What I’m Reading III

It seems to be about all that I manage to write about lately, but here’s my latest book recommendation. Maybe I should spend a bit less time reading and more time blogging…

Genocide prevention types are always fascinated by survivor testimonies and without a doubt their stories are the most important resource for understanding the impact of genocide on its victims. Projects such as the film “Shoah” and the survivor testimony archive The Shoah Project are priceless sources for the stories of people who lived through hell.

The perspective of genocide perpetrators does not get nearly as much attention, though. Maybe people find it distasteful to give a voice to the criminals of all criminals, but they are actually priceless sources of information for understanding why and how people come to commit genocide. French authour Jean Hatzfeld gives us just such a resource in “Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak.” (A follow-up to his book “Into the Quick of Life: The Rwandan Genocide - The Survivors Speak”)

The most shocking thing about Hatzfeld’s book is the sympathy that one feels reading what the small group of interviewees (now prisoners in Rwanda’s Rilima penitentiary) has to say about how the genocide affected their lives, though the book by no means absolves them for what they did or casts them as victims. Be careful to keep their crimes in mind the whole time you read this book. Aside from that, the book gives a glimpse into the minds and blurred motivations of some otherwise ordinary men who became enthusiastic monsters for a time. Their lessons are not restricted to Rwanda, but are universal.