‘Conflicts
in
Literature’
Artur Domosławski, writer (Latin America vs. human rights)
(H)anka Grupińska, writer (The Second World War and the Holocaust)
Celine Uwineza, writer (Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda)
Moderator: Jadwiga Pinderska-Lech, Head of Publications, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
Why did you choose to write about your particular subject?
Ms Grupińska started looking at the Holocaust in the early 1980s, as she “knew virtually nothing about it”. It became a subject close to her heart as her own family had something of a dark history. In her early 20s, Grupińska travelled to Łódź to meet Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. He was her “main contact” with learning about the Holocaust, and when he died in 2009, she left the subject as she didn’t want to look further into the topic without him.
Ms Uwineza stated that, as a survivor of the genocide in Rwanda, she did not choose conflict, but “conflict chose me.” She explained that she was 10 years old at the time of the genocide and lost her grandparents, mother, two sisters and brother. At that age, she couldn’t understand the difference between Tutsi and Hutu children. Uwineza feels conflict chose her to write about her experiences on a personal level, in order to “touch hearts” and evoke change in other people. She also stated that writing can be a form of prevention and healing. Healing is important to her because “if I heal, I won’t hate others and won’t practise vengeance.”
Mr Domosławski replied that a writer is not always aware of why they choose to deal with a certain topic, but he has been drawn to writing about the persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar and, primarily, conflicts in Latin America since the Cold War. More recently, he has written about the indigenous Amazonians and the businesses that are destroying their environment. Mr Domosławski writes about the topic of past violations of human rights as it interests him, and because many people in Poland and the West are not familiar with Latin America’s recent history.