Chaim Litewski’s parents experienced the horrors of Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Because of this, as Litewski told a packed audience at a recent HAGUE TALKS, his parents always had a healthy suspicion of “government, politicians and diplomats.”
“They really thought the world had failed them which it did,” said Litewski.
Fast forward to the 1990s and Litewski is working with the United Nations (UN) as a television producer. The UN was created so as to prevent a repeat of what happened to Litewski’s parents and millions of others during World II. “No more”, the world had said. As Litewski painfully learned during the Rwandan genocide in 1994, the world failed to keep its promise and hundreds of thousands of Rwandans paid the price for it.
As an eyewitness to the Rwandan genocide, Litewski says that he will never forget what he saw.
“Nothing prepared me to deal with what I saw. I had war coverage experience but this was a pretty incredible thing. There was no fear, no shame. The Rwandan genocide really impressed me for its transparency. People were being killed openly on the street. You are talking about children, women, men and the elderly. There was no shame”
For rest of what Litewski had to say on the Rwandan genocide and his inspiring advice about what the world needs to do to prevent atrocities, watch the video below:
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