Over the years, many people have asked me why I decided to devote so much of my life to studying, writing and teaching about such a disturbing and depressing subject as genocide. Even though I have been asked this question repeatedly, I have never succeeded in forming a satisfactory answer. The invitation to contribute an autobiographical essay to this book, for which I feel greatly honored, gives me the incentive to try to explain, to myself as well as to readers, how I came to this point.