Question answered by Verena Denk, Program Associate and European Youth Director at PTPI’s European Office
4. Kidder refers to the genocide memorials as representing “Never Again” yet questions if there could be such a thing as too much remembering: ”…too much of it could suffocate a person, and indeed a culture.”
What do you think about genocide memorials and their usefulness to prevent massacres in the future? Has your view of genocide changed after reading this book?
Genocide was for me always linked to the Holocaust. Deo’s experiences happened in a different country under different circumstances. Still, horror is horror. For me the idea of “gusimbura” was completely new. Deo explains that in Burundi, the names of the deceased must not be mentioned. It is like “reminding people of something bad.” Nevertheless, there are genocide memorials in Burundi and Rwanda, which Deo visits together with Tracy Kidder. At first this struck me as paradox. But the longer I thought about it, the more sense it made.
In Germany, my grandparents had witnessed another type of genocide, the Holocaust. When I was in high school, we visited the site of the concentration camp in Dachau. I remember standing in front of a building with big furnaces. A black-and-white photograph hung next to the door. The photo showed a huge pile of dead bodies right at the spot where I was standing. I can’t describe the feelings I had in that moment, but whenever I remember it, I still feel the same way. I think that genocide memorials are important to make history more real and allow us to learn from past mistakes. When a new Holocaust memorial was constructed in Berlin a few years ago right next to the Brandenburg Gate, I was very much in favor. I couldn’t understand why some people proclaimed enough was enough.
When I was studying in France, I shared an apartment with a girl whose grandfather had survived Auschwitz because he knew how to play the piano. At first, I really wondered why the girl talked to me at all, but she did. We spent entire evenings comparing the stories of our families, knowing that our grandfathers had been enemies. The more we talked about the subject the easier it seemed to live together, at least for me. Still, my friend’s grandfather had never talked about his experiences with his family. He would certainly have understood what Deo meant by “gusimbura.” For the victims of genocide, there is definitely “such a thing as too much remembering” as Tracy Kidder puts it. There must be horrors that you can only live with if you don’t talk about it.
I am very grateful that I could become friends with this girl in France regardless of the history of our countries and even our families. Still, I also understand that it was easier for us to talk than it would have been for our grandparents. I sincerely hope that Deo’s children or grandchildren will have Hutu friends at school or during studies. For them, the memorials will be as important as they were for me.
The opinions expressed by PTPI staff and other book club members are entirely their own and are not necessarily the views of People to People International or that of PTPI’s Officers, Board of Directors and Board of Trustees.
