nd Army District (in Volkovysk) caused his removal from the university in Cracow and forced him to move to Lviv. Lemkin began his studies in a city where the aforesaid ethnic divisions were first radicalized (with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy), and then violently escalated. But Lviv was the place where science, culture and art thrived, and the Jewish community was very strong. During Lemkin’s studies, the Lviv University was a strong juridical center that shaped the young lawyer.
