Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation to Collect Guatemala’s Genocide Stories After Nazi Holocaust, Nanking Massacre
Steven Spielberg 's Shoah foundation will be working in Latin America for the first time as they gathered 52,000 accounts from the Nazi Holocaust which include genocides in Armenia from 1915 to 1923, Rwanda in 1994, and the Nanking Massacre in China back in 1937. As per Latino Fox News, the foundation will be gathering stories from various individuals to come up with the documentary.
The foundation that was founded by Steven Spielberg is based in the University of South California where in they were already able to compile around 100 testimonies. Most of the tales that they gathered focused on the conflict. Though it's already a huge number, the foundation plans to gather a total of 500 testimonies. The foundation is currently working on the project with the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala.
As per Latino Fox News, Chen, who narrated his story is one among the hundreds that would be included in the compilation of USC Shoah Foundation. The documentary will stand as an eye witness from Guatemala's 1960-1996 civil conflict. The genocide is one of the largest killings in history where in more than 245,000 individuals were killed and some vanished without being traced. Most of the people involved in the conflict were soldiers, officials and paramilitary gang members.
Juan Chen Chen, who grew up in the Guatemalan countryside, shared his experience as he was able to witness devastating series of events as a child. During his interview with the Shoah Foundation, he shared that he witnessed his father's death.
Upon narrating what happened, he described the events which happened in March 1980. Though he was able to hide and survived the killings, his father however was unfortunate. He stared blankly as he started to narrate his story, he told the interviewer that:
"I saw when they put a bullet in my father's head," he said. "My father was left lying there, and the dogs began to eat his brains. ... It was the soldiers who were providing security for the dam."
After the attack, Chen and his family members who survived the killings fled the countryside and moved to the mountains of the Central American nation where in they hid with fear.
Chen's story is already part of Guatemala's dark history. The rest of the team is in the works on gathering more stories to add to the documentary. The rest of the stories which would be gathered in 2016 would still be part of the project which is due for completion the following year.
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