Abstract
This chapter shares a series of reflections on the experience of interviewing soldiers and officers who perpetrated massacres in the context of guerrilla warfare in Guatemala. It considers issues of access and how interviews can capture the contested narratives involved in massacres and other violence associated with civil war. Issues of omission and silence come into play here, and the chapter discusses the strategies used to maximize the research value of interviews.
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Notes
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On January 20, 1942, a conference was held in a village located in the outskirts of Berlin, to the south, on the Wannsee riverbank, in order to discuss “the final solution of the Jewish question.” Fifteen high ranking officers of the Third Reich discussed how their administrations would participate in and support those plans. Rather than the actual moment when the decision was made, the Wannsee Conference marks the moment when the decision, which had been previously made at the highest level—started to be implemented by the state apparatus.
Acknowledgments
I thank Roddy Brett for invaluable conversations as the article developed, I am forever grateful for him friendship and trust. My thanks to the editors of this book, the two anonymous reviewers. Their feedback helped to improve this article; any flaws remain my sole responsibility. The author acknowledges the funds of the CONACYT (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología), for funding the research this article draws on. The Universidad Iberoamericana generously supported the translation of this article, and provided to me the perfect time for research during my sabbatical period.
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Vela Castañeda, M.E. (2021). Interviewing Perpetrators of Genocide. In: Mac Ginty, R., Brett, R., Vogel, B. (eds) The Companion to Peace and Conflict Fieldwork. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46433-2_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46433-2_19
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
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Online ISBN: 978-3-030-46433-2
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