Thet Sambath

Short Paper 2: Violence, Narrative, and the Politics of Memory

History has been no stranger to the multitude of genocides and mass killings in countries all over the world and for various reasons. There are infinite ways to narrate the occurrence of these atrocities; however, they are most frequently characterized as either purposive or illness narratives determined by the culture that is creating the retelling of these experiences. Genocide can be defined as "the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation;" therefore to neglect the impact of culture in the created narrative depicting these atrocities would be deemed ignorant, primarily due to the fact that genocide and mass killings
Thet Sambath lost both of his parents, as well as his brother, during the genocide to the Khmer Rouge soldiers; yet he chose to go back to those places and learn about the atrocity with an open mind, thereby proving that with his documentary, he was providing a purposive narrative. He went back, finding reason behind what happened, as unfair and unjust as it was. Thet prioritized his dedication to this research to the extent at which he sacrificed meals for his family in order to be able to travel to the towns. The main war criminal that he interviewed was Nuon Chea, second in command to Pol Pot. Over the course of ten years of dedicated work, he was finally able to get Nuon Chea to open up to him about his role in the genocide; yet unlike many other recipients of violence, Thet withheld the information about the affect of the genocide on his family, thereby showing his goal was not to get revenge, but to find some sort of mutual understand and meaning in what
My grandparents were both in Auschwitz and barely managed to survive, loosing almost all of their relatives and family members. Overall in the Jewish community, the Holocaust is told through a purposive narrative as well, meaning it is taught and talked about to an almost excessive manner. It is most widely recognized through the story of Anne Frank; through her personal journey and experiences, people are able to connect with the violence on a deeper level after having seen a young girl experience it, thereby generating a sense of empathy from those who fail to be able to fathom the occurrence. Another example of this can be found within multiple museums in the United States, Israel, and Germany that display shoes of victims, their names and pictures, as well as the saying "Never Forget." By creating such a strong narrative about the atrocities of the genocide, it attempts at mourning for the lost while projecting a bright hope for the future in the belief that people will never forget what happened, therefore never allowing it to occur again. Israel can be seen as the homeland that all Jews strive to visit or live, which is a supportive structure as depicted in the purposive narrative by Skultans. “Making habitable memories out of inhabitable truths” (Warren Lecture