Page 32 - AT

A32 FEATURE
Saturday 28 december 2019
Cambodian genocide documented in victims' preserved clothes

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia to identify it for inventory,
(AP) — As a leader in the "then just to surface clean
field of textile conservation, carefully with a vacuum or
Julia Brennan has worked a soft brush, and then the
to preserve many glamor- dirt can be saved as part of
ous and historic articles of the record and some of the
clothing, from a kimono surface soiling will be loos-
presented to Babe Ruth, to ened."
singer James Brown's jump- Treatment doesn't end
suit, to a British aristocrat's there. In tropical places like
coronation gown. Cambodia, there's a lot of
Her profession, however, mildew and mold as well
has also brought her into as live insects to deal with.
contact with humanity's To try to protect the mate-
darkest moments, includ- rial for the long term, it is
ing genocides in Rwanda put into "micro climates" in
and Cambodia. which the relative humidity
Brennan recently began can be reduced. Brennan
a project at the Tuol Sleng said she developed this
Genocide Museum in Cam- system during her work in
bodia's capital, Phnom Rwanda, putting the items
Penh, where the Khmer in dry storage boxes with
Rouge in the late 1970s tor- In this Feb. 5, 2019, photo, leading textile conservationist Julia Brennan holds a scarf from a victim desiccants, pellets normal-
tured as many as 17,000 of the former Khmer Rouge as she inspects artifacts at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom ly used in the agriculture
men, women and children Penh, Cambodia. industry.
before killing them. The mu- Associated Press Kho Chenda, a 28-year-old
seum's macabre artifacts staff member at Tuol Sleng,
include torture devices and ents in Indonesia, where lar project for the past two has had her own company, has taken Brennan's pres-
displays of skulls. her father was on a Jesuit years in Rwanda, where Caring for Textiles, in Wash- ervation lessons to heart.
The most haunting display scholarship teaching at long-standing rivalries be- ington, D.C., made a similar She said what she's learned
comprises photo portraits universities and doing re- tween two tribes led to point during an interview at is vital because of the mu-
that were kept as part of search. She was raised in the killings of an estimated Tuol Sleng. seum's mission to teach the
the meticulous record- northern Thailand, where 800,000 people in 1994. "You're not going to neces- horrific legacy of the Khmer
keeping ordered by Tuol her father worked for the She helped to preserve sarily cry or have memories Rouge.
Sleng's Khmer Rouge com- U.S. government, and when clothing at the Nyamata when you see a skull, but "If that clothing gets too old
mander, who in 2012 was he later worked on a Euro- church, where more than when you see a skirt that's and worn out, then the evi-
sentenced to life in prison pean Union arms control 10,000 people were slaugh- the same pattern as your dence it offers will be gone,
for crimes against human- project in Cambodia, Bren- tered as they sought shelter mother's, then that's going and when you talk to the
ity, murder and torture. nan became acquainted from marauding mobs. The to bring these memories younger generation, they
But only a small amount with that country's culture. church is now a memorial that are so palpable, and will not believe you," she
of victims' clothing is dis- Brennan was keenly inter- site, with the clothing an in- this is so powerful," she said. said.
played; most was stowed ested in the Tuol Sleng proj- tegral part of its exhibition. Less is more in conserva- Kong Kuntheary, another of
away in nooks and cran- ect, and the U.S. Embassy The power of clothing in tion, according to Brennan, Brennan's students, echoed
nies, untouched since the in Phnom Penh eventually documenting genocide is "because we want to keep the sentiment.
museum was established gave a $55,000 grant to widely recognized by ex- the associated dirt and "This clothing is really im-
in 1980. Museum director support it. perts. The collection at the stains and particles as part portant evidence, so we
Chhay Visoth felt it was ur- She then began her work Auschwitz-Birkenau Me- of the context and informa- have to preserve it to make
gent to register and pre- to jump-start the preserva- morial and Museum in Po- tion of the artifact." sure that even in 100 or 200
serve these holdings, and tion of 3,000-5,000 articles land includes 390 striped So for Tuol Sleng's artifacts, years, it will not have disap-
he sought Brennan's help in of prisoners' clothing and inmates' uniforms and 246 she said she has been peared," said the 52-year-
2014. train Cambodian staff to Jewish prayer shawls, ac- teaching half a dozen old employee of the Na-
The 59-year-old Brennan care for them. cording to Pawel Sawicki, a Cambodian colleagues tional Museum in Phnom
was born to American par- Brennan worked on a simi- press officer for the memo- to photograph a piece Penh.q
rial.
The United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum in Wash-
ington, D.C., holds a variety
of items of clothing as well.
One of the most striking ex-
hibits is of 4,000 shoes from
some of the victims of the
Majdanek concentration
camp in Poland.
"The exhibit very simply
shows the magnitude of
Nazi murder while simulta-
neously allowing the viewer
to individualize the horror,"
In this April 9, 2019, file photo, tourists view portraits of victims ex- Jane Klinger, the Holocaust In this Feb. 5, 2019, photo, a tourist views piles of clothing from
ecuted by the Khmer Rouge regime at the Tuol Sleng Genocide museum's chief conserva- the victims executed by the Khmer Rouge regime at the Tuol
Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. tor, said in an email. Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Associated Press Brennan, who since 1996 Associated Press