Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Friday 15 March 2019
Cambodian genocide documented in victims' preserved clothes

By SOPHENG CHEANG and to identify it for inventory,
GRANT PECK, "then just to surface clean
Associated Press carefully with a vacuum or
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia a soft brush, and then the
(AP) — As a leader in the dirt can be saved as part of
field of textile conservation, the record and some of the
Julia Brennan has worked surface soiling will be loos-
to preserve many glamor- ened."
ous and historic articles of Treatment doesn't end
clothing, from a kimono there. In tropical places like
presented to Babe Ruth, to Cambodia, there's a lot of
singer James Brown's jump- mildew and mold as well
suit, to a British aristocrat's as live insects to deal with.
coronation gown. To try to protect the mate-
Her profession, however, rial for the long term, it is
has also brought her into put into "micro climates" in
contact with humanity's which the relative humidity
darkest moments, includ- can be reduced. Brennan
ing genocides in Rwanda said she developed this
and Cambodia. system during her work in
Brennan recently began Rwanda, putting the items
a project at the Tuol Sleng In this Feb. 5, 2018, photo, leading textile conservationist Julia Brennan holds a scarf from a victim in dry storage boxes with
Genocide Museum in Cam- of the former Khmer Rouge as she inspects artifacts at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom desiccants, pellets normal-
bodia's capital, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. ly used in the agriculture
Penh, where the Khmer Associated Press industry.
Rouge in the late 1970s tor- Kho Chenda, a 28-year-old
tured as many as 17,000 2014. care for them. Brennan, who since 1996 staff member at Tuol Sleng,
men, women and children The 59-year-old Brennan Brennan worked on a simi- has had her own company, has taken Brennan's pres-
before killing them. The mu- was born to American par- lar project for the past two Caring for Textiles, in Wash- ervation lessons to heart.
seum's macabre artifacts ents in Indonesia, where years in Rwanda, where ington, D.C., made a similar She said what she's learned
include torture devices and her father was on a Jesuit long-standing rivalries be- point during an interview at is vital because of the mu-
displays of skulls. scholarship teaching at tween two tribes led to Tuol Sleng. seum's mission to teach the
The most haunting display universities and doing re- the killings of an estimated "You're not going to neces- horrific legacy of the Khmer
comprises photo portraits search. She was raised in 800,000 people in 1994. sarily cry or have memories Rouge.
that were kept as part of northern Thailand, where She helped to preserve when you see a skull, but "If that clothing gets too old
the meticulous record- her father worked for the clothing at the Nyamata when you see a skirt that's and worn out, then the evi-
keeping ordered by Tuol U.S. government, and when church, where more than the same pattern as your dence it offers will be gone,
Sleng's Khmer Rouge com- he later worked on a Euro- 10,000 people were slaugh- mother's, then that's going and when you talk to the
mander, who in 2012 was pean Union arms control tered as they sought shelter to bring these memories younger generation, they
sentenced to life in prison project in Cambodia, Bren- from marauding mobs. The that are so palpable, and will not believe you," she
for crimes against human- nan became acquainted church is now a memorial this is so powerful," she said. said.
ity, murder and torture. with that country's culture. site, with the clothing an in- Less is more in conserva- Kong Kuntheary, another of
But only a small amount Brennan was keenly inter- tegral part of its exhibition. tion, according to Brennan, Brennan's students, echoed
of victims' clothing is dis- ested in the Tuol Sleng proj- The power of clothing in "because we want to keep the sentiment.
played; most was stowed ect, and the U.S. Embassy documenting genocide is the associated dirt and "This clothing is really im-
away in nooks and cran- in Phnom Penh eventually widely recognized by ex- stains and particles as part portant evidence, so we
nies, untouched since the gave a $55,000 grant to perts. The collection at the of the context and informa- have to preserve it to make
museum was established support it. Auschwitz-Birkenau Me- tion of the artifact." sure that even in 100 or 200
in 1980. Museum director She then began her work morial and Museum in Po- So for Tuol Sleng's artifacts, years, it will not have disap-
Chhay Visoth felt it was ur- to jump-start the preserva- land includes 390 striped she said she has been peared," said the 52-year-
gent to register and pre- tion of 3,000-5,000 articles inmates' uniforms and 246 teaching half a dozen old employee of the Na-
serve these holdings, and of prisoners' clothing and Jewish prayer shawls, ac- Cambodian colleagues tional Museum in Phnom
he sought Brennan's help in train Cambodian staff to cording to Pawel Sawicki, a to photograph a piece Penh.q
press officer for the memo-
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
In this Feb. 5, 2018, photo, a tourist views piles of clothing from to individualize the horror," In this April 9, 2015, file photo, tourists view portraits of victims ex-
the victims executed by the Khmer Rouge regime at the Tuol Jane Klinger, the Holocaust ecuted by the Khmer Rouge regime at the Tuol Sleng Genocide
Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. museum's chief conserva- Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Associated Press tor, said in an email. Associated Press