I'm Dylan Candelora
Traveler, Researcher, and Writer
20th Century Genocides
Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda
The Death and Life of Dith Pran
Cambodian Genocide (1975-1979)
Sydney Schanberg's The Death and Life of Dith Pran recounts the harrowing experiences of his assistant, Dith Pran, under the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. Along with other U.S. personnel, Schanberg was forced to evacuate Phnom Penh on April 17th, 1975. Pran and his fellow Cambodians were then subject to the Khmer Rouge's brutal reign for four years that resulted in the death of over two million Cambodians. Pran would eventually escape the country by crossing into Thailand in 1979. Schanberg would go on to collaborate with Roland Joffé to produce a film based on the events, The Killing Fields, in 1984.
Postcards from the Grave
Bosnian Genocide (1992-1995)
Emir Suljagić's Postcards from the Grave is a firsthand account of the Srebrenica massacre in 1995. The Bosnian War, fought between 1992 and 1995, was the product of the multiethnic fragmenting of Yugoslavia that resulted in the displacement of many Bosniak Muslims and Bosnian Croats, causing them to seek refuge in nearby Srebrenica. The U.N. withdrawal from the region in 1995 would enable a prompt takeover by Ratko Mladić and the Bosnian Serb military, resulting in the systemic execution of 8,000 boys and men. Being a U.N. interpreter, Suljagić was able to escape Srebrenica, departing the region with the last of withdrawing U.N. forces.
An Ordinary Man
Rwandan Genocide (1994)
Paul Rusesabagina's An Ordinary Man details the events of the brief, but horrific 1994 genocide in Rwanda. 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus were hacked to death by machetes in less than 100 days. The genocide itself is rooted in European colonialism and the building tensions between the Tutsi and Hutu class over the last century. During the genocide, Hôtel des Milles Collines, run by Rusesabagina, became safe haven for the persecuted. With no international help from the U.N. or U.S. on the way, Rusesabagina recounts how he had to bribe and coax corrupt officials to ultimately save the denizens hiding in his hotel. Rusesabagina's tale would go on to be captured by Terry George's Hotel Rwanda in 2004.