Genocide and the Geographical Imagination: Life and Death in Germany, China, and Cambodia

195 Pages·2012·4.179 MB·English

by  James A. Tyner

Genocide and the
Geographical Imagination
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Genocide and the
Geographical Imagination
Life and Death in
Germany, China, and Cambodia
James A. Tyner
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
Lanham (cid:129) Boulder (cid:129) New York (cid:129) Toronto (cid:129) Plymouth, UK
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Published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
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Copyright © 2012 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tyner, James A., 1966–
Genocide and the geographical imagination : life and death in Germany, China, and
Cambodia / James A. Tyner.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4422-0898-8 (alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4422-0900-8 (electronic)
1. Genocide—Germany—History. 2. Genocide—China—History. 3. Genocide—
Cambodia—History. I. Title.
D804.G3T96 2012
364.15'1—dc23
2012012419
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
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Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Preface and Acknowledgments ix
1 The Spatiality of Life and Death 1
2 The State Must Own Death: Germany 33
3 Starving for the State: China 81
4 Normalizing the State: Cambodia 111
5 Everyday Death and the State 153
Selected Bibliography 165
Index 177
About the Author 181
v
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Illustrations
1.1 Hartheim Castle, Austria 2
1.2 A member of an Einsatzgruppe prepares to shoot a Ukrai-
nian Jew kneeling on the edge of a mass grave 9
2.1 A Jewish woman walks toward the gas chambers with three
young children at Auschwitz-Birkenau 34
2.2 Jewish women and children selected for the gas chambers at
Auschwitz-Birkenau 34
2.3 Eugenics poster 49
2.4 Propaganda slide featuring a disabled infant 50
2.5 Propaganda slide featuring two doctors working at an asy-
lum for the mentally ill 54
2.6 Twenty-three-year-old Elizabeth Killiam, the mother of
twins, was sterilized in Weilberg 57
2.7 The corpse of a woman put to death as part of the Operation
T-4 euthanasia program 64
2.8 Photograph of a survivor at the Hadamar Institute judged
insane for having a Jewish boyfriend 65
2.9 Mass execution and grave site associated with the liquida-
tion of the Mizocz ghetto, Poland 68
2.10 Corpses of prisoners exhumed from a mass grave in the
vicinity of Hirzenhain, Germany 69
2.11 Newly arrived prisoners, with shaven heads, stand at atten-
tion during a roll call in the Buchenwald concentration camp 70
2.12 Corpses at the recently liberated Dachau concentration camp 72
3.1 Propaganda photograph of peasants harvesting rice in the
province of Guangdong during the Great Leap Forward 91
vii
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viii Illustrations
3.2 Propaganda photograph of women harvesting cocoons from
silkworms during the Great Leap Forward 92
3.3 Propaganda photograph of women operating an irrigation
system during the Great Leap Forward 96
4.1 Staff of Tuol Sleng Security Center dining with their fami-
lies 117
4.2 Two female Khmer Rouge cadre stand at attention near a
work camp 118
4.3 Transporting dirt on an irrigation project 121
4.4 Women working on an irrigation project 124
4.5 Men working on an irrigation project along the Chinith
River, Kampong Thom Province 125
4.6 Construction on an irrigation project 126
4.7 Unidentified prisoner at S-21 128
4.8 Unidentified prisoner who committed suicide at S-21 128
4.9 Mug shot of Hout Bophana, arrested on October 10, 1976 129
4.10 Young girls preparing “rabbit dropping” medicine 136
4.11 Young girls preparing “rabbit dropping” medicine 137
4.12 Mass grave site at one of Cambodia’s many killing fields 139
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Preface and Acknowledgments
Tuol Sleng prison, located in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, was one of many
security centers erected by the Khmer Rouge throughout its genocidal reign.
At this site, designated “S-21,” prisoners were photographed, detained, inter-
rogated, tortured, and executed. Approximately 13,000 men, women, and
children entered Tuol Sleng; fewer than 200 are known to have survived.
Keat Sophal, the woman whose image is on the cover of this book, was one
of the victims. We know little about her death, and even less about her life.
Documentary evidence indicates that she was arrested on April 13, 1977. She
was detained at S-21 for ninety-nine days until the day of her “termination”
on July 22.
We know that she was a Khmer Rouge cadre; her job was to take care of
children. No information has been forthcoming about her family or what she
did prior to the time of the genocide. We do not know why she was arrested
or killed. In all likelihood, she was interrogated and tortured; perhaps she
was raped. No confession or record of her “crimes” remain. Was she found
“guilty” of traitorous activities to the state? Was she found “delinquent” in
her patriotic duties? Or was Sophal simply arrested because she was associ-
ated with someone else charged of a crime? It is not known. It is also not
known whether she died at S-21, or was taken to the nearby killing fields,
Choeung Ek, to be killed.
Two dates—a date of arrest and a date of termination—and a photograph.
This is all that remains of the life and death of Keat Sophal. Her facial expres-
sion suggests resignation. As a Khmer Rouge cadre, Sophal most likely knew
of her eventual fate. By the summer of 1977, she had probably witnessed
many deaths and was well aware that once accused by Angkar her fate was
sealed. In Cambodia, during the time of the genocide, to be accused was to
be guilty; to be guilty was to be sentenced to death.
ix
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