A Genocide Memorial

When I photographed Jacqueline the other day, the Genocide survivor, I saw some of the photos in her slide show, and realized that I had some photos of two Genocide Memorials that I had taken in Rwanda back in 2000. I had to go hunt for them, and I will be sending them to her to use. The survivors of the Genocide worry that the perpetrators would deny that it ever happened. That, by the way has come to pass - the Hutus now say that it was a "war," not murder on an unimaginable scale. So that probably explains the nature of the two memorials I saw. They were both located at churches in the countryside. I was taken aback when I saw this - it is in a lean-to at the side of a church. The interior of the church was left in the way it was. Families had been living in the church for what they thought was protection, but rebel soldiers came one day and killed everyone, with guns and grenades. The survivors created this memorial. It is shocking, of course, but the evidence is undeniable. Perhaps the most powerful memorial that I have ever seen, in its simple and direct way.