Does going so deep into one topic open perspectives onto other topics as well?
The main theme of one of Mr Domosławski’s books, Death in the Amazon, relates to the crimes committed by businesses extracting materials from Latin America. Domosławski began looking into the murder of two environmentalists living in Panama. What started as a story of politics and crime led him to the theme of “the food chain of the contemporary world.” Large parts of the Amazon are affected by timber traders, steel companies and cattle farmers, which raises questions about the crimes involved in making these goods of which most consumers are unaware.
Ms Pinderska-Lech asked Mr Domosławski how he gained the trust of those who felt threatened. He replied that he had no insight into particular skills to gain people’s trust, but that it is important to be reliable and pay attention to what people are saying. He devotes much time to talk to witnesses, so that if they don’t feel like talking one day, they might do the next.
Ms Uwineza’s writing came from her therapy notes. When she was 30, her father fell into a coma; the trauma took her back to the genocide, and she started to experience nightmares and other mental disturbances. She went into therapy for two years and wrote notes, including letters to her deceased mother. Uwineza talked through her experiences with her husband and family and realised she needed to start writing about what happened before the genocide, to recall good memories with her family which had started to fade. She emphasised the importance of survivors writing and sharing their stories, particularly as there are now perpetrators who deny the genocide.
Ms Grupińska reflected on her transition from writing about the Holocaust to travelling to India and encountering the Tibetans. She described to the audience the “extermination in Tibet”, which relates more to cultural genocide after the Chinese invasion in the 1950s. Nowadays, the Tibetan language is banned; the official religion, Buddhism, is prohibited; Tibetan peasants are deprived of their property and forcibly moved to Chinese towns and villages. Yet, as Grupińska highlighted, very little is known about this in the Western world, and we should be bothered by such cases.