East West Street: On the Origins of "Genocide" and "Crimes Against Humanity"

by Philippe Sands

I was surprised that Rita, a registered Jew, could be issued so late a document that allowed her to travel. An archivist at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington described the journey as “improbable,” setting out the multitude of steps she would have had to go through to obtain the Fremdenpass, obstacles imposed by Adolf Eichmann. The archivist directed me to a large chart titled Die jüdische Wanderung aus der Ostmark, 1938–1939 (The Jewish migration from Austria, 1938–1939), as prepared by Eichmann. A stateless person like Rita, who lost her Austrian nationality after the Anschluss by reason of her marriage to a now-stateless Jew, was required to take even more steps than others.