Most of the early public uses of the phrase “crimes against humanity,” now associated with grave atrocities during war, allocated responsibility for war itself. They came from the British prime minister David Lloyd George and other entente politicians who intended to target the German leader (if not because war itself was illegal, then because of his violation of Belgian neutrality, guaranteed by treaty). As the war closed, Lloyd George reacted to what he called “a growing feeling that war itself was a crime against humanity.”
